Bridging the education gap

Many have said that the accounting profession and its professoriat (the community of accounting teachers at the undergraduate and graduate levels) are moving farther apart, decades of dialogue notwithstanding. The concern within the practice community is that the academic community, as much as it excels in teaching the theoretical side of the profession, is growing increasingly out of touch with the real world of CPA professionals. Both sides wonder whether the narrow content requirements of accounting programs have contributed to the dwindling number of accounting students.

At the center of this discussion is the fact that accounting professors aren’t required to be CPAs. In law schools, professors must hold a JD degree, which is grounded in practical, practice-oriented analysis. In accounting programs, however, a theoretically oriented PhD degree, or a master’s degree (including an MBA) coupled with a CPA, is more often the rule.

Discussion about whether the qualifications for individuals that teach accounting courses at colleges and universities must include the CPA along with some demonstrated experience is nothing new. In New York State, the issue has been raised intermittently for at least the last 50 years. But, of course, the world has changed substantially during the past 50 years—including the now dwindling number of accounting students.

A discussion about the professional and academic qualifications required of accounting faculty brings many issues to the table and raises many questions. I don’t claim to know the answers. I do take heart from the story on page 19, wherein an associate professor of accounting realized that she was losing touch with the profession and decided to spend her sabbatical working for a respected CPA firm, finding that the experience made her a more effective teacher.

But the professional community needs to address this issue at a higher level. The decline in enrollments aside, the instructional-quality issues have never been more pressing than they are now. There is a pressing need to reassess the relationship between academia and professional practice and discuss different approaches to the teaching of accounting. Once the Uniform Accountancy Act (UAA) has become the law of the land, educators will feel new pressures to address the concerns of CPAs in industry, the fastest-growing segment of the profession.

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