PROPOSAL TO MODIFY AND RENAME AN EXISTING MASTERS …



PROPOSAL TO MODIFY AND RENAME AN EXISTING MASTERS PROGRAM

Effective Fall Semester 2007, the School of Global Management & Leadership began offering classes in its newly approved Masters of Accountancy & Applied Leadership (MAAL). For a variety of reasons — including, perhaps, an unfortunate acronym — the program as initially structured is not a success. The first enrollment cohort was only 6 students, of which 5 were from China, Malaysia or Zimbabwe. While we value the program enrichment that foreign students contribute, it is clear that we missed our objective of primarily serving the state of Arizona and the U.S.

After carefully reviewing our experience to date, and consulting with the professional accounting community (including the SGML Accounting Advisory Board), we have determined several reasons why the program has not been, and is unlikely to be, a market success. Based on that information, and building on our success with other accounting programs on this campus, we propose to (1) modify the existing program and (2) to change the name to better reflect the underlying purpose of the program and improve its marketability. We propose these updates without disturbing the underlying financial or support structure of the degree program.

Proposed Modifications

In a rush to respond to the loss of the West MBA degree, the MAAL degree program was initially conceptualized as an M.S. degree with significant concentrations of theory in both Accounting and Leadership. Although it is a distinctive academic blending targeting a professional community seeking its next generation of leaders, we found upon implementation that the MAAL program structure we chose is not as appealing to the professional community as we thought it would be. Both our outside advisors and potential customers told us the program needed more professional content to meet their needs.

Accordingly, we seek the following modifications:

1. Increase the professional nature of the program by increasing the amount of technical accounting content.

2. Reduce (but not eliminate) the emphasis on leadership.

3. Modify the target market by aiming at students without an undergraduate accounting degree.

4. Change the degree name to Masters of Professional Accountancy (MPAc).

Benefits

a. Makes the program more consistent with professional market needs in Arizona and the U.S.

b. Retains the unique incorporation of leadership content in an accounting masters program.

c. Addresses a new market of potential students not previously served, thereby reducing overlap with the W.P. Carey School masters program in accountancy.

d. A new name that is more reflective of the modified program and consistent with similar programs names in the U.S.

Concluding Comment

These modifications will also facilitate development/introduction of an integrated 5-Year Accounting Program (3+2) we are designing to meet the 150-hour educational requirements of prospective Arizona CPAs.

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