Business school drops Master of Accountancy program

The University of Richmond's Master of Accountancy program will not be accepting applications for the 2011-2012 year and it has not yet been decided whether the program will continue after the suspended year.

The decision to suspend the program for one year was made by a vote of the 11 faculty members of the accounting department in late September.

The program started during 2006 when Virginia began requiring accountants to have 150 semester hours to become a certified public accountant, Paul Clikeman, associate professor of accounting, said.

"We started the program with the thought that many of our students would need a fifth year in order to get 150 semester hours," Clikeman said.

"The students, instead of staying for a fifth year, figured out that if they come in with nine hours of advanced placement, which many of them do, and they take a May term, which many of them do and they take five units every semester, which many of them do, they can get to 150 hours without having to stay for a fifth year."

Ten students were enrolled in the program the first year of its existence, one the second year, 10 the third year, 11 the fourth year and seven this year, Clikeman said.

"We made the decision [to suspend the program] taking into account the fact that we teach undergraduate courses that range in size from 20 to 28," he said. "It was difficult to justify using full-time faculty to teach seven students and then have the undergraduate students be pushed into bigger classes because of how we were using the faculty in the M.Acc program."

There were roughly 55 accounting majors in the class of 2010, 11 of whom went to master of accountancy programs, Clikeman said. Only three of those 11 came to Richmond's program.

There are 12 to 15 students in the current senior class who are interested in a masters program for next year, but Clikeman said it was impossible to say how many of them would have enrolled at Richmond. He said there were lots of other good programs out there for students to attend, such as the College of William & Mary, the George Washington University and Notre Dame University.

Amanda Caporelli is a senior double majoring in accounting and business administration with a concentration in finance who is also on the track team. A knee injury during her freshman year kept her out of competition until her junior year. After recovering, her plan was to complete the program and use that fifth year to compete in track.

"The M.Acc program was an ideal way to finish my 150 credit hours, get my masters and also compete with my teammates for one more year," Caporelli said.

Caporelli said the suspension of the program had completely changed her plans. She is currently exploring other options, either completing a fifth year at Richmond anyway or interning over the summer and taking online classes.

"Seniors were counting on this program and are now attempting to explore other options while managing regular academic work," Caporelli said.

The decision to suspend the program wasn't made until late September because the accounting department had its first meeting in August and evaluated the future of the program, then voted to suspend it at its second meeting in September, Clikeman said.

"We are doing everything we can — counseling, writing recommendation letters, etc. — to help students select and gain admission to other M.Acc. programs," Clikeman said.

Clikeman said he thought the impact of the elimination of the masters program on the Robins School of Business would be minimal.

"When you compare the fact that we have between 40 and 50 MBA students every year, and we have between 200 and 250 undergraduate business majors every year, the master of accountancy program is very small, relatively speaking," Clikeman said.

The decision of whether to continue the program after next year will depend on forecasts of student interest in the program and whether there will be enough faculty to teach the classes without negatively affecting the undergraduate program through reduced course offerings or unacceptably large class sizes, Clikeman said.

The program's website said the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected employment of accountants and auditors to grow by 18 percent between 2006 and 2016, faster than the average for all occupations.

It also emphasized the importance of a master's degree as it was quickly becoming a prerequisite for a job in public accounting. Most U.S. states and territories, including Virginia, have passed legislation requiring five years of post-secondary education for CPA licensing.

Contact reporter Sarah Craig at sarah.craig@richmond.edu