A Makeover for Accounting and Finance
Grant fuels transformation
A $400,000 grant from the Ernst & Young Foundation is helping Bentley boost the number of promising students who pursue undergraduate degrees in accountancy and finance. The foundation’s University Fund underwrites the groundbreaking Continuous Curriculum Innovation Initiative, which began in fall 2009.
The funds support new course materials, accounting resource technology, and an accounting lab assistant program for high-achieving students. Matching contributions from Bentley alumni employed at Ernst & Young are expected to bring the total to $515,000.
High Expectations
The current model, used at schools across the country, introduces students to accountancy in their sophomore year, by which point they may already have chosen a different major. Another standard practice is to teach accounting and finance in stand-alone courses, without the context that demonstrates the critical role of these disciplines in the business world.
“Today’s employers have high expectations for students coming out of business programs, with ethics and accuracy at the forefront,” says Mark Nixon, who chairs the Accountancy Department at Bentley. “They expect accounting and finance professionals to absorb new material, rules, procedures and principles on a regular basis and often in a non-linear fashion.”
The new curriculum aims to draw top students of the millennial generation to the field, by providing their first exposure to business courses through the unique lens of accountancy and finance.
“Accountancy and finance are deeply connected, so we’re going to present them in an integrated way,” explains Senior Lecturer in Accountancy Karen Osterheld, who is part of a faculty team that redesigned the General Business core curriculum. “A two-semester course will be driven by a storyline that follows a fictional group of college graduates who are developing a wind turbine business. We’ll discuss both the finance and accountancy aspects of each topic.”
Executive Perspective
Expanded technology tools include the Ernst & Young Accounting Resource Portal, which features the most current accounting research and databases. In addition, Ernst & Young executives will take an active role in the Bentley classroom, serving as lecturers and providing video presentations about the business case under study.
“We’re very excited to sponsor this major curricular innovation, and to partner with Bentley faculty in the classroom to present a practitioner’s perspective,” says Neil DeAngelis ’80, an audit partner at Ernst & Young. “Transforming the context within which students learn accounting principles and business concepts will provide our industry with graduates who have a more practical understanding of these inter-related areas. The result is future employees who are well positioned to excel in our firm and in the business world.”
The University Fund furthers Ernst & Young’s commitment to higher education with significant, sustainable investments at schools where the firm actively recruits. Bentley joined four major state-supported research universities in receiving the support through a national competitive process.