Touro College
Graduate School of Business
Contact:
Barbara Franklin
Director of Communications
212-463-0400 ext. 5530
barbara.franklin@touro.edu
For Immediate Release
New York, N.Y., July 27, 2009 - Touro College’s Graduate School of Business will, for the first time, offer a master of science degree in accounting this September, at both its downtown Manhattan location at 65 Broadway and at Touro’s Midwood campus at 1602 Avenue J in Brooklyn.
The master’s program in accounting is being administered by the Graduate School of Business; however, it is being offered at the Avenue J campus as a convenience to those students living in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
The program was created as a result of New York state’s new guidelines that make it mandatory for those who take the Certified Public Accounting (CPA) exam to have 30 additional credits on top of their undergraduate credits in accounting, according to Professor Dick Williams, program director at the Graduate School of Business. As of August 1, 2009, New York state will require candidates for the CPA exam to have completed 150 semester hours in lieu of the current 120-hour requirement.
“As the rules and regulations that govern accounting have become more complex, New York has required more training for CPA candidates,” said Dr. Michael Williams, dean of the Touro College Graduate School of Business. “This program will ensure that our graduates will be well-prepared for the demanding CPA exam and a promising career in the field of accounting.”
Currently, Touro offers bachelor’s degrees in accounting and other business degrees at its undergraduate campuses, he said, adding that the new master’s program will allow students to continue their education at Touro.
Barry Bressler, dean of undergraduate business at Touro, said that the master’s degree in accounting “promises to continue the superlative education provided by Touro College, as evidenced by the outstanding scores of Touro undergraduates on the CPA exam.”
Recent performance data from the 2007 national CPA examination, Bressler pointed out, indicates that Touro ranked first in the nation on the Regulation portion (Taxation and Law) of the CPA exam. In addition, 87 percent of Touro students taking the exam passed, a figure greater than any other institution in the United States.
“In New York, more Touro College students passed all sections of the CPA examination than students at any other college in the state,” he said. “This continues a trend of more than a decade of Touro College CPA scores ranking among the very best in the country.”
“More and more of our graduates are seeking to become entrepreneurs,” Dean Williams added, “and having an advanced degree in accounting will most definitely enhance their careers.”
Professor Charles Snow, who along with Professor Gary Kleinman will be teaching in the master’s program, said the new program is essential for students today because accounting has undergone many changes in the last 30 years and continues to evolve. He pointed to continuous changes in tax law and regulation; new technologies; and the way in which the U.S. does business overseas.
The courses in the program include: “Advanced Auditing,” “Financial Markets,” “Ethics in the Accounting Profession,” “Accounting Theory,” “The Impact of Technology on Accounting,” and Managerial Economics.” Students will then have a choice of four of the following six elective courses: “International Accounting,” “Internship in Accounting,” “Advanced Topics in Taxation,” “Financial Statement Analysis,” “Forensic Accounting,” and “Advanced Issues in Managerial Accounting.”
Touro College’s Graduate School of Business’s exceptional practitioner-oriented faculty, high-tech business school center--and unparalleled location in the heart of Wall Street--positions it as an international, urban business school of choice.
Touro College has experienced phenomenal growth since its founding in 1971, and is currently educating approximately 17,500 students at locations in New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Jerusalem, Moscow, Berlin and Paris. Touro College continues to have a profound impact on the lives of its students and on the Jewish and general communities. For further information on Touro College, please go to : http://www.touro.edu/media/ .
Touro College
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New York, N.Y. 10010
www.touro.edu