Increase the Number and Quality of Students in Your MAcc Program without Additional Funding: A Case Study

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Accounting

Publication Date

10-2008

Abstract

In the late 1980s, a majority of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) voted to require 150 hours of education for its membership after the year 2000. As of December 31, 2000, there were six states or territories that did not enact the 150-hour requirement. Like many states, Iowa passed the law in 1992 to be effective in the year 2000. As states passed the new 150-hour requirement, universities and colleges were forced to look at their programs to see how they would deal with this new education requirement. Renner and Tanner (2001) surveyed members of the AICPA, Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and recruiters of accounting graduates from a regional Midwestern university and found that some of the popular choices (not in order of preference) were: (a) BA with a double major in accounting and fi nance, (b) BA with a double major in accounting and management information systems, (c) BA in accounting/MBA, (d) BA in accounting/ master in accounting, and (e) BA in accounting/master in taxation. At many schools, the first two options were already available but were deemed unacceptable for the better accounting undergraduate students. Option (c) may be a good one, but could require a student to stay in school for six years. Therefore, many schools looked at options (d) and (e) as being logical choices. These options are cost-effective ways for students to complete the 150-hour requirement and leave a university with a masters’ degree.

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Decision Line

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