Scholarly practitioner
Also called SP · scholarly practitioners
The school has to write it down. Duration and responsibility at hire are the entry ticket — a 20-year audit partner, a hospital COO, a plant manager with P&L, not three years as an analyst. Scholarship for SP is usually applied: practitioner journals, cases, books, standards-body papers, not a demand that they match the SA article quota. Some schools still assign point systems that make SP harder than SA. That is a local choice, and it empties the category.
Scholarly practitioner (SP) is AACSB’s class for faculty whose initial qualification is professional, not a research doctorate, and who stay current by producing scholarship related to that practice. AACSB’s 2020 language: normally a master’s related to the teaching field, professional experience substantial in duration and responsibility at hire, and ongoing scholarship tied to that background. SP is how a school keeps a serious practitioner in the intellectual life of the faculty without pretending they hold a PhD.
What does “substantial” experience and “scholarship” mean here?
The school has to write it down. Duration and responsibility at hire are the entry ticket — a 20-year audit partner, a hospital COO, a plant manager with P&L, not three years as an analyst. Scholarship for SP is usually applied: practitioner journals, cases, books, standards-body papers, not a demand that they match the SA article quota. Some schools still assign point systems that make SP harder than SA. That is a local choice, and it empties the category.
AACSB allows, in limited cases, IP or SP status without a master’s when the professional record is deep enough to outweigh the missing degree. That exception is narrow. Do not staff an entire entrepreneurship department on it.
Example: a marketing lecturer joined after 15 years as a CMO, holds an MBA, and in the last five years published two cases and a Sloan Management Review essay. That is a textbook SP. If the same person publishes nothing and only updates slides, they are IP — or Additional, if the school’s IP criteria also require current practice work they no longer do.
How is SP different from IP, SA, and PA?
SP and IP share the practitioner entry path. SP adds scholarship; IP does not. SA and PA share a terminal degree. A practitioner who later earns a doctorate may move to SA or PA. Do not leave them coded SP forever out of habit. SP counts toward the 90 percent qualified pool. It does not count toward the 40 percent SA minimum.
| Class | Entry credential (normal) | Scholarship expected? |
|---|---|---|
| SA | Terminal degree | Yes |
| PA | Terminal degree | No (practice engagement instead) |
| SP | Master’s + substantial practice | Yes |
| IP | Master’s + substantial practice | No |
Common errors
- Coding every executive adjunct as SP because it sounds better in the CIR report.
- Requiring SP faculty to hit the same PRJ point total as SA.
- Forgetting to refresh the “substantial experience” story 12 years after hire, when the person has been a full-time lecturer the whole time.
- Using SP to paper over a discipline that is short of SA.
FAQ
Can scholarly practitioners chair dissertations?
AACSB does not award dissertation-chair rights. The university’s graduate school does. SP status answers a qualification table, not a doctoral-faculty roster. If the school offers a DBA, check both the graduate-school policy and whether the chair’s profile is defensible as thought leadership under the mission.
Does SP help the 40 percent SA ratio?
No. Only SA counts there. SP helps the 90 percent SA+PA+SP+IP ratio and can strengthen a professionally oriented mission. A school that is 25 percent SA and 50 percent SP is still under the normal SA floor, however lively the practitioners are.
Is a DBA holder an SP or an SA?
A DBA is a terminal degree. If it is related to the teaching field, the person is in the academic column (SA or PA), not SP. SP is the practitioner-entry class. Misfiling DBAs as SP understates SA and confuses the team.
Related terms
Sources
- AACSB 2020 Standards — faculty class definitions SP: master's related to teaching field; professional experience substantial in duration and responsibility; currency through scholarship
- AACSB Global Standards for Business Education (Standard 3) Four-class framework; SP counts toward the 90% qualified mix, not the 40% SA floor
- 2020 AACSB Interpretive Guidance Classification depends on initial preparation plus sustained academic and/or professional engagement
