Fifth Year Maintenance Report - AACSB - The University of Texas at ...

Weaknesses: The most commonly cited weakness was student advisement andcommunications. There was a clear feeling on the part of the participants that the students werenot well enough informed about how to progress toward a degree in the most efficient manner.Also the opinion was expressed several times that students are missing out on opportunitiesbecause they are not well enough informed about professional and academic opportunities.A frequently mentioned issue was lack of depth in the faculty (not enough faculty to provideoverlap for class coverage) and the lack of sufficient faculty in general. This was coupled withthe lack of sufficient financial support to hire additional faculty members. On a related front,there was a feeling that the impending retirement of a large number of senior faculty was aweakness of the Department.Finally, lack of adequate parking, hardly an Accounting Department issue, was mentioned byabout every participant.Opportunities: The opportunities are largely reflected in the Department initiatives listedbelow. Frequently mentioned was the need for branding of the Accounting Department anddeveloping an advising function that would work only with accounting students. This advisingfunction would provide guidance on a wider range of issues affecting accounting students thandoes the College-wide advising function.There was an observation that because of the high demand among students for the accountingmajor there could be more selectivity. In the undergraduate programs this was reflected byseveral suggestions to restrict students who are marginal from the major or counsel out thosewho are too weak to complete the degree. On the graduate side, there was mention ofopportunities for a lock-step 150-hour program and for a daytime program for full time mastersstudents.A number of participants saw an opportunity for the Department to improve communicationswith students through the use of social media. Alumni communication through social mediawas also mentioned by several participants.Threats: The most common threat mentioned by the participants was the increasing number ofonline and local institutions offering accounting degrees including masters programs. Someparticipants expressed concern about how long the accounting job market will remain strong inthe face of the continuing recession. Again impending retirements of several faculty memberswas mentioned as a threat particularly in light of the budget constraints now in effect that limitacquisition of new faculty.Finally, there was recognition of the threat of increasing numbers of accounting majors can haveon the quality of the classes particularly at the principles level. Budget and hiring constraintswere seen to exacerbate this problemIII. Department of Accounting Strategic Initiatives.The Department of Accounting has established a list of strategic initiatives for the Department tobe achieved over the period 2011-2016. These initiatives are mission driven and result from theconsultative session conducted by the Department on September 16, 2011.1. Branding of the Accounting Department/ProgramThe Accounting Program at UTSA has an excellent reputation among local and regionalemployers for producing well prepared, highly motivated accounting graduates.Other programs in Texas ( UT-Austin, Texas A&M, Baylor) have higher profiles and are betterrecognized than UTSA.