– Public Accounting Report’s Annual Survey Ranks Accounting Programs Among the Nation’s Best

– Prestigious Rankings are Indicators of Post-Grad Success in Real World of Business

February 2, 2011 – The University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business has landed among the nation’s elite for its undergraduate and graduate accounting programs.

The honor comes from the 29th annual professor’s survey, published in the 2010 edition of the prestigious Public Accounting Report (PAR) newsletter. The university’s accounting programs placed 22nd in the top 25 undergraduate programs and was tied for 25th with Miami University (Ohio) in the graduate category.

“This is a significant milestone for the David Eccles School of Business,” says Dean Taylor Randall. “This honor shows we can hold our heads high as one of the country’s top business schools offering a word-class accounting program for undergrads and grads alike.”

Martha Eining, director of the school of accounting, also sees the recognition as a well-earned compliment to the faculty and students. “This underscores the high-quality research and real-world wisdom and experience of our professors and is also high praise for the scholarship and post-graduate success of our students,” she says.

Among other factors, the PAR’s annual survey is based on professors’ rankings of candidate programs on a scale of one to 10 regarding each school’s consistency in turning out students capable of someday obtaining a partnership in an accounting firm. The David Eccles accounting students indeed have a bright future, Eining says.

“Despite the economy, we have achieved 96 percent placement for our masters of accounting students. It should come as no surprise, then, that David Eccles educators, students and alumni are making a difference with emergent research, innovative learning techniques and impressive professional achievement,” she says.

More than 1,700 accounting educators participated in PAR’s annual survey of accounting professors. The participation figures for 2010 mark the fourth consecutive year with more than 1,000 accounting educators participating.