Jones School of Business develops Masters of Accounting program

By Tessa Fries     9/25/14 7:27am

The Jones School of Business is launching a new Master of Accounting program that will earn students their Master of Accounting degree in one year. Rice previously offered the MAcc program, but it dissolved in the late 90s due to lack of student interest and lack of a need for this type of program in the accounting field at the time, according to Program Director Benjamin Lansford.

“The MAcc programs give you that fifth and final year you need to get up to 150 credit hours because undergraduate degrees typically entail only 120 hours,” Lansford said. “That 150 hour requirement [to get your Certified Public Accounting license] wasn’t in effect when this program was in existence before, and so there just wasn’t as much of a need for students to earn a Master of Accounting.”

The MAcc program is being revived due to widespread success of the initial program’s graduates and an increasing need for CPAs, Lansford said. The new program will feature a revamped curriculum that will better match how complex accounting has become since the program was previously at Rice. To earn a masters in accounting, the Texas State Board requires 30 credit-hours in accounting classes and 24 hours in business-related classes such as marketing and business communications, so undergraduates looking to complete the MAcc program in one year need to have taken 18 of the 24 required business-related course hours before beginning the program.

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Lansford said a business minor would prepare students for the MAcc program well because it fulfills the necessary 18 business-related credit hours in addition to BUSI 305, Rice’s only undergraduate accounting course currently. The only prerequisite remaining beyond the business minor requirements would be two new undergraduate accounting courses, to be offered beginning in the spring of 2015, Lansford said.

“If you took and enjoyed BUSI 305, that's a very good sign that you will enjoy other accounting classes,” Lansford said. “That first accounting class was a really good omen for whether the MAcc was a good fit for you. If students want to take another stab at a course before they sign up for the MAcc, take that second Intermediate Financial Accounting course that will be offered in the spring.”

The MAcc program is designed for and open to undergraduate students of all majors and is a great opportunity to combine other passions with business, since accounting is needed by almost every organization, according to Lansford.

“The strength of our old program, and what we hope to be the strength of the new program, is having students who have a non-business undergraduate degree, married with the technical expertise that they would get from that one year in the accounting program,” Lansford said. “What distinguishes MAcc graduates from Rice from MAcc graduates from most other schools is that our graduates won’t solely be experts in accounting. They’ll be as good at accounting as anyone else, but they’ll also be experts in philosophy, sociology, history, whatever your undergraduate major was. We really want to develop thinkers.”

This program is not exclusive to people who receive their undergraduate degree from Rice, but it is expected that about two-thirds of the students will come directly from Rice. The program will start small and grow, but it will never be huge, according to Lansford. Since the MAcc program will launch in fall of 2016, current juniors, sophomores and freshmen will be able to begin the program immediately after finishing their bachelor’s degree.

Lansford said he expects future graduates’ first jobs to be comparable to those of MAcc graduates from other schools, but that graduates from Rice’s MAcc program will be distinguished and unique in the trajectory at which they will progress their careers. Many accounting firms, including Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG, have explicitly expressed interest in hiring future graduates from Rice’s program.

“If you want to do business, the MAcc program is good [to consider],” Lansford said. “You can do anything with accounting. Geographically, you can go anywhere. Your first job is likely to be with a big four firm, and they're great a place to start, but certainly you don't need to stay with the big four after two, three, four years. You can go anywhere, do anything you want.”

Paid internship opportunities the summer before beginning the MAcc program are available for incoming students, according to Lansford.

Admissions to the MAcc program will be conducted online, but interested students are encouraged to meet with Lansford to see if the program is a good fit based on their interests and goals.

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