Master of accountancy coming here
DeSoto Center to get Ole Miss program
By Jimmie Covington_Contact_December 7, 2005
The University of Mississippi next year will expand its master's degree program in accountancy to DeSoto Center in Southaven, officials said Tuesday.
The addition of the program at the Southaven campus was announced by Dr. Morris H. Stocks, dean of the Ole Miss Patterson School of Accountancy, and Dr. Bonnie Buntin, the university's DeSoto Center dean.
Stocks said the first class will begin next fall, but interested students should apply in January. The process may be started through the university's web site: olemiss.edu.
"I believe we will be able to deliver the same quality program that we are delivering in Oxford," Stocks said. "Our faculty is committed to doing that."
He said Buntin started talking to him about 18 months ago about expanding the program to DeSoto Center, where overall enrollment has been growing steadily.
"Dr. Buntin thought we should offer the same opportunity to students here on this campus (as in Oxford)," Stocks said. "We have studied and debated among our faculty and we believe we can do it."
Buntin said, "We are excited about this addition."
Stocks said that in both Mississippi and Tennessee, people who seek to become certified public accountants must have 150 hours of college education. He said the university's bachelor degree requires 124 hours.
"If a student is going to go ahead and earn another 26 hours in college education, he or she ought to do it in a graduate program on a master's degree," he said.
The master's degree requires 30 hours.
Stocks said the classes at DeSoto Center will be offered one at a time. They will be held two evenings a week for about 21/2 hours each evening. Each class will be completed in about 61/2 weeks.
Stocks said no class will be a prerequisite to another, which will allow new students to enter at the start of any new class rather than having to wait for a new cycle.
Students would be able to complete the 30 credit hours of courses in about 18 months, he said. The program involves four required accounting courses, four accounting electives and two courses of approved non-accountancy courses.
With the addition of the new program, students will be able to go from their freshman year through the master's degree in accounting at DeSoto Center, Stocks said.
In obtaining a bachelor's degree at the center, students spend the first two years in Northwest Mississippi Community College classes and the junior and senior years in Ole Miss classes.
Initial enrollment in the new master's program is expected to be about 20 students.
"Accounting programs across the country are growing," Stocks said. "Our enrollment on the Oxford campus has continued to grow and we expect the same thing here."
He said a story in the Wall Street Journal identified accounting as the No. 1 major on college campuses.
-- Jimmie Covington: (901) 333-2010
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