The School of Accountancy seeks to continuously improve by assessing student, faculty, and program-related outcomes.  The following information is provided to describe the efforts over the past year by faculty and staff to assess the effectiveness of the program’s mission and goals and to measure learning outcomes.

Student Learning Outcomes

Graduates from the School of Accountancy will:

1. Have mastered the key competencies¹ of the accounting profession.
   1. The professional role played by accountants in society providing and ensuring the relevance and integrity of financial and other information;
   2. The ethical and regulatory environment for accountants;
   3. Business processes, analysis, and decision making;
   4. Internal controls and security;
   5. Risk assessment and assurance for financial and non-financial reporting;
   6. Recording, analysis, and interpretation of accounting data for decision making;
   7. Project and engagement management;
   8. Design and application of technology to financial and non-financial information management;
   9. Tax policy, law, and compliance for individuals and enterprises.
2. Be given opportunities to communicate orally and in writing in professional situations and to participate in group learning.
3. Use library, Internet, and research databases as resources to gather information.
4. Understand relevant political, economic, social, and international issues in the accounting profession.

1 AACSB Accounting Accreditation Standards

Assessment Results and Implications – Developing & Interpreting Direct Assessment

As a result of active faculty involvement in assessment since Spring semester of 2006, the learning outcomes above continue to be refined and developed through primary trait analysis (PTA).  Since the Fall of 2005, some data have been collected to determine and describe what students know about a few of our fully-developed outcomes.  A more detailed description of the learning outcomes is shown in the Assessment Plan for 2007 at the following URL:  http://programs.weber.edu/assessment/participants/assessment%20plan/acctng_undergradap.htm     
The results of data collection were discussed by faculty based on a presentation shown below.

As a result of the discussion among faculty, it was determined to continue to refine our outcomes and our data collection methods.  More data is needed before beginning to make significant adjustments to our curriculum and delivery.  However, it is clear that small, incremental changes are taking place in how faculty approach assessment and how outcomes are taught.

Major Field Test Results

Weber State students majoring in business have scored above their peers at other institutions for the past two years.  All GSBE majors are required to complete Accounting 2010 and 2020 as part of their degree preparation.  These courses in financial and managerial accounting appear to be providing students with an understanding of accounting concepts such that they score well above their peers at other institutions taking the major field test during the same period.

Assessment Results and Implications – Indirect Assessment

Advisory Council: To ensure that the program’s outcomes are appropriate and meaningful, an active advisory council of accounting community professionals met twice last year, in October and April. Key agenda items were the School of Accountancy’s assurance of learning efforts and accreditation status, moving the MAcc program to the WSU Davis Campus, computer software used in industry, Meet the Firms on the Golf Course, BAP, discussion of the school’s mission, goals, and learning outcomes, Career Services, and scholarship money.

Meet-the-Firms: Another form of assessment is the level of participation by firms in the annual Meet-the-Firms night.  In the Fall of 2006, 29 firms participated, of which 15 were public Accounting firms.  Many students attended the event to network and begin or continue the process of finding a job in the profession. Feedback from firms was received on ways to improve the night and improve the students’ preparation for the evening. 

Meet-the-Firms on the Golf Course: During the Fall of 2006, 27 firms sent 62 representatives to the golf outing, including 4 national and 13 local/regional firms. 62 students attended.

The level of participation in these two events by the firms in the region suggests that they find the WSU Accounting program to have sufficient quality to warrant their recruiting efforts.

Recruiting: In 2005-06, there were 79 recruiters actively engaging accounting majors.  In 2006-07, the number of recruiters jumped to 97. The following table lists those firms recruiting our accounting majors at WSU.

Placement: The following tables illustrate how students were placed in key segments of the accounting profession based on exit survey responses.

Undergraduate Students

Graduate Students

Exit Surveys: To understand the current state of performance related to the program’s outcomes and to gain insight into the experience of graduates at Weber State, exit surveys are completed each year by the School of Accountancy’s graduates. Each year, the surveys yield meaningful information pertaining to student opinion. The results of these questions are shown below (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being equivalent to “strongly agree” and 5 being “strongly disagree”).

2006-07 Results – Overall Satisfaction: The 2007 exit survey found that students continue to agree that their experience in the program was pleasant and one that they would recommend.  On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being equivalent to “strongly agree” and 5 being “strongly disagree”, the following scores were achieved.

Undergraduate Students

Exit Survey Question	Baseline: 2001	2005	2006	2007
My overall experience in the undergraduate program in the	1.975	1.76	1.69	1.64
School of Accountancy was very pleasant.
I would recommend the undergraduate accounting program	1.875	1.55	1.58	1.59
to my friends.

 

 

 

 

Graduate Students

Exit Survey Question	2006	2007
My overall experience in the MAcc program was very pleasant.	1.66	1.53
I would recommend the MAcc program to my friends	1.59	1.44

 

 

2006-07 Results - Student Outcomes: To add detail to the overall satisfaction students experience in the program, the exit survey collects responses to 33 additional questions that can be grouped into the program’s student learning outcomes.

            Undergraduate Students

Outcome/Year	Exit Survey Scores
	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Knowledge Acquisition:	1.900	1.885	1.710	1.735	1.89	1.82	1.95
Critical Thinking Skills:	1.625	1.485	1.835	1.780	1.80	1.68	1.56
Information Skills:	1.864	1.796	1.817	1.854	1.98	1.98	1.80
Professional Values:	2.000	1.500	1.710	2.050	2.00	1.85	1.75
Communication Skills:	1.913	1.970	2.130	2.105	2.54	2.16	2.08
Contextual Awareness:	2.162	2.187	2.213	2.204	2.18	2.10	2.01
Interpersonal Skills:	1.925	1.730	2.080	2.210	2.24	2.19	2.00

 

 

 

 

 

The table illustrates that the students' perception of the program is strong in helping students acquire knowledge, develop critical thinking skills, information skills, and professional values. It is also evident from the scores and their year-to-year trends that further emphasis needs to be placed on providing additional opportunities for students to improve communication and interpersonal skills and gain contextual awareness. In summary, students agree that the student outcomes are being met, however, differences among the variables suggest that program improvement, as always, is needed. The program will continue to assess these variables and adapt to counter unfavorable trends. It is important that direct measures be implemented to assess what students know to validate what they think they know. With new learning outcomes in place, the exit surveys will be revised to reflect these outcomes and to measure students’ perception of how well they achieved them.

Graduate Students

Outcome/Year  (Sorted by 2007 scores)	Exit Survey Scores
	2006	2007
Critical Thinking Skills:	1.66	1.69
Information Skills:	1.71	1.69
Communication Skills:	1.67	1.75
Professional Values:	1.79	1.88
Knowledge Acquisition:	1.73	1.91
Interpersonal Skills:	1.97	1.93
Contextual Awareness:	2.32	2.27

 

 

 

 

 

2006-07 Results – Faculty and Program Support Resources: For the purpose of improvement, the faculty, course administration, and support resources of the program are assessed by students in the exit survey.  Students are asked about the faculty’s availability, classroom environment, gender, religious, and ethnic biases, respect for students and the administration of the course.  The program support staff and resources are rated in terms of availability, helpfulness, and the ability to answer questions.  Faculty and program support resources were given the following favorable ratings over the past several years:

Undergraduate Students

Outcome/Year	Exit Survey Scores
	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Faculty	2.024	1.858	1.867	1.849	1.83	1.75	1.76
Course Administration	2.04	1.69	1.8	1.8	1.92	1.80	1.85
Program Support Resources	2.085	1.752	2.034	1.940	1.89	1.86	1.86

 

 

 

 

Graduate Students

Outcome/Year	2006	2007
Faculty	1.79	1.83
Course Administration	2.08	1.97
Program Support Resources	1.81	1.68

 

 

 

 

2006-07 Results - Career Services: Graduates in Accounting have reflected some neutrality toward career services on their survey scores.

            Undergraduate Students

Outcome/Year	Exit Survey Score
	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Career Services	2.798	2.583	2.17	2.557	2.59	2.88	2.81

 

 

            Graduate Students

Outcome/Year	Exit Survey Score
	2005	2006	2007
Career Services	3.16	2.61	2.61

 

 

Clearly, in 2001 career services was a concern to students, and thus to faculty and administration.  In 2003, students improved their stance on how career services helped them. However, students leaving WSU in 2006 & 2007 offered a survey score that suggests a need to look at the way these services are made available to students. One possible explanation for the lower score is that with a baccalaureate degree in Accounting, students will find that salary reports show a starting salary that is nearly $7,200 below the regional average and $6,500 below the national average of $46,718. The salary differences may be accounted for by the fact that Utah is a state in which the CPA license will not be granted without 30 hours beyond the bachelor degree. Many of the program’s baccalaureate graduates move into the Master’s of Professional Accounting program (In the Fall of 2006, 34 (59%) of the 58 masters students were from WSU’s undergraduate program). Therefore, as they graduate with a baccalaureate degree and complete exit surveys they respond neutrally to questions about career services, thus yielding a lower score. However, as more emphasis is placed on getting internships prior to the MAcc program, we expect that undergraduate students will have greater interest in how the Career Center can serve them.

The Masters of Accounting students also provide exit survey data regarding Career Services. The survey score among graduate students in 2007 was 2.61, on a 1 to 5 scale, for Career Services. This suggests that Masters level students were more satisfied with the outcomes of the Career Services process than the undergraduate students. Efforts were taken to improve Career Services during the 2005-06 year and even more recently in 2007. The GSBE now has its own Career Center with dedicated resources. The results of these efforts may reflect an improved exit survey score regarding Career Services for MAcc students, but not undergraduate students. Salary may become a factor in future ratings however.  WSU graduates with a MAcc degree have an average salary that is over $2,400 below the regional average and nearly $2,500 below the national average, a gap that has narrowed since last year. The average MAcc salary offer was $46,848, nearly $6,700 higher than the BA/BS offers.

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