10 Jun AI offers new solutions for business school accreditation

Business schools are turning to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to ease the challenges of accreditation, long seen as a complex and resource-intensive process critical to academic quality and institutional credibility, say Yassine Benrqya, professor in suply chain management, and Lakshmi Goel, dean of the School of Business Administration at Al Akhawayn University, and Isabelle Fagnot, associate dean of quality and accreditation at Kedge Business School in France.

They continue: Accreditation involves rigorous documentation, compliance checks, faculty engagement, and strategic oversight. GenAI now offers tools to simplify and improve these tasks while fostering collaboration and innovation.

At Al Akhawayn University’s School of Business Administration, GenAI is already being used in several ways. A GPT-4-based tool evaluates faculty CVs for qualification compliance, while AI-generated videos clarify programme competencies and are shared on campus and intranet platforms.

Meeting transcriptions are automated for accurate documentation, and gamified exercises are used to engage faculty with accreditation concepts. Infographics and charts created by AI help present data more clearly in reports.

More broadly, GenAI supports six key improvements for accreditation efforts:

1. Process automation: AI chatbots and data integration tools streamline report drafting and assessment, ensuring alignment with accreditation standards.
2. Visual communication: AI creates engaging visuals like competency maps and infographics, making complex information more digestible.
3. Multimedia delivery: Text-to-video and AI narration tools help explain processes in accessible formats for students and faculty.
4. Data management: Dashboards offer real-time tracking of key metrics such as student outcomes and faculty qualifications, minimizing manual reporting.
5. Immersive experiences: 3D tools allow virtual campus tours, giving reviewers and prospective students a detailed view of facilities.
6. Innovative engagement: AI can gamify processes or generate accessible audio explanations of standards to increase faculty and student participation.

However, the authors caution that implementation must be ethical and strategic. Institutions should ensure data privacy, maintain human oversight of AI insights, and continuously assess for algorithmic bias.

“GenAI can democratise quality assurance, embed it across operations, and bridge communication gaps,” the authors conclude. “It empowers institutions to meet accreditation demands confidently and with greater efficiency.”

See the full More Fire PR-powered comment in Times Higher Education.