Peer review team

They test the report against the building. Faculty tables versus CVs. AoL narrative versus committee minutes. Scope letter versus the website. Interviews are structured: dean, AoL lead, faculty without deans in the room, students, advisory board. AACSB teams are typically business-school administrators (deans and associates) from accredited schools. EFMD Programme Accreditation specifies four reviewers including one corporate member. EQUIS teams are international by design.

The written recommendation is the work product. Host hospitality does not change a 32 percent SA ratio. Host hostility can make a borderline case worse. AACSB’s CIR materials tell the chair to keep the team focused on quality and improvement relative to the school’s mission, not on how the chair’s home school would have staffed the MBA.

Example: Table 3-1 claims 42 percent SA. Three CVs in the finance stack have no peer-reviewed work in six years. The team recodes those lines, finance falls below the discipline floor, and the recommendation moves from extension to a focused review or deferral. The table was the school’s first chance. The visit is the second. There is no third on that trip.

The mentor (initial AACSB) is a coach. Accreditation staff are process managers. The team is the on-site judge of record. The committee (IAC, CIRC, EQUIS Accreditation Board, IACBE Board of Commissioners) is the consistency and decision layer. Schools that treat the team as “the committee” or the mentor as “the team” write to the wrong audience.

Role	When	Job
Mentor	AACSB initial, after eligibility	Help the school align; cannot vote the award
Peer review team	Visit	Test evidence; recommend an outcome
IAC / CIRC / Board	After the visit	Concur, remand, or reject; keep teams consistent
Accreditation staff	Entire process	Process, scope, fees, myAccreditation

AACSB appoints the chair and members, using the school’s comparison groups as one input. Schools do not hire their friends. Conflicts are supposed to be screened. If a competitor sits on the team, raise it with your accreditation manager before the visit, not in the exit interview.

No. IAC or CIRC can concur or remand. AACSB’s initial-accreditation page is clear that recommendations go to the committee and then to the board for ratification. A glowing team report with a broken scope story can still be remanded. A tough report with a clean evidence file can still be concurred as accreditation.

Same idea, different body, different standards, different decision board. Do not reuse an AACSB CIR report as an EQUIS self-assessment. Internationalisation and corporate connection carry a different weight. Faculty tables are not Standard 3. Train the campus for the visit they are actually hosting.