Accounting Enrollment Up 4.7%

State Board Report

September 2009

2007?08 saw an increase in accounting enrollment of 4.7 percent, reports the AICPA’s 2009 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits, which can be downloaded from the AICPA’s Web site www.aicpa.org. Based on the responses from 241 schools, the survey found an equal number of males and females pursuing master’s degrees in accounting and females accounting for 53 percent of the enrollment in the bachelor’s degree programs. The same year saw a 3.5 percent increase in the number of bachelor’s and master’s degree program graduates, to 66,459, hitting record levels.

The AICPA study reports: “Given the pending adoption of IFRS, accounting programs were asked if they will offer IFRS course material in their curricula. Eighty percent said that they currently include some IFRS material in the curriculum, and another 15 percent will add coverage by Fall 2009. Most other respondents indicated the likelihood of incorporating IFRS in some form by 2010.”

Based on responses from 411 CPA firms, the AICPA team observed: “Projected hiring in the coming year looks to be level or below the past year, reflecting continued caution by public accounting firms.”