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Desperate for More Accounting Professors, the AICPA Is Literally Paying People to Take the PhD Track

professor with bag

I dunno if you guys heard but the profession is getting old. Just in case all the liver-spotted Cryptkeepers haunting accounting firm halls didn’t give that fact away, we have almost daily reminders from the AICPA that CPA exam candidate numbers are down and future accounting grads are in need of new professors to take the place of the old ones once they start dropping off en masse. The situation is desperate as ever but not new.

PhD enrollments have bounced back from 2003 lows but they’re still, well, low. Hopefully the AICPA’s new scholarship will help.

The William (Bill) Ezzell Scholarship was created to honor Bill’s passion for the next generation of CPAs and continue his legacy by providing financial assistance to CPAs pursuing their PhD. He believed the best way to encourage the next generation of CPAs was to put educators in the classroom with relevant and recent real-world experience.

Eligible applicants must meet the following criteria:

  • CPA required
  • Have minimum three years of professional accounting experience, with a portion of that experience being within the last three years at the time of enrollment
  • U.S. citizen or permanent resident (green card holder)
  • Earned an undergraduate or a master’s degree in accounting
  • Either a GMAT score of 650 or higher (must be less than five years old) or in good standing within current PhD program
  • Intend to teach and research at a U.S. AACSB-accredited university upon graduation
  • Have either:
    • Applied to a full-time accounting PhD program and awaiting word on acceptance
    • Received acceptance into a full-time accounting PhD program
    • Matriculated in a full-time accounting doctoral program and pursuing appropriate coursework

For more information on the The William (Bill) Ezzell Scholarship, visit ThisWaytoCPA. DO IT FOR THE KIDS.

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