Walton College Accounting Department Ranked in Top Programs

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Public Accounting Report, the independent newsletter of the accounting profession, has ranked the accounting department of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in 9^th place in its 2009 Top 25 Undergraduate Programs – Group II Category and 10^th place in its 2009 Top 25 Graduate Programs – Group II Category.

More than 1,900 accounting educators from 361 colleges and universities participated in this year’s survey. The groupings were based on the number of teaching professors at an institution with Group I being the largest, Group II mid-size and Group III the smallest.

Vernon Richardson, chair of the accounting department, said, “We have been ranked for the first time ever by this publication. This caps our best year ever. We are happy to be recognized for the accomplishment of our faculty, our staff and especially our students.

“In spite of the economy, jobs in accounting are plentiful, and the career opportunities with an accounting degree, especially with the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) designation, are widespread in many industries, governments, and nonprofits,” he added.

For 28 years, the Public Accounting Report has conducted an annual survey of accounting professors. The survey has traditionally measured the professor’s perceptions of the top accounting firms in terms of future outlook, client services, technical reputation, staff training, career opportunities, compensation, diversity and ethics. In recent years, the newsletter added undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs to its survey.

According to the newsletter, the survey seeks to measure the perceptions accounting professors have regarding the accounting programs they feel most consistently turn out students capable of some day attaining partner status in a large accounting firm and is not intended to be scientific.

In Group I, the University of Illinois at Urbana Campaign ranked the top undergraduate program and the University of Texas at Austin ranked the top graduate programs.