The Practitioner-Professor Link

Entry-level CPAs are expected to practically walk on water. To guide them, they need a way to bridge the worlds of academia and practice and gain a much broader range of competencies than ever before. High-quality entry-level accountants cannot be produced from a handful of courses alone. At Montana State University (MSU), Bozeman, a continuing partnership between practitioners and professors is an effective way to help future accounting professionals down from the ivory tower into the real world. For more than two decades the accounting faculty has actively engaged practitioners in the educational process. They have developed an integrated, team-based program that revolves around practitioner input and frequent student and faculty interaction with practitioners who are willing to share their valuable expertise and insight. Drawing from their own experiences, they suggest how practitioners can become more involved in accounting education.