African American Accounting Majors and the 150-hr Requirement

Abstract

The study provides information on African American accounting majors’ views regarding 150-hr issues. The authors collected data from 152 students at two schools. Students at one school supported the requirement while those at the other school did not. However, students believed that the 150-hr requirement enhances the quality of certified public accountants (CPAs) and results in better prepared CPA candidates. On the other hand, many students were concerned with the opportunity cost associated with securing additional hours. Students were most interested in additional undergraduate courses in accounting and business, preferably offered via a double major or minor, to meet the requirement. Students rated the Master's in Accountancy as the preferred graduate degree.

Keywords:

• African-American
• CPA exam
• 150-hr requirement

Notes

1. According to information provided by the AICPA, 22 of the 150-hr jurisdictions now allow a candidate to sit for the exam with 120 hours. This has caused many to rethink the whole issue of a 150-hr requirement and could affect views. Nonetheless, the 120–150 debate is beyond the scope of this study. When this research was done, a 120–150 option was not available in the two states in which participants resided.

2. Bierstaker et al. (2005) did concentrate on minorities. However, African Americans only comprised 4.4% of their sample. Also, only 62.5% of their participants reported accounting as their intended major or concentration.

3. At present, 120–150 jurisdictions continue to require 150 hr for a CPA license.

4. References in this paper to 150 undergraduate hours also include the path in which undergraduate students are allowed to complete a limited number of graduate courses with an official undergraduate status.

5. Blacks and African-Americans comprise 11% of bachelor's enrollments (7.18% of bachelor's accounting graduates) and 5% of master's enrollments (4.14% of master's accounting graduates). Graduate percentages are not presented in the report but were requested and received on August 14, 2008 from Denny Reigle, Director of Academic and Career Development Team at AICPA.

6. Candidate Performance on the Uniform CPA Examination (NASBA, 2007) indicated that 84% of all first-time candidates held a bachelor's or less as their highest degree.

7. Both business programs had Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation. However, the institutions and accounting programs were different in many respects. Institution One was a larger HBCU in the Carnegie Foundation Research category offering a bachelor's, master's, and PhD with an accounting concentration, whereas University Two was in the Carnegie Foundation Master's category offering only the bachelor's in accounting. We selected these schools because of institutional differences and 150-hr experience differences (much experience vs. little experience). We believe that differences are sufficient to generalize our findings within limits (see limitations in the final section).

8. Combined results are discussed unless differences between institutions are significant (p ≤ .05).

9. As indicated at the bottom of Table 7, there was a difference between the two Universities. The Master's in Accountancy was offered by University 1 and not by University 2. Thus, differences might be attributable to familiarity with the degree.

10. Schools with graduate programs may cross list several accounting courses for either undergraduate or graduate credit. Accreditation agencies normally allow a limited number of undergraduate and graduate courses. For example, AACSB International's Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business Accreditation (2008) indicated that normally the majority of credit hours counted toward specialized master's degree fulfillment should be earned in classes reserved primarily for graduate students.