The Rap on Accounting Education

Johnson & Johnson, which is among a fairly small group of large companies — another is General Electric — with aggressive rotation training programs for entry-level finance and accounting workers, hires many more such employees than the typical corporation. A majority of graduates are sucked up by the insatiable needs of the public accounting firms.

IMA speaks critically of the public accountancies' "high-contribution-margin model" and claims it is responsible for colleges' heavy focus on auditing. In an article last October in the institute's Strategic Finance magazine, IMA chief executive Paul Sharman called that focus "tunnel vision." In short, the firms bill out young, low-earning employees' time at highly profitable rates. And they need to replenish the ranks constantly because young accounting professionals typically see two to six years of public accounting as the path to a corporate career.

That means the firms are extremely aggressive recruiters on college campuses, which further encourages schools to tailor curricula toward their needs. "Until we alter the mental model of accounting education ... we will not see a meaningful decrease in the number of errors in publicly issued financial statements," IMA wrote to the Treasury Department auditing committee.

Editor's Note: On Friday, see what college accounting professors have to say on these issues.

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