Accreditation teams visit business school and physical therapy program

Steve Earley / Copy Editor

February is a big month for Elon behind the scenes with two accreditation review teams visiting the university. Representatives from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business visited the Love School of Business Sunday through Wednesday and a team from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools will visit the physical therapy program next Monday through Wednesday.

This week’s visit to the business school comes at the end of a five-year AACSB candidacy process. If accredited, the Love School of Business would join a select group of 466 business schools – including 54 outside the United States.

“If we’re given the accreditation, we will get the recognition we deserve, and to some extent that recognition will be worldwide,” said John Burbridge, dean of the Love School of Business.

In order to receive AACSB accreditation, the business school must meet 39 standards in areas such as the qualifications of faculty and their intellectual contributions, curriculum content, instructional resources and achievement of students.

Exit interviews with senior business students helped the school decide what changes it should make in preparation for the accreditation review, Burbridge said. Deficits in the accounting skills and quantitative skills of seniors, for example, prompted the addition of two accounting hours and a second statistics class to the curriculum.

An increased focus on experiential learning was also part of the school’s accreditation push. The Jefferson Pilot Business Fellows program, established in 1994, offers select students study abroad and internship opportunities. The Elon Enterprise Academy, established in 2002, gives students hands-on entrepreneurial experience through running their own companies.

Significant growth of the business school – from fewer than 400 business majors in 1996 to more than 800 today — prompted other changes during the candidacy period, such as the addition of more than 10 full time faculty members since 1998.

Burbridge said he expects a decision on accreditation from AACSB by April.

Next week’s visit to the physical therapy program from SACS – the accrediting body for colleges in eleven southern states which accredits all of Elon’s academic programs — is a final step in the transition form a master’s to a doctorate program.

The program enrolled its first DPT class in January 2003.

Elon’s physical therapy program began as a master’s program in 1998. The decision to change to a doctorate program was made in 2001. That same year, the university earned accreditation for the doctorate program from the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education – a nationally-recognized accreditor affiliated with the American Physical Therapy Association.

“This will definitely enhance our visibility as an institution for someone interested in physical therapy,” Elizabeth Rogers, associate dean of physical therapy, said of the doctorate program.

As one of about 200 colleges offering a doctorate in physical therapy – among the first 50 in the nation to do so – Elon is helping lead the maturation of a field that began with certificate programs 100 years ago.

“The body of knowledge in the profession has changed and it’s grown to be respected among health care providers,” Rogers said.

Rogers said she expects a decision from SACS this summer.