Accounting Program Receives STEM Designation
By Jonathan Petty,
Director of Enrollment Marketing and Communications –
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board granted official STEM designation to the Master of Science in Accounting program at Texas A&M University–Central Texas. The official designation recognizes the advanced work and focused curriculum that is standard in the TAMUCT program.
A&M–Central Texas is one of only three universities in the state to carry this designation for its master’s degree in accounting, joining Lamar University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Anthony Fulmore, Ph.D., chair of the accounting department at A&M–Central Texas, said the designation is confirmation that students are doing highly quantitative and technical work. Graduate courses heavily integrate accounting information systems, auditing, forensic accounting and data analysis. The advanced curriculum is specifically designed to address the evolution of accounting practices to more technical standards.
The STEM designation also means additional career opportunities for students who complete the program.
“It expands their career horizons,” Fulmore said. “The designation fundamentally changes how our credential reads to employers.”
Fulmore said job recruiters are looking for candidates with experience in areas such as analytics, internal auditing, risk assessment and more, leading them to filter search criteria for technical degrees.
“Our graduates now clear that filter, widening their field far beyond traditional public accounting into industry, government and the defense sector,” Fulmore said.
The STEM designation gives graduates from the program a “more powerful” market signal that they are ready for employment opportunities beyond the traditional accounting roles. And, Fulmore added, it comes at no additional effort beyond the standard TAMUCT curriculum.
The STEM designation also opens the potential for additional program funding and possible scholarship opportunities for students. Fulmore said that the designation is a testament to the direction that accounting programs should be taking to provide education relevant to workforce requirements.
“Accounting stopped being a paper-and-pencil profession a long time ago,” he said. “This STEM designation is simply the classification finally catching up to the highly technical, data-driven work our students are already doing.”
The Master of Science in Accounting is a 30-hour program offered either on campus or online.
