Be among the best in the nation
Consistently ranked in the top 20 by Public Accounting Report, Trulaske's PhD in Accountancy offers world-class faculty and an exceptional doctoral education. The purpose of the PhD in Accountancy is to prepare students for academic careers by introducing them to state-of-the-art archival research and providing them the opportunity to participate in joint research projects with our leading-edge faculty. The program requires a minimum of 72 credit hours of graduate work beyond the baccalaureate degree. The PhD in Accountancy typically requires five years to complete.
Students are admitted to the PhD in Accountancy program on a full-time, residential basis only and typically work 20 hours per week as a research or teaching assistant during the academic year. Students receive a financial package that includes a stipend of at least $35,000 per year, as well as a full tuition waiver, health insurance subsidy, and professional development funds. Contact Professor Ken Shaw, School of Accountancy Director of Graduate Studies, to learn more about the financial support package and application process.
What to Expect in the PhD Program
Degree requirements
Prerequisites for admission to the PhD program are a minimum of two calculus courses (and preferably three), an introductory statistics course, and intermediate-level microeconomic theory. Students typically enroll for ten hours a semester, and the course work requirements are completed in two and one-half years (five semesters). The sixth semester (winter of the third year) is spent preparing for and taking the comprehensive written examination, and the fourth year in writing the research thesis. The University of Missouri requires 72 total hours of course work beyond a baccalaureate degree. Specific course work requirements are: 18 hours in doctoral-level accounting research courses; 15 hours of course work in supporting theoretical fields; 18 hours of course work in research tools (statistics, research design, quantitative methods); and a minimum of 14 hours enrollment in ACCT 9090: Research in Accounting.
Accounting requirements
Students are required to take five research seminars: accounting research methods (ACCT 9460); financial accounting (ACCT 9466); auditing (ACCT 9444); international accounting (ACCT 9419), and tax accounting (ACCT 9457). In addition, students enroll in ACCT 9401 while completing the first-year summer paper (see below).
Supporting field requirements
Students are required to take 15 hours in supporting fields. There is flexibility in tailoring each student's program, though generally the choices come from the fields of economics, finance, organizational studies, or cognitive psychology.*
*All programs of study must be approved by the student’s doctoral committee.
First-year summer paper
During the summer after their first full year in the program, students work on an original research paper under the direction of a faculty mentor. Students enroll in ACCTCY 9401 for three credit hours, identify a research topic, and obtain approval from a faculty mentor by June 1. Students must present their papers to School of Accountancy faculty and PhD students by September 30 of their second year in the program. The School of Accountancy PhD Policy Committee evaluates the paper and presentation as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Students who do not complete the first-year paper and presentation will be dismissed from the program.
Satisfactory completion of the first-year summer paper and its presentation are not contingent on obtaining statistically significant results. However, these papers must contain the elements of top-tier academic research: Development of a research question and its importance, an in-depth literature review, research design, and empirical results.
Annual Reviews of Satisfactory Performance and Progress
All PhD students are evaluated annually to assess their progress in the program. The evaluations for first- and second-year students are conducted by the PhD program coordinator. The evaluations for dissertation-stage students are conducted by their dissertation committee chairs.
Research and Teaching Assistantships
During the academic year, students are assigned to work as research assistants for faculty members in the department. These assignments allow students to develop proficiency in research methods and often lead to coauthored projects with faculty.
Another important objective of the PhD program is to provide candidates with the opportunity to develop classroom instructional skills. To achieve this objective, doctoral students are assigned first as teaching assistants and then later as instructors to teach undergraduate courses. These assignments require candidates to plan, conduct, and administer one course section per semester. During their time in the PhD program, students typically have the opportunity to teach two times. To prepare for the teaching experience, doctoral students attend various teaching-related events sponsored by the School of Accountancy, the Trulaske College of Business, and the University of Missouri.
Research Workshop
The School of Accountancy has a weekly research workshop that meets on Friday mornings to discuss current research-in-progress presented by faculty and PhD students, and by invited faculty from other universities. Attendance is required at these seminars, and written critiques of selected papers may also be required.