Accounting Program Leader Survey

The American Accounting Association (AAA), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), and the "Big 5" accounting firms have joined together to study the future of accounting education. The study will identify how the work of accounting graduates has changed, and how future accounting education should be modified to help students prepare for work in the rapidly changing business environment. Results of the study will be presented at the AAA annual convention in Philadelphia in August. We have distributed a separate questionnaire to accounting professionals and educators. As an accounting administrator, however, you are in a unique position to provide some additional insights that other educators may not be able to provide. We would appreciate your help in responding to each of the questions below. If you do not feel that you have sufficient data or information to answer a specific question, please leave that question blank and skip to the next question. Thank you for your time and help.

Questions 1 - 29 relate to your undergraduate accounting program.  If you only have a graduate program, please skip to question 30.

1. The high school grade point averages (GPAs) of your accounting students today as compared with those of your accounting students 10 years ago are: 

Higher
Lower
About the same
Don't know or can't determine

Please provide actual data, if available, for the following:   
2. Average high school GPA of accounting students in 1990
3. Average high school GPA of accounting students in 2000 
4. The high school grade point averages (GPAs) of your accounting students today compared with those of other business school majors (e.g. finance, information systems, management, marketing) today are: 

Higher
Lower
About the same
Don't know or can't determine

Please provide actual data, if available, for the following:  
5. Average high school GPA of accounting students in 2000 (from above)
6. Average high school GPA of finance majors in 2000
7. Average high school GPA of marketing majors in 2000 
8. Average high school GPA of management majors in 2000 
9. Average high school GPA of information systems majors in 2000
10. The average SAT/ACT test scores of your accounting students today as compared with those of your accounting students 10 years ago are: (Check your response) 

Higher
Lower
About the same
Don't know or can't determine

Please provide actual data, if available:  
11. Average SAT/ACT test scores of accounting students in 1990
12. Average SAT/ACT test scores of accounting students in 2000 
13. The percentage of your accounting students who receive honors/awards today as compared with your accounting students 10 years ago is: (Check your response)

Higher
Lower
About the same
Don't know or can't determine

14. The average SAT/ACT test scores of your accounting students today compared with those of other business school majors (e.g. finance, information systems, management, marketing) today are: (Check your response) 

Higher
Lower
About the same
Don't know or can't determine

Please provide actual data, if available:  
15. Average ACT/SAT test scores of accounting students in 2000 (from above)
16. Average ACT/SAT test scores of finance majors in 2000 
17. Average ACT/SAT test scores of marketing majors in 2000 
18. Average ACT/SAT test scores of management majors in 2000 
19. Average ACT/SAT test scores of information systems majors in 2000 
Please rank order from highest (1) to lowest (8) the average starting salaries of graduates in different undergraduate business programs at your school. (Leave the item blank and use a total less than 8 if you don't have that program.) Also, please provide actual salary data for the graduating class of 1999 if it is available:
 
Major/Program  Rank
Average starting salary for class of 1999 (if available)
20. Accounting
21. Finance
22. Information Systems
23. Marketing
24. Logistics/Supply Chain Management
25. Operations
26. e-Business
27. Other (Please specify) 
28. Which of the following best describes the changes you have made to your undergraduate accounting program during the past 10 years? (Check the best description in column 1, and the next best description in column 2.)
  Best description  Next best description 
Have combined our accounting major with another business major such as finance or information systems
Have totally revised our accounting major curriculum and/or requirements
Have added several new classes and updated as needed for technical content changes but still have basically the same accounting curriculum we had 10 years ago
Haven't added or deleted many classes but have made substantial changes to the pedagogy of existing classes as well as updating as needed for technical content changes
Course content, pedagogy or classes haven't changed much compared to 10 years ago

29. Which of the following best describes the changes you have made to your undergraduate accounting curriculum during the past 10 years? (Check all that apply) 

Have added skills development components to most of our accounting classes.
Have added technology components to most of our accounting classes.
Have added requirement that students visit and/or interact with business professionals and/or firms to most of our accounting classes.
Have added group-work components to most of our accounting classes.
Have added service-learning assignments to most of our accounting classes.

Questions 30 - 39 relate to your graduate accounting program. If you do not have a graduate program in accounting, please skip to question 40.
Please rank order from highest (1) to lowest (7) the average starting salaries of graduates in different graduate business programs at your school. Please consider only full-time, non-executive programs in responding to this question. (Leave the item blank and use a total less than 7 if you don't have that program.) Also, please provide actual salary data for the class of 1999 if it is available:
 
Program  Rank Average Starting Salary for class of 1999 (if available)
30. Masters of Accountancy
31. Masters of Taxation
32. Masters of Business Administration
33. Masters of Organizational Behavior 
34. Masters of Public Administration
35. Masters of Information Systems
36. Other (Please Specify) 
37. Which of the following best describes the status of your graduate (masters degree) program in accounting 10 years ago and today? 

We didn't have a masters degree program in accounting 10 years ago and we still don't have one today.
We have added a new masters degree program during the past 10 years to comply with the 150-hour requirement to sit for the CPA exam to become a CPA.
We had a masters degree in accounting 10 years ago but we have substantially revised the degree requirements during the past 10 years.
We had a masters degree in accounting 10 years ago and we have basically the same degree requirements today we had then.

38. Which of the following best describes the nature of the 5th-year required to complete the masters degree program at your school? 

The 5th year is comprised mostly of accounting courses that help students specialize in an area of concentration, such as tax, assurance services, managerial accounting, etc.
The 5th year is comprised mostly of courses that are intended to provide students with a broad background in business, such as additional finance, marketing, technology, and communications courses.
The 5th year is comprised of approximately an equal mix of broad-based and specialty courses.

39. Which of the following describe the changes you have made to your graduate accounting curriculum during the past 10 years? (Check all that apply) 

Have added skills development components to most of our accounting classes.
Have added technology components to most of our accounting classes.
Have added requirement that students visit and/or interact with business professionals and/or firms to most of our accounting classes.
Have added group-work components to most of our accounting classes.
Have added service learning assignments to most of our accounting classes.

General Questions
40. Think about the money, faculty, and other resources your university allocates to various business programs at your school. Compared to other business school programs (e.g. MBA, undergraduate business, etc.), how has the relative percentage of resources allocated to accounting programs changed during the past 10 years? (Check the one most appropriate response.) 

Increased relative to other business programs
Decreased relative to other business programs
Stayed about the same percentage relative to other business programs

Note: If you checked "decreased relative to other business programs" in the last question, please answer this set of questions. Otherwise, please skip to question 47.

Please rank order the following reasons (1=Most important; 5=Least important) in terms of why you believe the resources allocated to accounting programs have decreased relative to the resources given to other business programs.
 

Reason
Rank
41. The MBA rankings in business periodicals have diverted resources away from other business school programs toward the MBA program. 
42. Resources at our school have decreased and everyone now has less resources than before. 
43. Accounting is not perceived as important a discipline at our school as it was previously. 
44. Other exciting programs, such as information systems and logistics/supply-chain management have taken resources from accounting.
45. We have fewer students in accounting than we did previously. 
46. Other reasons (Please explain) 

Please rank in order of importance (1=Most important, 5=Least important) each of the following as factors considered by your dean and university administrators when allocating resources (budget, faculty slots, etc.) to various programs.
 
47. Rankings in business periodicals (such as Business Week) and U.S. News & World Report. 
48. Accreditation of various programs 
49. Number of students enrolled in programs 
50. Our school's own internal assessments of resource needs and allocations 
51. At our school, resources are allocated in other ways (Please explain) 

To answer the last set of questions, you will need to compare your 1990 course catalog with your 2000 course catalog. If you cannot get these data, you are finished with the questionnaire. We appreciate your help. If you can get the information, we would very much appreciate you answering the last question.

Please compare the accounting courses in your course catalogue in 1990 with the accounting courses in your current course catalog and provide the following information:
 
Undergraduate Accounting Program 
52. List the courses you have added to your program course offerings in the last ten years.  53. List the courses you have dropped from your program course offerings in the last ten years.


Graduate Accounting Program 
54. List the courses you have added to your program course offerings in the last ten years. 55. List the courses you have dropped from your program course offerings in the last ten years.

  Thank you for your help and participation. We look forward to sharing our results with you.

(This form is for illustration purposes only and can not be submitted.)