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Accounting enrollments keep climbing in Maryland

By Richard Rabicoff
MACPA Public Relations Manager

The corner is turned. The die is cast. The Rubicon is crossed.

Perhaps that's an overstatement, but CPAs and those who support them can only feel buoyed by the latest figures from the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC). The agency's annual Trends in Enrollment by Program report issued in May shows that the number of accounting majors at Maryland colleges and universities rose 17.4 percent.

Combined with the double-digit increase recorded last year, it would appear the momentum has finally shifted.

Even if the profession has not turned a corner, it has at least reversed a troubling trend. While enrollments do not approach the glory days, the Dark Ages of 1991-2001 — which saw a 45.6 percent drop in accounting majors — seem to have passed.

University of Maryland University College: Model for the future?

According to the MHEC enrollment report, the number of accounting majors at University of Maryland University College soared from 614 to 871 this year — a dramatic jump of 42 percent. This caps a series of growth spurts for the school, including last year's 19.5 percent.

"Most of our growth is in the online learning environment that enables adult learners to take courses anywhere at any time, giving them the flexibility needed to balance their work, academic and family responsibilities," says Brian Loughlin, CPA, accounting department chairman at UMUC. "There's also increasing recognition within the business community of the importance of reliable accounting information caused by the recent accounting scandals."

Loughlin also cites his program's offering of 19 different accounting courses, all but two of which are available online, and aligning the program with AICPA's "Core Competency Framework for Entry into the Accounting Profession."

With today's demographics and the influx of career changers and non-traditional students, UMUC may represent the wave of the future. But that doesn't explain the resurgence of accounting among college students in Maryland and nationwide.

What has turned the tide?

Enron and its aftermath evidently sparked renewed interest in the CPA. The accounting scandals portrayed CPAs as sophisticated, influential professionals, a far cry from students' traditional perception of the numbers-crunching hermit. Students and their teachers rightly regarded the ethical issues as symptomatic of corporate greed, not just the frailty of a particular profession.

The decline of jobs in the tech sector (which had lured so many away from accounting), the flexibility and stability of the CPA career, some improvement in starting salaries and the gradual acceptance of the 150-hour rule have also contributed to the turnaround.

But in Maryland, it's the CPAs themselves who have restored the profession's attractiveness to students. No one can better explain to students what CPAs do than CPAs themselves. Nearly 90 MACPA members regularly hit the campaign trail, talking up the profession in high school and college classrooms. CPA speakers appeared before more than 4,000 students this year and more than half of those surveyed said they would consider the CPA as a career. That's inspiration at its best.

Membership in the MACPA's Tomorrow's CPA program (which includes high school students through those preparing for the exam) has grown to 1,750 college students and candidates plus nearly 500 high school students. The association's aggressive recruitment program may already be paying dividends and the number of accounting majors is likely to continue its upswing.

The growth of student involvement in Tomorrow's CPA should, over time, yield a large pool of talented and savvy recruits, something that has been sorely lacking over the past decade. All hands will have to work together to ensure that the momentum continues. Enormous challenges remain: Some Maryland high schools have discontinued accounting courses, tech's star will inevitably rise again and salaries will have to keep pace with competing professions.

But for the first time in ages, the future is fun to contemplate.