Perdue School Earns NIBS Accreditation

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business recently became one of only eight institutions worldwide accredited by the Network of International Business Schools (NIBS).

Following a year-long evaluation process, the Perdue School was one of five schools receiving certificates of accreditation during the network’s recent annual conference in Antalya, Turkey.

“We are pleased that the quality of our international programs and the work of our faculty, staff and students has been confirmed by NIBS,” said Dr. Richard Hoffman, interim dean of the Perdue School. “This accreditation places the Perdue School among a small elite group of business schools worldwide.”

The Perdue School has been a member of NIBS for more than 15 years. Dr. Memo Diriker, director of SU’s Business, Economic And Community Outreach Network (BEACON), has served as the school’s main liaison.
NIBS accreditation focuses predominately on international education in business. In recent years the Perdue School has developed an international curriculum with the help of a faculty committee chaired by Dr. Robert Dombrowski and administered by Dr. Hong Yao, global programs coordinator.

In addition, the school has fostered relationships in countries including Germany, France and China. Perdue School students routinely study abroad in those countries, with students from there studying at SU in return. For the past two years, the winners of SU’s annual Bernstein Achievement Award for Excellence business plan competition have been international students. In all, the Perdue School has hosted some 126 foreign students, while over 320 Perdue students have studied abroad in the past five years.

“The NIBS accreditation is a well-deserved international recognition of the Perdue School's ongoing commitment to globalizing its academic programs,” said Dr. Brian Stiegler, director of SU’s Center for International Education, who assisted with accreditation materials. “This commitment is representative of SU’s strategic vision to provide its students with a globally relevant education in this most international of centuries.”

Others contributing to the accreditation process included Dr. Debbie Easterling, associate dean; Drs. Catherine Beise, Herman Manakyan, Frank Shipper and Ken Smith, department chairs; and Mandy Hackley, business information librarian at Blackwell Library.

Joining the Perdue School in this year’s NIBS’ accreditation class are Tennessee Technical University, Bishop’s and Carleton universities of Canada, and the University of Poznan, Poland. Three other institutions were accredited last year: the International Business Academy of Kolding, Denmark, Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven of Belgium, and Hogeschool van Amsterdam of the Netherlands.

The new accreditation comes on the heels of the Perdue School’s recent reaccreditation by AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in business and accounting.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.