Any accounting professional who looks at the list of the top 25 universities for academic accounting research over all disciplines will recognize the top-tier programs, which have made the list repeatedly over the past 12 years: Texas, Illinois, Stanford—and yes, BYU.
However, one of these accounting programs is not like the others. Every single university in the top 25 offers an accounting PhD program. All, that is, except BYU Marriott’s School of Accountancy (SOA). And not only is the SOA in the rankings—it’s No. 1.
How can an accounting program that focuses on undergraduate students publish more accounting research than any other university in the world? That’s the magic of the SOA.
The PhD Prep Track's Unprecedented Success
The School of Accountancy’s mission is “to (1) provide a world-class accounting education that is spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, and character building and leads to lifelong learning and service, and to (2) produce rigorous scholarship and thought leadership that improves the accounting discipline and society.” This mission matches the university’s Inspiring Learning Initiative to combine outstanding teaching with equally excellent scholarship.
Most higher education faculty view such a challenge as impossible: a professor can teach or do research. And since the popular phrase is “publish or perish” and not “teach or perish,” it is easy to guess which one gets more attention at most universities.
Yet while the SOA may not have a PhD program and doctoral students to help faculty research efforts, the school does have a PhD Prep Track. This innovative track replaces several MAcc courses with other classes geared to help students prepare for eventual doctoral-level material, including advanced statistics and econometrics.
Conceived in the mid-1990s by current School of Accountancy director Doug Prawitt, the PhD Prep Track was launched on a large scale in 2000. Two years later, seven graduating students from that initial group entered accounting PhD programs at Stanford University, University of Chicago, Cornell University, and other top universities. The new track was a success out of the gate.
“The prep track was the absolute best thing I could have done to prepare for the PhD program,” says Cade Cardwell, a BYU Marriott SOA graduate now pursuing a PhD at University of Massachusetts Amherst. “Already having a solid understanding of what accounting research was before beginning my PhD really helped me hit the ground running and gave me a great intellectual base to build on in my program. I am so grateful I was at BYU because I honestly do not think I would be pursuing a PhD now if I had attended any other school.”
Current Emory University PhD student Hayden Gunnell found the PhD Prep Track answered his thirst for new knowledge and provided opportunities to assist faculty in their efforts. “When I was in the junior core, I asked lots of questions that were ‘beyond the scope of the class’ and one of my professors, Melissa Lewis-Western, suggested I might consider getting a PhD,” says Gunnell. “I probably drove her crazy in class, but I’m so glad she suggested it. I had the opportunity to serve as a research assistant for two instrumental mentors, Steve Smith and Doug Prawitt, both of whom provided valuable research experience and built my excitement and curiosity about research.”
During this time, Gunnel recalls, “I basically lived on the fifth floor. Professors always kept their doors open and were happy to discuss research ideas. I have vivid memories of popping into various offices to ask about a new idea or an econometrics question, and everyone was excited to discuss research. I think that is something really special at the SOA: there is a culture of intellectual curiosity that inevitably begets productive research activity.”
While students benefit from working closely with faculty on research projects, faculty members in turn can with one stone kill the two birds of teaching and researching by receiving help from and mentoring PhD Prep Track participants.
“Students have been the biggest influence on research productivity in the School of Accountancy,” says Jake Thornock, John and Nancy Hardy Chaired Professor. “It’s this virtuous cycle where we interact in the research process with students and the students bolster us and require us to get out of our comfort zones. It’s one of these rare and beautiful win-win situations where we can help them, and they help us, and we all benefit from it.”
Students are often even featured as coauthors in published research. Currently, Thornock, Prawitt, and fellow faculty David Wood, Bill Tayler, Steve Smith, Melissa Lewis-Western, Michael Drake, and Mark Zimbelman each have multiple papers involving current SOA students and PhD Prep Track alumni.
Wood, the Glenn D. Ardis Professor at BYU Marriott, credits the PhD Prep Track and the SOA faculty with helping him find the right career path as a student. After earning his doctoral degree at Indiana University, Wood returned to the SOA and has earned multiple awards from the university, the American Accounting Association, and others for his scholarly contributions.
“I did two accounting internships, and I just didn’t fit with what I was doing,” Wood remembers. “Thankfully, I recalled learning about the prep track, and I started thinking about a PhD in earnest. I worked as a research assistant for Doug Prawitt and was able to talk with many of the other faculty about pursuing a PhD and life as an academic. Through my classwork, my research assistantship, and those conversations, I realized that professional academia was a good match for my career and life goals. I’m very grateful BYU faculty were willing to take time to invest in me and help me have meaningful research and teaching experiences so I could learn about this career.”
As of this year, about 200 PhD Prep Track students have graduated from approximately 75 different PhD programs and have gone on to teach at nearly 100 universities in half a dozen countries. In honor of the track’s success, the SOA received the Innovation in Accounting Education Award from the American Accounting Association in 2007.
Over the last thirty years, the prep track and the faculty who have led it have had a tremendous influence in the profession, at BYU, and in individual lives across the world. Over the most recent 10-year period, nearly 250 former BYU students completed PhD degrees in business management and administration, more than enough to claim the No. 1 spot in the nation. The school that ranked second-highest for future business doctorates was the University of Pennsylvania— home to the famous Wharton business school—which produced 95 PhDs in that same period. BYU produced 250 percent more, with the SOA being the biggest contributor to this overall BYU ranking.
This impressive ranking reflects the SOA’s focus on research: “Our leaders,” says Prawitt, “have emphasized to us that one of the reasons we are a research school—and maybe the primary reason we’re a research school—is so we have the opportunity not just to push back the boundaries of knowledge, but so we can involve our students in the process of pushing back those boundaries and help them understand the process of learning more about the world and discovering eternal truth.”
A Collaborative Culture
Behind the policies and programs, the mission statements and mentoring, is a culture unique to the SOA that makes it all work.
“At the School of Accountancy, we do not view the world as zero sum,” says Lewis-Western, associate professor and Robert J. Smith Fellow. “It’s not like ‘If I win, then you lose.’ We really believe collectively that we can all win. And as we collaborate and work together, the tide rises for everyone. And that’s not just about research,” Lewis-Western continues. “I think that’s what we believe as disciples of Jesus Christ— everyone can be a part of the community.”
That community also includes the efforts of alumni: networking, providing resources, and—most importantly—directly helping faculty collect information. Something as simple as filling out a survey can make a difference. “One of the biggest challenges for researchers is access to data,” Prawitt says. “For our professors who do experimental research, access to accounting professionals in various fields who are willing to complete questionnaires and surveys is vital. We know our alumni are often very busy, but one of the best ways they support the efforts of the SOA is by responding to requests to complete these questionnaires and surveys.”
Ultimately, of course, the SOA’s success is built on intellectual, hard-working faculty members who have bought in to a culture of uncovering truth, engaging with students, and spreading new knowledge through research.
Vita after vita of SOA faculty lists publications and awards contributing to their fields. In addition to a No. 1 ranking as a school, many individual SOA faculty also have top national rankings.
In the most recent academic year alone, BYU Marriott’s SOA faculty contributed to 28 publications with hundreds of working papers. The SOA culture has a lot to do with that number.
“Whatever we do, whether it’s teaching, whether it’s service, whether it’s research, we have this amazing culture in our department of giving your best and really trying to rise to the occasion,” Thornock says. And fellow faculty members agree: “When people believe deeply in and are fully committed to the mission of their institution, they’re willing to give their all to contributing to that institution’s success—that’s what’s happening here in the SOA,” Prawitt says.
“Research is a creative process,” adds LewisWestern. “It’s thinking about things in a different way. If you feel a lot of pressure to be competitive or closed off, I think it reduces your ability to be creative. In contrast, if you feel inspired by your colleagues, it amplifies your ability to be creative. I think we have a culture that lifts and inspires each other, and it translates to research productivity despite the fact that our faculty probably spends less time on research than an average faculty member at another university because we spend more time with students.”
Hannah Judd, a BYU SOA alum who just graduated with her PhD from Texas A&M University, has accepted an offer to return to BYU Marriott as a faculty member this fall because of the culture she experienced as a student. “I always appreciated how much all the faculty supported me,” she shares. “They imbued me with confidence that I could be successful at pursuing a PhD while supporting me in any choice that I made, whether that ultimately led to a PhD or not. I always knew that they cared about me as a person and had my best interests at heart.” And the opportunity to join such a remarkable faculty was one she was happy to take. Judd continues, “I want to be a part of a group of faculty members who are collaorative and supportive of one another, who value high-quality research in tandem with high-quality teaching and mentorship, and who actively work to advance BYU’s mission and create a Christ-centered, spiritually enriching environment.”
Nicole Donahoo, a current PhD student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also appreciates the SOA faculty: “The examples of the professors at BYU have greatly influenced me. As a student I was impressed by not only their intelligence and their accomplishments in academia but also their testimonies of Jesus Christ and their genuine care for their students. I admired their ability to succeed in research and develop themselves and the students around them. I think about their examples often and aspire to be like them as I craft my future career. They have given me an excellent standard to aspire to!”
This standard has made BYU Marriott’s School of Accountancy the most well-rounded accounting program in the world. “BYU charges us to be excellent and most BYU faculty try to meet that lofty challenge,” Wood says. “Each successive generation of faculty builds on the legacy of past faculty efforts, and we continue to advance and improve. The ‘secret sauce’ is that line upon line, here a little and there a little, faculty members make BYU better. Couple that with talented students and generous alumni, and we’ve built something pretty special. I think it will only continue to become greater as we continue that same path.”
