President John Peters, Dean David Graf, and the administration and faculty of Northern Illinois University's College of Business announced in the year 2004 that AACSB International -- The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business --
had reaffirmed its accreditation of the college's undergraduate, Accountancy, and Master degree program in business. The College of Business is up for its next Accreditation Maintenance Review in Fall 2008.
The college has achieved continuous AACSB accreditation since 1969 -- just eight years after the school's founding -- and is among the top schools of business accredited for Business and Accounting.
NIU's College of Business Ranks Among the Best Undergraduate B-Schools in the Nation
BusinessWeek's 2008 ranking of best undergraduate business schools continues to place the NIU business college within an elite group of b-schools nationwide. In 2008, the NIU College of Business ranked 81st nationally out of a very small group of 96 elite business schools that made BusinessWeek's final short-list of programs designated as The Best Undergrad B-Schools in the country. This year, NIU is one of only four Illinois schools to be included in BusinessWeek's short list, and NIU's ranking beats out other nationally known schools such as the University of Iowa (#84), Loyola (#91), and Fox Temple (#94).
For more than a decade, U.S.News & World Report has ranked The Northern Illinois University College of Business as among the best business colleges in the country. In 2007, the NIU College of Business continued to be ranked as among the nation's best by making the listing of "America's Best Colleges and Programs" (2008), as recently published by U.S.News & World Report.
NIU's MBA Program ranks in the top seven for best MBA programs in Chicago. Feedback from students, alumni, and corporate recruiters placed The Northern Illinois University College of Business MBA Program among the best in Chicago, as reported by Crain's Chicago Business in its first survey (2006) of top MBA Programs. Of the schools whose alumni responded to the survey, NIU alumni rated their satisfaction with the overall NIU academic experience higher than other alumni did at their alma mater. Additionally, NIU alumni ranked the overall teaching effectiveness in their academic programs higher than other alumni did at their institution. Recruiter and alumni comments on NIU's MBA Program:
A Recruiter Says: "The alumni fit the type of profile we want: stability, personality, hard working and technically capable." - Sara Myers, Miller Cooper & Co. Ltd., Northbrook
An Alum Says: "I went to NIU's MBA Program because the quality is there; it's accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Their curriculum is relevant to what is happening in business and gave me the edge over other candidates who were eligible for promotion. The management skills I learned at NIU prepared me for my current position as Pricing Manager." - Michael Walls, NIU MBA 2002, Pricing Manager at Barton Beers, Ltd.
The college's undergraduate Accountancy program was ranked 23rd best in the country by U.S.News & World Report in its ranking of best undergraduate programs (2008).
The college's undergraduate Accountancy program ranked in the top 20 nationally for each of the last 19 years by Public Accounting Report, a major trade publication for the accounting industry. In its 2006 annual survey of accounting programs and for the second year in a row, Public Accounting Report ranks the NIU undergraduate Accountancy program 11th in the nation and its graduate Accountancy program 10th in the nation.
The college'sFinance Department faculty research productivity
over the period of 1990-2001 ranks in the top 100 according to a report in Financial Management Journal. NIU was the only Mid America Conference school to achieve a ranking in the top 100 programs. This ranking places NIU Finance Department faculty research productivity in the company of that produced by faculty at Princeton, Arizona, and Kansas, and above that produced by University of Tenneessee, Case Western, and University of Colorado, among others.
The college'sAccountancy Department faculty research productivity
in the Journal of the American Taxation Association over the period of 1979-2000 is ranked 18th in the nation. The Journal of the American Taxation Association is considered to be one of the best outlets for academic research related to taxation.
The college's Professional Sales program, offered out of the college'sMarketing Department, ranks as one of 15 "Incubators for Greatness" by Selling Power Magazine. In 2002, the Professional Sales program also enjoyed the distinction of being the first collegiate sales training program in the world to be certified by the Professional Society for Sales and Marketing Training (SMT). SMT certification means that the college's sales program provides its students with curriculum, faculty expertise, training, and facilities on par with leading sales training programs used by corporations.
The CPA Exam Pass Rate ranked among the best in the nation for two decades. Year 2004 rankings: ranked 9th best passing rate overall; 5th best for the auditing section. NIU was the only Illinois university whose CPA Review program placed in the top 10. In year 2006, the NIU CPA Review was one of only 16 CPA exam preparation programs nationwide recommended in The Journal of Accountancy for CPA exam prep. NIU's CPA program has the distinction of being the only program on the list that is university affiliated/offered; the remaining 15 programs listed specialize in test preparation.
Recognitions
College Assessment Activities Recognized as Best Practice. The College of Business was recognized at the University's first Assessment Expo for an outstanding 2007 Annual Update Assessment report that focused on the college's Business Administration B.S. program. NIU's first Assessment Expo was held on March 7, 2007. Of the 128 Annual Update reports submitted from across the university to the NIU University Assessment Panel, 10 were selected and given recognition as programs that demonstrated outstanding assessment practices at NIU. The College of Business has a long tradition of assessing all of its academic programs. Since 2000 and through its strategic planning efforts, the college developed a comprehensive assessment framework, the process of which is actively used and continually refined.
IBM formally announced in October 2006 that The Northern Illinois University College of Business is an SSME partner school. SSME stands for Services Science, Management, and Engineering, and is a new initiative for IBM. The college's Operations Management & Information Systems program - where operations and information systems pieces are combined - prompted IBM's interest. In response, OM&IS partnered with the college's Marketing Department to add a services marketing component to the SSME curriculum. By being named an IBM SSME partner school, NIU's business college joins schools such as Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon, Ohio State, North Carolina State, University of Maryland, University of California-Berkeley, and the Wharton School of Business.
For more than two decades, the college's CPA Review course ranked in the nation along with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan.
Northern Illinois University is:
a full member of the Universities Research Association (URA), an elite group of top public and private research universities that includes Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Yale.
among only four percent of all U.S. colleges and universities listed in The Carnegie Foundation'smost productive category: "doctoral/research university-extensive."
a member of the nation's most prestigious public higher education association: the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.
the home of a new scientific center dedicated to research with Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, one of the world's premier high-energy physics research laboratories.
