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Future Accounting Faculty and Programs Projects

Welcome to the preliminary posting of a new resource for the community participating in and supporting accounting programs, students, faculty, and by that connection practitioners of accounting. We plan to build this collection of resources for the broad community committed to a vital future for accounting education. This page is an initial step to creating a place where we can come together to gather resources and share data and ideas.

Accounting in Community Colleges: Who Teaches, Who Studies?

Recently the American Accounting Association (AAA) sponsored a report, Trends in Non-Tenure-Eligible Accounting Faculty, 1993–2004 (December 2008) and co-sponsored a report, Accounting Faculty in U.S. Colleges and Universities: Status and Trends, 1993–2004 (February, 2008) with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Designed as a companion piece to these recent studies, this report is intended to expand our understanding of the "supply chain" in accounting education. A number of articles and papers discuss tenure-track and nontenure track accounting faculty and accounting doctoral students, but limited information is available on the role of community college faculty in the United States. This analysis looks at status and trends for community college faculty in accounting, and like its companion reports on tenure-track and non-tenure eligible faculty, does so within the context of the larger higher education environment in the U.S. today.

Accounting Faculty in U.S. Colleges and Universities: Status and Trends, 1993-2004

A Report of the American Accounting Association, February 19, 2008

The number of accounting faculty declined 13.3 percent over the period 1988–2004. According to National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) data, accounting faculty (full- and part-time, in all types of postsecondary institutions) had fallen from 20,321 in 1993 to 17,610 in 2004. However, as the number of faculty has declined, student (undergraduate) enrollment has increased (12.3 percent) over the same period. The most serious loss of full-time faculty has occurred at four-year, non-doctoral-granting institutions—amounting to 31 percent of the 1993 total. The number of full-time accounting faculty at research/doctoral universities and at community colleges between 1993 and 2004 changed little, same for the total number of accounting faculty holding Ph.D.s.

A new report was issued in early 2009, New Report: Trends in Non-Tenure-Eligible Accounting Faculty, 1993-2004.

More Resources on the Changing Environment for Faculty:

The Reshaping of America's Academic Workforce
David W. Leslie, TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow
The College of William and Mary
TIAA Institute Research Dialogue Series, 2007

Jim Hasselback's* 2007 Analysis of Accounting Faculty Birthdates
*Copyrighted – requests for use to J. R. Hasselback

Among U.S. Accounting Academics -- 53.4% are 55 or older

From the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS)

34.8% of all full-time faculty in the U.S. are non-tenure-track -- nearly 2 in 5 of all full-time appointments
Between 1993 and 2003 the proportion of all new full-time hires into "off-track" appointments increased each year from 50% to nearly 3 in 5 (58.6%)
Reported in J. Schuster & M. Finkelstein (Fall, 2006). "On the Brink: Assessing the Status of the American Faculty," Thought & Action 51-62.

Trends in Non-Tenure-Eligible Accounting Faculty, 1993-2004

One of the most important questions facing the accounting discipline today is whether the existing number of faculty and the accompanying terms of employment (pay, workload, tenure eligibility, full- versus part-time, etc) will be sufficient to meet rising student demand.

Following up our report on status and trends for tenure-track faculty, this report explores similar characteristics for important members of accounting faculties. This report describes the trends in characteristics and employment of non-tenure-eligible accounting faculty based on the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty administered in 1993-2004.

In 2008 American Accounting Association and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) co-sponsored a report of full-time accounting faculty: Accounting Faculty in U.S. Colleges and Universities: Status and Trends, 1993-2004.

Accounting PhD Program Information: A report of the Joint AAA/APLG/FSA Doctoral Education Committee

The objective of this committee was to gather information of interest to those considering entering into the accounting academic profession.

Making A Difference: Careers in Academia
Powerpoint slides created by Nancy Bagranoff and Stephanie Bryant for the 2007 Beta Alpha Psi Annual Meeting. Permission granted for use and adaptation with attribution.

GradSchools.com
Accounting PhD Program Info

New Research Projects by the AAA on the Trends and Characteristics of Accounting Faculty, Students, Curriculum, and Programs

Part I: Future of Accounting Faculty Project (Report December, 2007)
Part II: Future of Accounting Programs Project

Part I will describe today's accounting academic workforce, via demographics, work patterns, productivity, and career progression of accounting faculty, as well as of faculty in selected peer disciplines using data from the national survey of postsecondary faculty (NSOPF) to establish trends, and a set of measures will be combined to benchmark the overall status of accounting against (approximately) 150 fields. This project will provide context and data to identify factors affecting the pipeline and workplace.

Part II will focus on expanding understanding of the characteristics of accounting faculty, students, and accounting programs, and implications of their evolving environment. The need for the Part I project illustrates how essential it is for the discipline and profession of accounting that we establish a more standard and comprehensive process for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data about accounting students, doctoral students, faculty, curriculum, and programs.