Graduate Accounting Education After CPA Licensure Reform

Cowan, Hyatt and Filzen’s work details efforts to address the accounting pipeline problem, which are increasingly centered on eliminating the 150-hour CPA requirement or reforming it to allow two years of professional experience to count towards CPA eligibility. Many states now support substituting additional work experience for the extra academic credits; however, some argue this is shortsighted, warning that lowering educational standards may do little to solve the underlying challenges.

Their paper cites many factors that may be contributing to the shortage, including demographic trends, starting salaries, stereotypes, difficulty, the perceived lack of work-life balance in the profession and the daunting prospect of taking the CPA exam.

The trio’s work explores changes to the 150-hour rule and provides some alternative avenues that could provide a more comprehensive and systematic fix for the accounting industry’s pipeline problem.