Summer 2004
NEWS
College
Adds M.S. in Accounting; New Program Will Start in 2005
The College
will begin offering a master’s degree in accounting next year to
better prepare students for the increasingly demanding profession and
comply with new stringent New York state requirements.
The master’s program, which will start in the summer of 2005, will
provide students with "an additional year of education that the accounting
profession says they need," noted Mary Ellen Zuckerman, dean
of the Jones School of Business.
Accounting has become "an ever-changing profession" with increased
technological demands and regulations, Zuckerman explained. In addition,
accountants are increasingly being required to have excellent oral, written
and critical thinking skills, she said.
"It is really a field that has changed dramatically," Zuckerman
observed.
In the 1980s, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants determined
that a 120-hour curriculum didn’t provide sufficient opportunity
for students to learn all the skills and knowledge required for contemporary
practice.
Currently, 43 states require candidates for the Uniform CPA Examination
to have completed 150 semester hours in an approved program. Five states,
including New York, have passed legislation to require 150 hours for candidates
to sit for the exam. Only two states – California and Colorado –
do not have such requirements.
While some colleges in the state have chosen to work the additional 30
hours into a double major program, Geneseo opted to have that extra work
result in a master’s degree. It will make the graduates more attractive
to firms and better prepare them for the workforce, Zuckerman said. "If
they are going to spend another year (in college), they ought to get their
master’s," she said.
Students who will be entering their senior year at Geneseo in the fall
of 2004 and opt to stay on to earn their master’s will begin their
master’s coursework after they graduate with their bachelor’s
in accounting or equivalent. The program includes two summer courses and
four courses each in the fall and spring semesters. The first master’s
class will graduate in May 2006.
Although accounting graduates may sit for the CPA without the additional
30 credit hours through 2009, Geneseo wants to offer the master’s
degree now because "it’s in the best interests of our students,"
Zuckerman said.
"We’re telling our students, ‘we really think you should
do this,’" she said.
The Jones School of Business has 155 students who are majoring in accounting
or are accounting pre-majors, and 45 of those students will be seniors
in the fall of 2004. Zuckerman said the school’s goal is to enroll
10 students in the first year of the program and expand from there to
an average of 20 to 25 students each year. Zuckerman expects most of the
students will be those who receive their undergraduate degree from Geneseo.
However, the program is open to other students who earn their bachelor’s
degree elsewhere, she said. The tuition is competitive with other options
for graduate study. Tuition for the program will be approximately $7,455
to $9,405 for the fall and spring semesters and $1,950 in the summer.
The program will consist of five accounting courses, covering topics in
financial, managerial, tax accounting, advanced audit, and a capstone
in financial accounting theory and research. Also, courses with a management
or economics prefix will cover information systems, quantitative methods,
managerial economics, advanced financial management and an elective. In
creating the master’s program, Geneseo sought feedback on the curriculum
from accountants working in the field, Zuckerman said.
The move to add the master’s program is another step the Jones School
of Business has taken to make the program more beneficial to its students.
In 2002, the school was accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business, elevating it to the rank of one of the world’s
most highly regarded business schools.