Doctoral Program: Frequently Asked Questions
NATURE OF THE PROGRAM- How long does it take to complete the program?
- Do I have to live in Austin while I am in the Ph.D. program?
- What sort of courses are required?
- What about research?
- What sort of specializations can one pursue?
- Are Ph.D. students required to teach?
- What is the Program's placement success?
There is no set length to the Ph.D. program, because students vary in the time necessary to complete the coursework and dissertation phases of the program. The total program length is typically four or five years.
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Do I have to live in Austin while I am in the Ph.D. program?
In general, yes. The Program is based on intensive learning at the University of Texas at Austin, and does not offer any "distance-learning," commuting, or Internet-based options. The Program also discourages students from leaving Austin before the dissertation defense, as the most efficient and effective approach to a Ph.D. is to earn it in residence. For more on the Austin Community, click here.
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What sort of courses are required?
Please see the separate summary of the coursework phase of the Ph.D. program in accounting.
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What about research?
Research is a "hands-on" activity that one can learn more effectively by doing than by observing. Therefore, accounting Ph.D. students at the University of Texas at Austin complete three major research projects during the course of the program, as follows:
- First-year paper, which replicates prior research and gives the
new Ph.D. student an introductory exposure to conducting accounting research.
- Second-year paper, which pursues original scholarship and can lead
to publication, often in collaboration with a faculty member.
- Dissertation, in which the student evidences his/her individual ability
to initiate, conduct, analyze, and communicate original research in accounting.
What sort of specializations can one pursue?
An advantage of a relatively large research-active accounting faculty is that the University of Texas at Austin can offer its Ph.D. students a wide variety of potential specializations, guided by faculty experts across a wide variety of areas. These areas include all of the traditional topical subsets of accounting (i.e., financial accounting, managerial accounting, auditing / assurance, and taxation) as well as all of the traditional research methods applied in accounting (i.e., analysis of empirical-archival data, analysis of company-specific data, experimental / behavioral methods, and analytic modeling).
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Are Ph.D. students required to teach?
The Department of Accounting at the University of Texas at Austin recognizes that excellence in teaching is an integral part of an academic career in accounting. Accordingly, unless waived due to previous teaching experience, the Program requires Ph.D. students to teach an introductory course in accounting during one term, generally while concurrently taking a guided seminar on supervised teaching as one of the student's courses that term. If this experience evidences the student's teaching ability, there are no further teaching requirements in the Program. Otherwise, the Program can offer the student a second teaching experience along with consultation to address any areas needing improvement. The goal of this one-term teaching requirement is to ensure that all graduates with a University of Texas at Austin Ph.D. in accounting are proven teachers, while at the same time providing Ph.D. students with enough time and resources to build the research skills that are necessary to success in an academic career.
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What is the Program's placement success?
Consistent with the Program's top ranking in the 2004 Public Accounting Report survey of faculty members' evaluations of doctoral programs in accounting, the Program has enjoyed considerable placement success in recent years. For example, from 1999 to date, the Program's placements have included Carnegie Mellon University, Emory University (two placements), the University of Iowa, the University of Notre Dame, Stanford University, and the University of Wisconsin. Demand for well-qualified Ph.D. graduates in accounting remains strong, and salaries are competitive with those in many top business and professional occupations.
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