Walton College Accounting Department Ranked Nationally

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The accounting department of the Sam M. Walton College of Business has been ranked among the top 25 programs in the country by the Commerce Clearing House’s Public Accounting Report. The accounting department’s undergraduate program was ranked in 11^th place in the publication’s 2010 Top 25 Undergraduate Programs – Group II Category. The graduate program was ranked 18^th in the Top 25 Graduate Programs – Group II Category.

“When you look only at the public institutions, we are ranked in 9^th place in the undergraduate programs, tied with the University of Minnesota, and 13^th place in graduate programs,” said Vernon Richardson, chair of the Walton College accounting department. “We are happy to be recognized for the accomplishments of our faculty, our staff and especially our students. Interestingly, we see that there are several accounting programs in top schools that are ranked below us.”

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.

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

For 29 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.

Commerce Clearing House, based in Riverwoods, Ill., is a company that provides leading tax and business law information and software solutions. Its products track, report, explain and analyze tax and related law in approximately 700 publications in both print and electronic form, read by professionals in tax, accounting, legal, human resources, banking, securities, insurance, government and health care fields.