AACSB International maintains a requirement that accounting faculty, as a whole, should demonstrate relevant professional experience for academic units seeking separate accounting accreditation. This study examines student perceptions of the importance of relevant practical experience by using a two-phase method incorporating both a between-subjects design of an experiment and a survey in which participants ranked the importance of various faculty attributes. The results of the Phase One experiment indicate that professors possessing relevant practical experience were perceived by students to be of significantly higher quality than professors lacking relevant practical experience. Survey results in Phase Two, limited due to the method used, provide some degree of validation of the results found in Phase One.
Students are often concerned with, and advisors are often confronted with, questions about the best way to obtain the 150 hours required for CPA licensure in most states and jurisdictions. This research provides insight through an experiment in which CPAs in public accounting provide assessments about how actively their organization would recruit job candidates whose profile descriptions differ only as to how they met the 150-hour requirement. By manipulating, at seven levels, the independent variable describing the method by which a hypothetical student obtained 150 hours, the study indicates that, in general, CPAs tend to value more accounting-specific coursework leading toward a degree, preferably an advanced degree. The study also provides suggested courses of action for students who do not have the option of pursuing a graduate degree.
The AICPA has taken the position that accreditation of CPAs in specific areas of practice is an important aspect of repositioning the CPA profession for the future. The AICPA currently offers two designations exclusively to CPAs, one of which is the Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) designation. However, the issue of accrediting CPAs by granting official AICPA designations is a complex and highly debated issue with opposing sides having compelling arguments supporting their positions.
CPAs and other professionals specializing in personal financial planning have opportunities to obtain designations other than the PFS. This paper examines the relative value of these alternative options for financial planners. Specifically, the research was designed to examine the differential effects of alternative financial-planning accreditations on users' perceptions. These perceptions relate to various professional attributes of a financial planner such as their knowledge and expertise, objectivity, and level of trust and ethics possessed. In addition, these perceptions relate to fees charged and the influence that the designation has on the public's choice of a financial planner.
Our results indicate that the CPA designation used in conjunction with the PFS designation is generally perceived to signal a higher level of professional attributes than the other designations examined in the study. In addition, a CPA with a PFS designation has a significantly greater influence on the public's choice of a financial planner than do the other designations. These results suggest that important benefits may accrue to CPAs from holding the PFS specialty accreditation.
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