Who Will Teach Future Accountants?

At present, about 120 (James Hasselback, U. West Florida) to 140 (David Leslie of William and Mary) students receive Ph. D's in Accountancy each year. Leslie estimates that this is well under half of the number needed to fill present posts. Additionally, 43% of accounting faculty are at least 55 (at 52, I am a virtual "spring chicken"). Among the reasons given for the limited number of Ph. Ds are limited resources at doctoral-granting institution (and the argument that preparing doctoral students takes away time for research) and the heavy opportunity costs associated with going through the doctoral program--the AICPA's Denny Riegle has criticized present doctoral programs for there overbearing length and encourages a four-year doctoral program.

The AICPA has created the Accounting Doctoral Scholars (ADS) program at a cost exceeding $16 million. The goal is to produce 30 extra doctoral students per year and allow them a living (if somewhat spartan) stipend of %30,000 per year while taking doctoral studies. The program will augment the KPMG Foundation's minority doctorial student program (through race is NOT a factor in the ADS program) and Ellen Glazerman of Ernst and Young hopes that it will provide additional auditing faculty and provide faculty with greater levels of practitioner experience.

It is hard to imagine accounting being anything but a high-demand field in the near future--even the worst recession in thirty years has only slowed, not stopped hiring of accounting graduates. However, with few if any high schools teaching accounting at anything significantly above the bookkeeping level, collges and universities MUST have faculty to prepare young men and women for accounting. I applaud the AICPA for this initiative.