Leading the way in accounting education 2020-2021 Department of Accountancy Annual Report
LEGACY OF FIRSTS
Leading the way in accounting education When you’re committed to excellence, you’re willing to be bold. You innovate. You stake out new ground. You lead. As one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious accounting programs, we have built a reputation for excellence, a culture of innovation, and a legacy of leadership. In this year’s annual report, you’ll read about how our commitment to excellence, innovation, and leadership serves our students, the academy, and the profession. You’ll see how our legacy of “firsts” is much more than points in time or historic milestones. It’s the foundation and the building blocks of a program whose faculty has a mindset and a vision for moving accounting forward. We established a PhD program in 1936, a Center for International Accounting in 1962, and a projects-based curriculum in 1997—not to be first, though we were, but because we saw opportunities to advance accounting education and we acted on them. We established our online master’s in accounting (iMSA) program in 2017 for the same reason. Now, with nearly 500 iMSA students and 250 alumni, we can see how increasing access to our premier accounting program is making a difference. We continue that action-oriented approach through our innovative data analytics curriculum, our inclusivity initiatives, our research symposia, and more. It’s this vision and commitment that draws the country’s and the world’s most talented accounting students and faculty to Gies College of Business and that continues to serve our evolving profession. That’s what leadership means. That’s what we take pride in at Gies. \ Theodore Sougiannis Interim Head, Department of Accountancy
LEGACY OF FIRSTS
For more than 80 years, our department has been the place for serious scholars to train for the accounting professoriate. Our reputation as a leader has been built on the program’s success in: • Building a faculty with deep and broad expertise across research topics and methods to train the nation’s most promising young scholars • Developing a rigorous curriculum and mentorship program that challenges and supports those young scholars • Preparing generations of professors whose work as educators and researchers make an impact in the profession
“Because Gies is home to the
country’s #1 ranked faculty in accounting research, I have the opportunity to learn from experts across topics and methods who guide me and support my success.
BETHANY BRUMLEY, PHD ’22
396
Total number of PhDs awarded in accountancy at Illinois
”
Leadership in teaching excellence Our students benefit from a faculty that has decades of experience as practicing profesionals, scholars, and educators. In one class, students may be taught by a world-renowned audit researcher; in the next, they may learn from a tax practitioner with 20 years of experience. The expertise is different, but the commitment to teaching excellence remains constant.
EXPERIENCE TAX-
TAX+
RATE
+ _ > %
0
.
=
LEGACY OF FIRSTS
72
Total faculty members in our Department of Accountancy, the largest accounting department in the country
33/430
33 specialized faculty members bring 430 years of professional accounting experience to the classroom
23:1
Undergraduate student-faculty ratio
trains students to tackle “Gies real-world problems. Expert faculty teach practical applications of traditional accounting concepts, which make Gies graduates consistently high performers in our firm.
”
Our faculty have long been legendary leaders in the field and dedicated teachers in the classroom. The department has recruited the top minds in accounting since its founding, a fact that was recognized when the Accounting Hall of Fame was established in 1950 and five of the first 30 inductees were Illinois professors. Practical experience has always been valued as well. In fact, three of the first six faculty members in accounting won gold or silver medals for their scores on the CPA exam. That emphasis on building a faculty of scholars and practitioners committed to excellence in teaching continues to set our department apart and prepares Gies students for a bright future.
KEVIN BROWER, ’98, EY ILLINOIS AUDIT NETWORK LEADER AND GLOBAL CLIENT SERVICE PARTNER
Experience is a great teacher. Our specialized faculty include talented professionals like those featured here who bring decades of practical, real-world insight to the classroom. Left to right, from top: Brian Hamm, Clinical Assistant Professor, 23 years in financial accounting Cindy Steward, Clinical Assistant Professor, 32 years in financial accounting and 11 years in teaching Dawn Kink, Clinical Assistant Professor, 30 years in audit and assurance Gerlando Lima, Teaching Assistant Professor, 16 years in financial accounting and 18 years in teaching Gregory Davis, Lecturer, 23 years in managerial and financial accounting John Hepp, Clinical Assistant Professor, 27 years in public accounting, FASB, and government, and 12 years in teaching Julia Shapland, Senior Lecturer, 10 years in audit and tax and 21 years in teaching Susan Pachera, Clinical Assistant Professor, 27 years in auditing and accounting policy Tim Reierson, Clinical Assistant Professor, 33 years in audit and assurance
Leadership in inclusion At Gies, we are committed to creating an inclusive environment where diverse voices are welcomed, valued, and empowered. We do this by eliminating barriers, embracing new approaches, and providing mentorship and support. We also combine our robust recruitment efforts with innovative programming initiatives, such as the Accountancy Leadership Academy, the ACCY Opportunities program, and the iMSA. Together these initiatives help us better serve students from underrepresented populations.
Accountancy Leadership Academy ALA is a one-semester enrichment course for students who have had limited exposure to the accounting profession. The course provides a real-world view of the opportunities available for students and focuses on the leadership and soft skills needed for success. ALA students hear directly from professionals in the field and build technical and communication skills through case studies and interviewing and networking assignments.
ACCY Opportunities The ACCY Opportunities program offers talented underrepresented minority MAS candidates the financial support and career assistance needed to reduce the barriers to success. With full-tuition support, mentorship from faculty and alumni, and the Academy for Accounting Excellence and Innovation (our online academic resource), ACCY Opportunities prepares these students for success.
iMSA Our online master’s in accounting (iMSA) increases access to a career in accounting for all students by offering a flexible, affordable, fully online graduate degree from one of the nation’s top-ranked programs. By enabling students to learn at their own pace from their own home, the iMSA creates opportunity and builds a more inclusive community of learners.
Abisola Oladigbo ACCY Opportunities Fellow MAS 2021
Eduardo Rodriguez ACCY Opportunities Fellow MAS 2022
Bringing more perspectives to the table
200%
Increase in the number of students in the Accountancy Leadership Academy from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021
18%
Of current iMSA students are from underrepresented minority populations
300%
Increase in number of students accepted to the ACCY Ops program, including students from HBCUs
13%
Of all accounting students are from underrepresented minority populations
Raven Overton-Price ACCY Opportunities Fellow MAS 2021, Cohort Leader
LEGACY OF FIRSTS WILLIAM L. CAMPFIELD GRADUATES FROM ILLINOIS, BECOMING THE FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN THE NATION TO EARN A CPA AND A PHD IN ACCOUNTING Our department has a long history of creating opportunity for underrepresented students, including Frederick Ford, who came to Illinois in the 1940s because he did not have options to study accounting in his home state of Missouri, and William Campfield, who earned his doctorate here in 1951 to become the first Black American to earn a PhD and a CPA. We were also the educational home of other pioneers in the profession, like 1955 graduate Lester McKeever, one of the first 100 Black Americans to become a CPA, and Sybil Mobley, who in 1964 became the first and only Illinois accounting student to complete her PhD in two years and was the founding dean of the School of Business and Industry at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
“As the largest and one of the
oldest accounting programs in the country, our department’s history includes a longstanding and continued commitment to creating opportunity for diverse students.
”
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARTIN PERSSON, ACCOUNTING HISTORIAN
Leadership in advancing the profession
Our reputation for excellence in accounting research and education moves the profession forward. It starts with our faculty, who bring expansive expertise, deep intellectual curiosity, and a commitment to engaging today’s thought leaders in conversations that inform the future of the profession.
1
#
Research faculty in the country BYU ACCOUNTING FACULTY RESEARCH RANKINGS
236
Attendees participated in our 2021 Young Scholars Symposium sponsored by PwC
16
Biennial Illinois Tax Research symposia have been held, the last several in partnership with Deloitte Tax
24
Biennial Illinois Audit Research symposia have been held in partnership with KPMG Associate Professor Michael Donohoe is the department’s leading tax researcher and an RC Evans Data Analytics Fellow. Since joining Gies in 2011, he has received several awards for research and teaching excellence, including the Illinois CPA Society’s Outstanding Educator Award and Poets&Quants Top 50 Undergraduate Professor.
A prolific researcher, Professor
Associate Professor Laura Wang joined
Research Assistant Professor Joseph
Michael Williamson has earned
our faculty in 2014 and was named
Yun is director of the Data Science
the #1 ranking in experimental
the Best Early-Career Researcher
Research Service and a Center
managerial accounting research from
in Management Accounting by the
for Business Analytics Fellow. His
BYU and an Impact on Management
American Accounting Association
research focuses on novel data science
Accounting Practice Award in 2020
in 2019. She holds the Fred and
algorithms, user-centric analytics
from the AICPA. He has also served
Virginia Roedger Fellowship in
systems, and societal considerations of
the College as director of our
Accountancy and received an Impact
AI-based marketing. He has an NSF grant
PhD program and was associate
on Management Accounting Practice
to study the spread of misinformation
department head from 2017 to 2019.
Award in 2020 from the AICPA.
about COVID-19.
“By creating an opportunity for dialogue between
practitioners and scholars, our symposia improve the relevance and quality of research and move the profession forward.
”
2016
First Emerging Management Accounting Symposium held
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR DEVIN WILLIAMS, CO-CHAIR, ILLINOIS AUDIT SYMPOSIUM
LEGACY OF FIRSTS
In our Department of Accountancy, we’ve long believed in the meeting of the minds—the power of serving the profession by finding ways to bring stakeholders together to share their expertise. In 1961, we did that by hosting the first International Conference of Accounting Education. We continue that commitment today by creating opportunities for collaboration through our tax, audit, management accounting, and young scholar symposia and consortia. There is no better way to consider new ideas than to share them with others. By bringing together scholars, practitioners, and regulators who present and provide feedback on timely topics, leading-edge accounting research is advanced, and so is the profession.
Leadership in curriculum As a curriculum innovator, we deliver accounting education in bold, unexpected ways. That was true in 1936 when we became the first university to offer a PhD program in accounting. That remains true this year, as we mark the 20th year of our integrated BS/MAS program and the fifth year for the University of Illinois-Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Analytics.
Strong, Practical Foundations There is a direct line from the introduction of Project Discovery, a revolutionary projects-based curriculum, in 1997 to the 2001 launch of the integrated BS/MAS fifth-year program. Twenty years later, we continue to build on that strong foundation of practical, relevant, comprehensive career preparation. Through our MAS, MSA, and iMSA programs, we offer top-ranked graduate accounting education that is STEM-designated and provides advanced training in data analytics.
CPA Readiness Our programs have always been ahead of the curve in preparing future CPAs, not only for the exam but for success in the profession. That commitment becomes even more important with proposed changes to future exams and with more than 70% of current CPAs expected to retire in the next 15 years. It’s a commitment that comes from a forwardthinking faculty who design curriculum to match a changing profession.
LEGACY OF FIRSTS
The Data Analytics Difference
When Sandra Lozano decided to study accounting at Illinois, she didn’t know she would be in on the ground floor of a new approach to accounting education. For her first two years, the classes were traditional lectures with homework assignments, a mid-term, and a final. But with the launch of Project Discovery in 1997, Lozano was given a choice—continue the traditional classroom approach or choose the new project-based curriculum.
Businesses are clamoring for professionals who know how to extract decision-useful information from complex data. We prepare students to be those decision makers through our innovative data analytics curriculum and our leadership in developing and sharing that curriculum through the University of Illinois-Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Analytics. In 2022, we will launch an Accounting Data Analytics Campus Graduate Certificate that will provide working professionals with a convenient, online opportunity to develop the data analytics mindset needed for success in the evolving profession.
At a recent webinar, Assistant Professor Kim Mendoza explained how Gies prepares accounting professionals to be data-driven decision makers through a leading-edge curriculum in data analytics.
She chose Project Discovery, which emphasized concepts, not just technical tasks, and principles, not just spreadsheets. It focused on active learning, writing across the curriculum, problem solving, and teamwork, which Lozano, a partner at KPMG, says was great training for the real world. “You had to learn to adapt, collaborate, communicate, and think in terms of what you could do to best help the team succeed. It was an innovative approach that has now become universal.”
“Project Discovery students graduated with strong technical skills plus an added layer of problem-solving and communication competencies that prepared them for the ambiguity of accounting.
Curriculum that raises the bar
2
3
”
CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MIKE LULLO ’88, RETIRED AUDIT PARTNER, DELOITTE
#
#
Graduate accounting program in the nation
Undergraduate accounting program in the nation
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
7
Concentrations in the graduate curriculum
GiesBusiness.illinois.edu/accountancy