Department of Accounting

 

General Information

The primary purpose of accounting is to measure and communicate financial information about profit and non-profit organizations to interested persons. Emphasis within the accounting program is placed in transmitting conceptual knowledge and practical applications of accounting theory and concepts as they relate to satisfying the information needs of a disparate group of users.

The wide selection of courses in the accounting department enables the student to become familiar with such fields of specialization as taxation, financial accounting, managerial accounting, auditing, and non-profit accounting. The Council of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants has stated that the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certificate should be recognized as evidence of basic competence of professional quality in the discipline of accounting. A focus of the accounting program is to prepare students to take the examination required for certification as Certified Public Accountants (CPA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), and Certified Financial Manager (CFM).

Students majoring in accounting are required to take a combination of business and accounting related courses, for the purpose of enhancing their knowledge of the various business functions. All accounting majors take courses in management information systems (MIS), business communications, management, marketing, finance, business law, and economics. The accounting program also provides prerequisite courses for admission to graduate study.

Accounting Program

Graduates with this major comply with the education requirement in lieu of three years public accounting experience required by the 1992 Public Accountancy Act before an individual may sit for the Oklahoma Certified Public Accountants' examination.

Students graduating with an Accounting major before December 2002, comply with the educational requirements of the Oklahoma Accountancy Act (OAA) to sit for the CPA exam. Students graduating in May 2003 and after must complete 150 hours, including 42 hours of accounting to sit for the CPA exam. While the total number of hours required for a BS with a major in Accounting remains at 24, ECU offers sufficient additional course work to meet the OAA 150 hour requirements.

For graduation, a minimum grade point average of 2.25 is required in the 38 hours of courses with ACCT prefixes.

Students majoring in Accounting must take at least 40 percent (50 credit hours) of their course work in non-business courses. However, BUCOM 3133, MIS 1903, ECON 2003, and ECON 2013 will be considered non-business courses for this requirement.