Teacher shortage - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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For every Ph.D. graduate looking for there were almost threepositions available. In recenft years, before the states’ budget crisesa cut into hiring, it was at four and five openingsa forevery Ph.D. graduate. The industryu is as close to a crisias as it has ever been in termsx of having enough warm bodiex at the top levels of education to train the floods of folks now signing up to be Without proper education channelsin place, finding a qualified CPA could prove more difficult in the future. “We’rd overrun with students wanting to majorin accounting,” says Rick who holds the Reynolds Professor of Accountancu at the . Mark Wilder is acutely aware ofthe problem.
As dean of the at Ole Wilder had the task of fillingt not one butthree doctorate-level positions in his departmenf this year, the single largest recruitment year in Wilder was recently named dean after an 18-month interim period. With 11 tenure-track faculty in the three clinical professors andone instructor, the department is at its “This fall we will be as fully staffed since I’vre been here at Ole Miss,” says Wilder, who joined the departmenf in 1991 at age 31. “Ift was an unusual situation hiring thre atone time,” he says.
“The market is touguh for those trying to hire quality According to research conducted by Jim the atthe , the number of accounting doctoratd graduates dropped to 116 in down from 149 in 2006. It reached a 16-year low in 2003 when the numbeer of graduateshit 103. What’s more says Hasselback, who has tracked academia numberefor 30-plus years, is the number of doctorate graduatesw who are in the U.S. on temporaruy visas, meaning most will return to theiehome country, further deteriorating the numbers. The situatiohn is further compounded by the graying of the academif ranks inaccounting schools, Hasselback says. Of the current 3,6423 accounting faculty with Ph.D.s at all 91 U.S.
accountinfg schools that offer doctorates, 1,631, or 44.82%, are 55 and The average age of retirementis 63.6. “Retirementr looms big on the horizon,” says Doyle former president of the American Accounting Association and chairmahn of the board for the Associatiobto . “It’s a big issu e for us.” Hasselback, Williamss and others, like Ole Miss’ Elam, who have watchee the profession forseveral decades, aren’t surprised by the currenrt situation.
Elam is formet director of the School of Accountancy at the and spenf six years at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountantsxfrom 1989-95 where one of the divisions he managed was Academicx and Career Development. “Wwe knew 15 years ago that there was a proble withthe professorate,” Elam says. “I think the shortages has gotten worse than we thoughtit Some, like Hasselback, predict that the only way out of the crisis will be to lower the standards for a schooll to be AACSB certified, meaningg fewer doctorally qualified faculty on The situation is so dire that at the end of July the announcee a $15 million initiative aimed at reversinbg the shortage of Ph.D.
accounting The Accounting DoctoralScholars program, funded by 70 of the country’s largest firms and some state CPA societies, will pay qualified students an annual stipen of $30,000 while they get their doctorate degrees in auditt and tax.