On October 27, Lily Bi, President and CEO of The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), led a delegation to the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The visit centered on enhancing business education quality and refining accreditation services.
The delegation included Geoff Perry, Executive Vice President, Chief Membership Officer, and Managing Director of Asia Pacific; and Guodong Xu, Head of East Asia. SAIF was represented by Executive Dean Shijun Cheng and Deputy Dean Yan Hong.
Executive Dean Cheng welcomed the visitors and outlined SAIF's development journey, highlighting advances in faculty development, talent cultivation, research innovation, and global collaboration.
President Bi presented AACSB's core mission, accreditation standards, and key initiatives. The discussion addressed several critical topics: the primary challenges SAIF faces at its current stage, methodologies for evaluating research impact, the value of AACSB accreditation for business education, and how AACSB can better serve its accredited institutions.
Established as an international finance institute modeled on world-class business schools, SAIF first received AACSB international accreditation in 2016, becoming one of the youngest business schools globally to achieve this distinction. SAIF successfully maintained its accreditation in 2021, continuing to demonstrate the international caliber of its curriculum, faculty, and research.
About AACSB
Founded in 1916, AACSB is the world's longest-standing global accreditation body for business schools. Its accreditation standards are widely recognized for their rigor, with the process typically requiring five to seven years to complete. Currently, fewer than 6% of business schools worldwide hold this accreditation.
