UIC Accounting Club Banquet

Professor Abel Galvan gave a short speech on leadership and his advice to the students was “stay humble.”  What a refreshing piece of advice!  He shared a great quote with the students:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
– John Quincy Adams

Accounting department head Somnath Das said “A 16% increase in demand for CPAs is expected by 2016 due to increases in regulations and changes in accounting standards.”

I talked extensively with the dean of the business school and the head of the accounting department about their biggest problem, the severe shortage of accounting PhDs.  I first learned about this 3-4 years ago and was disappointed to hear the problem remains.  Interestingly, this problem does not exist in other business disciplines such as management, marketing, finance, etc.

One of the biggest causes of the PhD shortage is compensation.  Depending on a person’s credentials, and where the university is located, pay for a professor in his 30s or 40s is $120,000 – $180,000.  Partners in CPA firms earn $200,000 to $800,000, averaging $350,000.  The AICPA program to fund 120 new PhDs has helped, but there is a long way to go, and a solution is nowhere in sight.