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Popularity of accounting grows

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The popularity of accounting programs is on the rise at colleges across the nation.

Larry Rittenberg, a professor of accounting at the University of Wisconsin, said UW’s accounting program is seeing increased demand.

“There seems to be an increase,” Rittenberg said. “Accounting has gone down for a number of years, but all of our courses seem to be filling up and there is increased demand at the beginning level, which helps us judge whether or not there is a big increase in accounting.”

There does not seem to be one primary reason why accounting programs are seeing unprecedented success. Accounting professors at Wisconsin attribute the increased enrollments to growing job markets, the corporate accounting scandals, and a depressed economy.

“It would be unfortunate to say it’s because of the accounting scandals, but there is something great about the kids that grow up in Wisconsin,” Rittenberg said. “The part that’s great about those individuals is here’s an opportunity to straighten out some things that were wrong and clearly we have had graduates who have really always been on the side of doing things right. It’s a great chance to contribute and improve a profession.”

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the University of Chicago saw enrollment in students taking accounting rise from 3,028 in the 1999-2000 school year to 3,211 in 2001-02.

The University of Texas at Austin watched its accounting enrollment balloon 52 percent while the Universities of Southern California and Michigan at Ann Arbor have seen enrollment increases in accounting programs of 30 percent and higher. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the graduate enrollment has increased over 400 percent.

Jerry Warfield, a UW professor of accounting, said the added interest in accounting is not limited to accounting majors, but also includes non-business oriented students.

“I think there is a renewed appreciate for the importance of accounting,” Warfield said. “We’re not only seeing this in the business school, but we’ve seen a blip up in the accounting classes we offer for non-business students. I think all these market crises have gotten everybody’s attention and refocused on the importance of accounting and auditing.”