Partnerships in Master of Accountancy Program Yields Additional Students from Other Universities

Written by Kathleen Poti, Master of Accountancy Student

The Master of Accountancy (MAcc) program at BGSU draws students from all over to participate in their program mainly because of its reputation and prestige. BGSU is one of 171 universities worldwide to hold the highest accreditation in both business and accounting programs. This accreditation is from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and has ranked BGSU in the top 2% of the world.   

One major aspect associated with the success of drawing students to apply to the MAcc program is the partnership agreements that Dr. Ken Snead, director of the MAcc program, has initiated. Some of the schools involved with the partnership program include Siena Heights, Bluffton, Heidelberg, and the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan. In order for the partnership to work, Dr. Snead meets with the candidate school’s deans of business and accounting chairs. From there, he pays significant attention to the school’s accounting and business curriculum to ensure that it will prepare the students for success in the University’s MAcc program. 

The partnership provides a full scholarship to the BGSU MAcc program offered to one outstanding student selected by the faculty of the partner school. The partnership scholarship waives the fee of tuition and also offers a stipend. Through this partnership agreement, Dr. Snead can advertise BGSU’s MAcc program on the partner school’s websites. Additionally, he is able to reach out to all students who applied for the scholarship and admit those qualified for MAcc admission, and also offer them partial scholarship offers. This partnership program has added 15 to 20 students from partner universities to the MAcc enrollment each year for the past few years.

Not only does BGSU add more students through the partnership agreements, but students at the partner schools benefit as well. The partner schools that participate in the program do not have a Master of Accountancy program established at their institutions, therefore it provides a way for the undergraduate students at those institutions to extend their education to the graduate level.  Also, those students from other universities who enroll at BGSU, network with a vast array of recruiters, including those from the Big Four firms, which come to BGSU to recruit. These employers come specifically because of the extraordinary reputation that our accounting and Master of Accountancy programs hold. They are eager to hire the MAcc students upon graduation because they are eligible to sit for the CPA exam. 

One of the partnership school students currently enrolled in the MAcc program, Jacob Huber, has this to say about the partnership program. "The partnership between BGSU and Bluffton University has personally benefited me with the opportunity to greatly expand my knowledge, as well as increase my exposure to potential employers exponentially. These are opportunities that I would not have been afforded without this partnership." 

The MAcc partnership has greatly contributed to expanding the diversity and number of students who participate in the BGSU program; this obviously gains the attention of potential recruiters looking to hire accounting students. In fact, the MAcc class of 2015-2016 has been the largest yet, and Dr. Snead expects numbers to increase for next year. The MAcc program director states, “These partnerships are beneficial to both parties involved and we are hoping funding will be available to add more partner universities.”

The BGSU MAcc program is the perfect advancement to an undergraduate career that gives students an additional 30 credits to be eligible to sit for the CPA exam. Not only does the program allow students to be eligible to sit for the CPA exam, it also helps to prepare students for the exam and dive further into specified accounting studies. The MAcc program allows students to design which classes they choose to participate in by offering three tracks - Accounting and Auditing, Information Systems Auditing and Control (ISAC), and Taxation. Students are required to pick one to two of the three tracks, and can take classes from the other track programs as well.