During April 14th to 16th 2023, Professor Remen Chun-Wei Lin, Official Mentor of AACSB International Accreditation and Dean of the College of Management at Asia University, visited School of Finance and Business (SFB) at Shanghai Normal University School (SHNU) to conduct the first on-site visit as per requirements by AACSB International Accreditation. During this visit, 7 sessions were held at Xuhui Campus of SHNU, and Ms. YUAN Wen, President of SHNU and Mr. JIANG Mingjun, Vice President of SHNU, as well as heads of SHNU functional departments were invited to discuss about SFB’s responses to the guiding principles and standards of AACSB International Accreditation.
(Pic.1 Group Photo of SHNU Leadership, Heads of SHNU Functional Departments,
SFB Leadership and Mentor of AACSB International Accreditation)
9:30 a.m. on April 14th, the first session was held in Conference Room 203, Block D, Building of SFB, during which Professor Chun-Wei R. Lin, Official Mentor of AACSB International Accreditation met with SHNU leadership, including: Ms. YUAN Wen, President of SHNU; Mr. JIANG Mingjun, Vice President of SHNU; Ms. GAO Xiangping, Director of SHNU Academic Affairs Office; Mr. YANG Haifeng, Director of SHNU Development and Planning Office; Mr. WU Cheng, Director of SHNU International Affairs Office; Mr. GU Guijiao, Director of SHNU Financial Department; Ms. LIU Lanying, Deputy Director of SHNU Postgraduate Affairs Office and Mr. WU Bo, Deputy Director of SHNU Assets and Laboratories Office, as well as SFB leadership, and SFB faculty and staff involved in work of pursuing AACSB International Accreditation.
The first session was hosted by Professor LIU Jianghui, Dean of SFB. At beginning of the session, Ms. YUAN Wen, President of SHNU extended a warm welcome and sincere thanks on behalf of SHNU to Professor Chun-Wei R. Lin for his visit to SFB, and said that AACSB International Accreditation is of great significance to SFB in its alignment with universal standards among first-class international business schools and in enhancement of level of internationalization of education for both SFB and SHNU. In addition, Ms. YUAN stated that SHNU would give all-out support to SFB in the latter’s process pursuing AACSB International Accreditation, and she hoped that SFB would regard this on-site visit as an opportunity to learn and study, and to conduct systematic self-evaluation and continuous improvement in accordance with standards of AACSB International Accreditation, and to establish contact, share experience and cooperate with top-ranked international business schools in order to better serve social and economic development.
(Pic.2-4 Ms. YUAN Wen, President of SHNU, Mr. JIANG Mingjun, Vice President of SHNU, Heads of SHNU Functional Departments and SFB Leadership Meeting with AACSB Mentor)
(Pic.5 SFB Reporting Its Responses to the Guiding Principles and Standards of
AACSB International Accreditation)
Professor Chun-Wei R. Lin thanked SHNU leadership and heads of SHNU functional departments for attending the first session, highly praised Ms. YUAN's in-depth understanding of the Guiding Principles of AACSB Accreditation, expressed admiration for the progresses SFB had made in pursuing AACSB Accreditation, and provided valuable suggestions in terms of SFB’s teaching space, facilities, discipline setup, database construction, teaching quality assurance, faculty team construction, academic contribution, societal impact, etc. Following that, Ms. YUAN and heads of SHNU functional departments responded in a detailed manner to the matters brought up by the Mentor. At the end of the session, Mr. JIANG Mingjun, Vice President of SHNU thanked the Mentor on behalf of the University for the Mentor’s professional suggestions and guidance, and indicated that currently SHNU has three international accreditations in progress, and AACSB accreditation is of great importance to SHNU's overall efforts to improve its level of internationalization in education, and SHNU will champion SFB in its follow-up work of pursuing AACSB international accreditation.
The second session was hosted by Mr. ZHU Huijun, Secretary of CPC SFB Committee. During this session, SFB reported to the Mentor on its responses to AACSB Guiding Principles, namely: Ethics and Integrity, Societal Impact, Mission-Driven Focus, Peer Review, Continuous Improvement, Collegiality, Agility, Global Mindset, Diversity and Inclusion, and Continued Adherence to Guiding Principles and Business Standards. Participants of this session include SFB leadership, SFB department chairs, program chairs as well as faculty and staff involved in work of pursuing AACSB International Accreditation. As a representative, Professor LIU Jianghui, Dean of SFB elaborated to the Mentor the work SFB had done and progresses had been made regarding AACSB Guiding Principles.
The focus of the third and fourth sessions was SFB reporting to the Mentor on its responses to the first 7 standards of all 9 standards of AACSB International Accreditation. During these two sessions, Professor LIU Jianghui, Dean of SFB and Professor WANG Zhouwei and Associate Professor YAO Yawei, Associate Deans of SFB introduced in detail SFB's progresses benchmarking the first 7 AACSB standards in the areas of strategic planning, physical/virtual and financial resources, faculty and professional staff resources, curriculum, assurance of learning (AoL), learner progression, and teaching effectiveness and impact.
During the fifth and sixth sessions, the Mentor engaged with SFB faculty and student representatives pursuant to requirements by AACSB International Accreditation regarding faculty governance, faculty development, faculty evaluation, learner progress, and teaching effectiveness and impact, etc. During these two sessions, the Mentor and SFB faculty and student representatives communicated in fluent English, discussing about understanding of AACSB International Accreditation, extent of recognition of AACSB’s philosophy, extent of recognition of SFB’s mission and vision, etc.
(Pic.6 The Mentor Interacting with SFB Faculty Representatives in English)
(Pic.7-11 The Mentor Interacting with SFB Student Representatives in English)
The seventh session was held on April 15th in Conference Room 201, Block D, Building of SFB with the focus of reporting to the Mentor on SFB’s responses to the eighth and ninth standards of AACSB International Accreditation. During the session, Professor WANG Zhouwei and Professor ZHAO Hongjun, Associate Deans of SFB presented to the Mentor SFB's progresses benchmarking AACSB standards in terms of impact of scholarship as well as engagement and societal impact. After attentive listening, the Mentor Professor Chun-Wei R. Lin spoke highly of the work SFB had done and the progresses SFB had made, and indicated that SFB has distinctive features and highlights, and as an Official Mentor of AACSB International Accreditation, he would help SFB to present these features and highlights in a most efficient way for future PRT visit. In addition, the Mentor gave valuable suggestions on SFB’s follow-up work in pursuing AACSB International Accreditation, including improvement and optimization of faculty classification criteria, societal impact, website development, accreditation system development, etc. Finally, Mr. ZHU Huijun, Secretary of CPC SFB Committee and Professor LIU Jianghui, Dean of SFB expressed heartfelt gratitude for the Mentor paying this on-site visit and his professional guidance, and stated that SFB would study the Mentor's advice and instructions and understand them in an in-depth manner so as to effectively improve aspects to be optimized as pointed out in accordance with AACSB Guiding Principles and Standards, and endeavor to be accepted as an AACSB-accredited school and obtain this world-renowned international business accreditation as soon as possible within the timeframe permitted by AACSB International Accreditation.
In the morning of April 14th, accompanied by Mr. ZHU Huijun, Secretary of CPC SFB Committee and Professor LIU Jianghui, Dean of SFB and some other members of SFB leadership, the Mentor visited the teaching spaces, learning environment, offices for faculty and staff and other facilities in SFB.
(Pic.12: Accompanied by Mr. ZHU Huijun, Professor LIU Jianghui and Some Other Members of SFB Leadership, the Mentor Visiting Teaching Spaces and Other Facilities in SFB)
(Pic.13: The Mentor Visiting Offices for Faculty in SFB)
During this on-site visit, the Mentor met with SFB alumni representatives, so as to look into SFB’s learner progression as well as teaching effectiveness and impact, and listened to SFB alumni representatives’ thoughts and suggestions regarding development of SFB. During such meetings, the Mentor highly complimented the talents and demeanor shown by SFB alumni representatives, and fully experienced the affection of these alumni representatives for SFB and SHNU. Additionally, Mr. PENG Lizhou, an SFB alumnus, a young Shanghai-style artist and a disciple of Chinese painter Ms. CHEN Peiqiu, presented the Mentor with a scroll painting named 'Flourishing Angelica Dahurica, Cymbidium Orchid and Bamboo' he had meticulously painted.
(Contribution: International Affairs Department)
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