Fayetteville State University’s Online Business Program Cited Among the Best and Most Affordable

To be selected, Best Value Schools looked for public and private (non-profit) colleges and universities that offer bachelor's degrees in business online. Because the focus of the list is on affordability, they only considered programs with average tuition rates of $20,000/year or less. Additionally, they only considered colleges whose business schools/departments have obtained accreditation from one of three specialized accrediting agencies: Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), or the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE). FSU is AACSB accredited, the most prestigious accrediting agency for collegiate business programs.

After compiling a list of all the colleges that offer online business administration programs and meet the above criteria, Best Value Schools then collected data in four categories:

• Program Popularity: How many students choose to earn their bachelor's degree in business administration over other business-related options (that is, how much interest/demand is there in the school's BBA program compared to similar alternatives, such as finance or accounting)? To find out, they looked at both the number of students who earned their BBA degree in the 2015-16 school year as well as the percentage of all bachelor's program graduates that that number represents.
• Overall Strength of Online Business Programs: How much emphasis does the school place on providing accessible undergraduate programs in business? For this metric, they looked at the total number of online bachelor's business programs the school offers as well as the percentage of all undergraduate students who are enrolled in one of those programs.
• Accreditation: From what agency has the BBA program earned its business accreditation? Professionally, most people consider the AACSB to be the most prestigious business-focused accreditation agency, followed by the ACBSP and then the IACBE. Therefore, points were awarded accordingly to each institution based on the type of accreditation they have.
• Affordability: What is the average annual cost of attendance?

After collecting and sorting all the information, the candidates were ranked according to their performance in each area. Finally, Best Value Schools summed up the results and gave each school a final score using a curve so that the top-scoring program earned an even 100 points.

Fayetteville State University is a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina and the second-oldest public institution of higher education in the state, having been founded in 1867. FSU offers degrees at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels. With more than 6,200 students, Fayetteville State University is among the most diverse institutions in the nation. Chancellor James A. Anderson is the 11th chief executive officer.