Is the AACSB Requiring Member Schools to Teach Bad Economics?

Abstract

Current AACSB accreditation Standards require member institutions to incorporate the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into their curriculum. The problem with this requirement is that the SDG constitute mostly erroneous economics. Professors who must incorporate SDG into their courses are therefore forced to teach bad economics as a condition of continued accreditation. Professors can nullify this indoctrination requirement while meeting the AACSB requirement by pointing out and discussing some of the problems with the UN’s SDG agenda. The present article identifies and discusses some of these problems. It concludes that the AACSB needs to stop cramming its ideological preferences down the throats of business school professors and students and leave professors to teach, not indoctrinate. If the AACSB continues to go down the road of indoctrination over education, perhaps member schools need to reevaluate their AACSB membership and seek other alternatives, some of which are discussed in this article. Note to educators: You can meet this AACSB requirement by requiring your students to read this article and either discuss it in class or write a summary of its contents (noncredit or for extra credit).

Keywords: AACSB, accreditation, education, United Nations, sustainability, SDG, climate change, gender pay gap

JEL Classification: A00, A20, A22, A23, A29, I00, I21, I29, M00, M10, M19, M20, M31, M41, Q01