Data collection for the 2017–18 AASCB Business School Questionnaire (BSQ) and BSQ Finances Module officially closed in early June. We have had record participation this year, with 972 of our member schools submitting a BSQ and 587 submitting a BSQ Finances Module
Since our June closing date, AACSB’s Business Education Intelligence (BEI) team has been reviewing each survey to help ensure that schools are submitting valid, reliable, and complete data. Data integrity is our top priority, so even though we do have validation processing rules programmed into the survey submission system, we also read through each submitted survey and assist schools when necessary. This may seem like a rather arduous process to some but it will lead to a data set that our members can be confident is as accurate as possible and truly germane to their benchmarking and peer analysis.
So far we have validated and accepted 426 BSQs and anticipate releasing the rest of the data by the end of September. As a benefit of participating, all member schools that submitted the surveys will have access to the custom report tools available in DataDirect
Here’s what can we tell you based on data from the 426 surveys we have accepted so far:
- A little less than half of these schools reported that their undergraduate students are mostly residential, whereas almost two-thirds of all graduate students are commuters.
- Close to 60 percent of the schools reported that they have updated their strategic plans within the last 18 months.
- Almost half of respondents indicated that teaching was their sole highest priority, whereas about 12 percent indicated that intellectual contribution was their sole highest priority.
- The median operating budget for these schools was over 11 million USD, but the average was a little less than 22 million USD.
- About 75 percent of these schools indicated that they offered at least one bachelor’s degree in accounting. A little less than this percentage also reported that they offered a specialized master’s degree in accounting.
- This year we introduced data analytics into our field/discipline category. Less than 2 percent of reporting schools indicated that they offered a bachelor’s degree in this area of study, and about 8 percent indicated that they offered a specialized master’s degree in the discipline.
- Only 20 percent of all doctoral degrees were in the field of accounting, but 40 percent were in the field of management.
- Nearly 82 percent of schools indicated that they offered at least one MBA program.
- Almost twice as many students on average at these schools are enrolled in part-time programs than in full-time programs.
But these are just preliminary results of only 426 schools. When we have finished reviewing and accepting all of our schools’ surveys, will we see something different? What about undergraduate enrollments, faculty, staff, and admissions? What are the differences in these figures based on location, mission, size, and other factors? And how are schools’ program portfolios, enrollments, staffing structures, and financial situations changing
In the coming months you will see some blog posts on the complete set of data, where we’ll be diving into questions such as: What is the state of data analytics as program of study? Where are the trends in online MBA? How do salary versus non-salary expenditures vary depending on what a school emphasizes? Are the percentages of women in faculty roles increasing?—to name just a few
AACSB strives to be widely recognized as the primary source for data and analysis on business education globally. We look forward to receiving the submissions for all schools and being able to provide our members with an even more accurate picture of the current state of business schools.
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