School of Accountancy and Taxation

• Certificate (Not Applicable)

   

• Associate Degree (Not Applicable)

   

• Bachelor Degree

  At the end of their study in either Accounting (BS) or Finance (BS), students will

  • Understand the professional role played by accountants in society.
  • Effectively utilize the accounting cycle.
  • Understand the audit processes.
  • Be proficient with accounting information systems and controls.
  • Understand tax law and compliance.
  • Effectively use research tools.
  • Be globally informed.

The School of Accounting & Taxation creates a synergy between accounting, business, and economic theory and contemporary practice to prepare working professionals and full-time students for careers in a global, culturally diverse, information-driven economy.

Three principles are central to our mission:

• Education - The first, and foremost, is fostering learning through excellent teaching, individual attention, and scholarship, which develops, assesses, and disseminates good practice.
• Research - The second is the application of theory to practice through applied research and scholarship, and the utilization of applied research to further learning in the classroom and through co-curricular activities.
• Community - The third is advancing contemporary practice and creating learning opportunities by contributing to the accounting profession and to business and the community.
• The field of accounting encompasses the well-recognized profession of public accounting including auditing, management advisory services, and tax services; professional careers in industry such as management accounting (controllership), cost accounting, and internal auditing; careers in various governmental agencies and other accounting and business-related fields. (Accounting is defined as the process of gathering, classifying, interpreting, and presenting financial and non-financial information for decision-making purposes to diversified user groups.) 

School of Accounting & Taxation Website

The assessment plan for the School of Accountancy is comprised of activities that refine and develop learning outcomes consistent with our mission, collect data which are indicators of learning, and gather data that indirectly assess the program’s achievements.

The plan to assess the program and student learning is best indicated by the following high-level process and value-chain diagrams:

 Assurance of Learning Cycle

 Accounting Education Value Chain View

 Assessment Plan
 

The latest guidance from AACSB suggests an AoL program that measures student performance less frequently while focusing more efforts on meaningful closing the loop activities. The School of Accounting and Taxation has adjusted our AoL schedule accordingly. We last collected direct measures of student performance in Spring 2020. We will collect again in Spring 2022. In the interim, we are implementing closing the loop activities (curricular changes) that we hope will result in improved student performance across our learning objectives.

Moving forward, we will collect direct measures of student performance and identify closing the loop activities in Spring 2020. We will implement closing the loop activities during Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Fall 2021, and assess the effectiveness of closing the loop activities in Spring 2022. The cycle will then begin again. 

The School of Accounting and Taxation collects indirect measures of student performance in addition to direct, outcome-based measures of student achievement. The department meets regularly with our Advisory Board. Board members provide feedback regarding our curriculum, including suggestions for potential improvements based on ongoing changes in the accounting profession. Additionally, our graduating students complete an exit survey. Students answer questions addessing the degree to which they feel they’ve met the learning objectives identified in our curriculum map. The accounting faculty discuss these indirect measures during department meetings to identify possible curriculum improvements.  
 

• 2021-2022

  1) Review and comment on the trend of minority students enrolling in your classes (particularly lower-division, GEN Ed) and in your programs.

  Seventy-seven percent of undergraduate accounting students identified their ethnicity as “White” during the 2020-2021 academic year. The percentage of White students has consistently been around 75% since 2012-2013. Eleven percent of students identified their ethnicity as “Latinx” during the 2020-2021 academic year. Over the last several years, the percentage of Latinx students has been around 11%. The percentage of Latinx students has grown since 2012-2013 when only 8% of students identified as Latinx.  

  The Goddard School has made a commitment to building a community that values equity, diversity, and inclusion (https://weber.edu/goddard/DEI.html). The faculty of the School of Accounting and Taxation are active participants in these efforts. Additionally, our faculty regularly attend recruiting events at local high schools in an effort to increase enrollment of minority students in our classes.

  2)    What support (from enrollment services, advising, first-year transition office, access & diversity, etc.) do you need to help you recruit and retain students?

  The School of Accounting and Taxation is well supported by the Goddard school’s advising team and marketing manager.

  
  3)    We have invited you to re-think your program assessment. What strategies are you considering? What support or help would you like?

  The latest guidance from AACSB suggests an AoL program that measures student performance less frequently while focusing more efforts on meaningful closing the loop activities. The School of Accounting and Taxation has adjusted our AoL schedule accordingly. We last collected direct measures of student performance in Spring 2020. We will collect again in Spring 2022. In the interim, we are implementing closing the loop activities (curricular changes) that we hope will result in improved student performance across our learning objectives.

  The School of Accounting and Taxation collects indirect measures of student performance in addition to direct, outcome-based measures of student achievement. The department meets regularly with our Advisory Board. Board members provide feedback regarding our curriculum, including suggestions for potential improvements based on ongoing changes in the accounting profession. Additionally, our graduating students complete an exit survey. Students answer questions addressing the degree to which they feel they’ve met the learning objectives identified in our curriculum map. The accounting faculty discuss these indirect measures during department meetings to identify possible curriculum improvements.  

  
  4)    Finally, we are supporting our Concurrent Enrollment accreditation process. Does your program offer concurrent enrollment classes? If so, have you been able to submit the information requested from the Concurrent Enrollment office? Staff from OIE will reach out to you in the next few months to assist in finalizing that data submission as well as gather information for concurrent Gen Ed assessment.

  Our program does not offer concurrent enrollment classes. 

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2019-2020

  1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:

  • Any first-year students taking courses in your program(s).
    • First-year students may be enrolled in ACTG 2010 and/or ACTG 2020. These courses are part of the General Education and Business Foundation courses required when declaring a major within the Goddard School. The School of Accounting and Taxation is careful to assign these courses to faculty members best suited to supporting first-year students. 
    • The School of Accounting and Taxation has created a mentorship program to retain students once they have selected accounting as a major. Students are assigned a faculty mentor when they enroll in ACTG 3110. Students are required to meet with their faculty mentor once during the semester to discuss their progression through the accounting major and their career options upon graduation. While students are only required to meet with their mentor once, they are encouraged to do so more often and to maintain the relationship until graduation. Students must prepare a summary of their meeting with their faculty mentor. Students overwhelmingly provide positive feedback about their mentorship meeting.

   

  • Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s)
    • All accounting students are encouraged to participate in the Freshman Sophomore Business Club and in Beta Alpha Psi. Participation in these clubs builds a sense of community among accounting and business majors. Additionally, these clubs provide opportunities for students to network with potential employers and engage with guest speakers who provide insight regarding business and accounting careers. Faculty members often attend Beta Alpha Psi meetings and events, providing students an opportunity to get to know their professors or future professors in a relaxed atmosphere outside of the classroom. 

   

  2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’.

  • The School of Accounting and Taxation discusses the Assurance of Learning process at least annually during faculty meetings. The department emphasizes that assessment should not be course-based assessment, but rather curriculum-based assessment. If students are not meeting the expectations established in the Assurance of Learning program, the department reviews a curriculum map to review where concepts are introduced, reinforced, and applied. A closing the loop activity might be necessary in the course that collects the data for the assessment point, but closing the loop activities might also be necessary in other courses to improve success at the assessment point. The department reviews its entire curriculum to determine appropriate closing the loop activities and when these activities should be introduced.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2017

  No report was submitted, conducted program review.

• 2016

  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • During the past four years, several new members have joined the faculty.  We have starting reviewing learning outcomes and changed faculty assignments for assessment based on this faculty change.  We will now work to have a greater portion of the faculty involved in assessment.  Revisions will be on going.

   

  2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed.

  • Besides the methods mentioned above, the major way that we assess students graduating from the undergraduate accounting program is through the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Exam. We are able to track how our students are doing on the CPA exam following graduation.  We also give our graduating seniors a survey. One of the questions deals with employment upon graduation. This is an indirect way to measure whether the students have learned the material taught in the program and whether an external source (the employer) values and rewards the students learning by offering them a job.

   

  The full report is available for viewing. 

• 2015

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

  • Each learning outcome owner has an acute sense for student learning.With little doubt, assessment data increase awareness of both strengths and weaknesses in the program.As specific examples, students have shown marked improvement in learning outcome 3, assessed in auditing.Learning outcome 4 continues a consistent track of achieved learning outcomes.Room for improvement exists at learning outcomes 2 and 5.

   

  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?

  • Assessment efforts are shared with the chair and are disseminated as needed.

   

  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • During the past three years, several new members have joined the faculty.  It, therefore, seems appropriate to review learning outcomes and spread assessment among a greater portion of the faculty.  Revisions will be on going.

   

  The complete report is available for viewing.

• 2014

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

  • Learning outcomes are largely being achieved.  Within each, however, faculty continue to process results and modify towards continual improvement.

   

  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?

  •  Learning outcomes are shared with all owners and non-owner faculty members.

   

  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • Over the next year, learning outcomes will be reevaluated to determine whether they are appropriate.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2013

  The Accounting Department conducted a 5 year program review with full self-study during the spring of 2013. Those results are presented along with the Annual Assessment. Please reference those documents for information that includes data for the 2012/13 academic year, as well.
  
  To view the full report select this link: Undergraduate Accounting 2012/13 Annual Assessment Report

2022-23

2017-18

2012-13