What is a Master of Accountancy?

Earn your Master of Accountancy online from the Forbes School of Business and Technology® at the University of Arizona Global Campus. In this IACBE-accredited program, which has also received specialized accounting accreditation by the IACBE, you will evaluate how to research complex accounting issues using professional resources. Many traditional campus-based master’s in accounting programs require you to first successfully pass the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) exam before being admitted. Typical test preparation is rigorous, expensive, and time-consuming. The Master of Accountancy from the University of Arizona Global Campus is an online program that does not require you to take the GMAT exam for admission purposes, giving you a more affordable and flexible online master’s degree.

Accelerated 6-week courses
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Degree Completion Journey

Earn your Master of Accountancy online from the University of Arizona Global Campus. Learn to apply the principles of accounting to solve real-world problems. Designed for professionals, this graduate program develops your analytical and technical skills in accounting. You can also add a specialization to your master’s degree to provide further focus to your studies.

1

Year 1

  • This course is designed to introduce the student to Graduate Business programs, with emphases upon conceptualizing communication and communication processes in the context of organizations, management and career. Emphasis will be on technology, theories and models, qualitative communication research and presentations.

  • This course involves in-depth study of specific laws and practices as related to contracts, the Uniform Commercial Code, commercial paper, secured transactions, real and personal property, estates, and bankruptcy.

  • This course will study international economics with respect to the global aspects of supply and demand. This class will review and evaluate international trade theories, geographic trade patterns, globalization, multinational corporations, and international variations of corporate and national economic policies. By the conclusion of this class, the student will be able to compare and contrast international financial and trade frameworks, and describe the problems and challenges facing the multinational corporation.

  • This course focuses on analyzing and capturing real-world business transactions to prepare financial statements for external stakeholders. Topic coverage includes transaction analysis, the accounting cycle including financial statement preparation, and the specific accounting treatment. Other subject matter includes reporting requirements, and other considerations associated with current and long-term assets, current and long-term liabilities, and the components of stockholders’ equity.

  • This course demonstrates how to apply selected statistical techniques to a wide variety of problems and situations arising in the areas of business, economics, finance, management, social science, health, psychology, and education. Topics include graphical description of data; measures of location and dispersion; probability; discrete and continuous random variables; sampling distributions and estimation; confidence intervals and hypothesis tests; simple linear regression and correlation.

  • This course focuses on the development, presentation, and analysis of financial information to assist management in making better business decisions. Points of emphasis include cost behavior and allocation, methods of costing, cost-volume-profit analysis, planning and budgeting, financial statement analysis and performance measurement, and management decision making. Prerequisite: BUS 591.

  • This course explores advanced managerial and cost accounting topics as they relate to problem solving skills for managers. Topics include activity based costing, activity based management, cost of quality, theory of constraints related to capacity planning and new emerging practices that support management decision making.

  • This course focuses on the key elements of taxation for individuals, various types of business entities, and estates. Topics covered include tax regulation, research, compliance, and planning strategies for individual taxpayers. Students will also learn about pass-through entities such as partnerships and S corporations, and C corporations, including multinational companies.

2

Year 2

  • This course covers financial statement audits conducted under Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) with a strong emphasis on planning, risk assessment, procedures, documentation, and fraud prevention and detection. The course provides students with a sound basis in auditor responsibilities, ethical standards, and effective auditing techniques.

  • This course applies ethical theory, reasoning, and frameworks to the accounting profession through ethical decision-making models supported by various philosophies and cognitive processes. Emphasis is placed on real-world concepts including corporate governance, financial statement fraud, and audit integrity. Special consideration is given to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct and the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

  • This course will include a review of accounting information systems application controls and internal control. Topics include hardware and software concepts, application internal controls, internal control procedures, integrated audit software, generalized general ledger software, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) internal control requirements and required company and audit documentation.

  • This course will include the study of an entity reported as either a multinational company or an entity whose reporting obligations to stakeholders are located in a country other than that of the reporting entity. Conceptual and practical applications of accounting are investigated from a global perspective. Special emphasis is placed on managing multinational enterprises with respect to how accounting applies to global strategies and the key accounting issues that influence multinational decision making. In addition, a detailed investigation on the convergence of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are covered in this course. Also discussed are the effects of financial reporting, international taxation, and international financial statement analysis on a multinational reporting entity.

  • This course introduces specialized accounting principles applicable to state and local governments and other non-profit organizations. Emphasis will be on fund accounting and students will gain an understanding of the differences between private and public sector accounting.

  • This course is designed with an emphasis on developing research skills related to complex tax issues. The focus is on interpretation of tax law and finding support for various positions on difficult tax issues related to a variety of business, personal and estate tax issues.

  • This course expands on basic financial reporting concepts by focusing on complex topics including acquisitions, consolidation, intercompany transactions, partnership accounting, governmental and nonprofit accounting. Multinational accounting issues such as foreign currency, financial instruments, and segment reporting are also covered.

  • This course is designed to bring together knowledge gained from the previous program courses and allow the student to demonstrate how the various components of an accounting system work together. Broadly the course encompasses complex accounting concepts, financial statement reporting, taxes, risks, information systems, auditing, business law, and ethics.

3

Specializations

Program Requirements

To be awarded the Master of Accountancy degree, all students will complete 16 courses worth a total of 48 semester credits with a 3.0 minimum grade point average. The first 13 are core courses, followed by three courses that correspond to the specialization of your choice.

Students who submit official transcripts indicating that they have earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business, Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Economics, or have successfully completed undergraduate coursework in Accounting or Finance with a grade of “C” or higher, or graduate coursework in Accounting or Finance with a grade of “B” or higher will be exempt from the requirement to take BUS 591 Financial Accounting & Analysis.

Students who submit official transcripts indicating that they successfully completed undergraduate coursework in Statistics, Business Statistics, or Quantitative Methods with a grade of “C” or higher or graduate coursework in Statistics, Business Statistics, or Quantitative Methods with a grade of “B” or higher will be exempt from the requirement to take MAT 540 Statistical Concepts for Research.

Students who submit official transcripts indicating that they have earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance or have successfully completed undergraduate coursework in Accounting or Finance with a grade of “C” or higher, or graduate coursework in Accounting or Finance with a grade of “B” or higher will be exempt from the requirement to take BUS 590 General Cost.

Students who waive MAT 540, BUS 591, and BUS 590 are required to take 39 total program credits in order to meet graduation requirements.

Special Terms and Conditions

Successful completion of this program by itself does not qualify a student to sit for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination. All prospective students should contact individual state boards of accounting for additional information relating to licensure requirements (e.g., education and work experience and any potential restrictions, such as prior criminal convictions) prior to enrolling. A list of state accounting boards is available here: http://www.nasba.org/stateboards. Students seeking licensure or certification in a particular profession should carefully research the requirements prior to enrollment. Requirements vary by state. Prospective students also should regularly review the state’s policies and procedures relating to licensure as those policies are subject to change. The University of Arizona Global Campus does not guarantee that any professional organization will accept a graduate’s application to sit for any exam for the purpose of professional certification and graduates may have to complete additional coursework to be eligible to sit for certain professional certification exams.

Additionally, students may wish to seek a Certified Management Accountant designation. Information on the CMA exam can be found at their website (www.imanet.org). Students are advised that a degree program is different from an exam preparation course, and they may need more education in addition to work experience in order to successfully pass the examination.

Missouri Residents: Prospective students who wish to sit for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination in the State of Missouri must meet the following requirements:

  • A minimum of a baccalaureate degree
  • Minimum of 150 semester hours are required to sit for the exam
  • Minimum of 33 semester hours in accounting (at least one (1) course in Auditing and at least 18 semester hours of the accounting courses must be upper division accounting). Please note: Accounting Law and Business Law courses are not acceptable toward the accounting requirement regardless of the department in which they were offered.
  • Minimum of 27 semester hours in general business (e.g., marketing, management, economics, finance, etc.)

California Students: This program alone does not lead to licensure. In order to sit for the Certified Public Account (CPA) examination, a total of 150 semester credits must be completed, of which includes obtaining a baccalaureate degree. The University of Arizona Global Campus students who transfer in undergraduate general education credits may need to determine that they are meeting the requirements during their program of study. The completion of the University of Arizona Global Campus Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and its Master of Accountancy degrees do meet the educational requirements to sit for the CPA examination. Applicants must provide the California Board of Accountancy (CBA) with satisfactory evidence of having completed a minimum of 12 months of general accounting experience, a CBA-accepted ethics examination that must be passed within two years of submitting the CPA application, a criminal history background check by fingerprint via a Live Scan service and the completion of a Criminal Conviction Disclosure Form to disclose any misdemeanor or felony convictions. For additional details regarding the CA requirements for obtaining a CPA license, please visit: http://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/applicants/applbook.pdf.

Texas Residents: Prospective students who wish to sit for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination in the State of Texas should be aware that the state requires 15 credits of traditional face-to-face classroom education in order to qualify to sit for the CPA examination. Any online coursework completed at the University of Arizona Global Campus will not meet the traditional face-to-face classroom education requirement.

Certain degree programs may not be available in all states. While the University of Arizona Global Campus does not collect applicant criminal background, certain criminal histories may prevent students from obtaining licensure, certification or employment in their chosen field of study.

Quality Matters Certification

The Online Teaching Support Certification recognizes programs that require all online faculty to undergo training in best practices for online course delivery, provide faculty with ongoing pedagogical support, encourage faculty professional development to increase their knowledge and skill in online teaching, emphasize instructor availability and feedback to learners, and collect and use feedback from learners to improve online teaching. Learn More

The Online Learner Support Certification recognizes programs that provide all the critical student and academic services needed for learner success and use learner feedback to continuously improve those services.

Customize Your Accountancy Degree with UAGC Specializations

Delve into other areas of accounting with a specialization for your accountancy master’s program. You can look at how to identify, detect, and prevent accounting fraud or look into financial accounting and reporting. Your accounting specialization allows you to dig deeper into a topic that you are interested in and can help shape your career path. A specialization is required for graduation and consists of three 3-credit courses.
  • Develop and strengthen your organizational and leadership skills with a specialization in Accounting. When you add the Accounting specialization to your degree program, you will be able to supplement your learning with courses designed to dive deeper into topics such as advanced accounting, auditing, tax research, and foreign currency transaction reporting. Learn more about the individual classes required to add a specialization in accounting to your degree program. Your specialization may require prerequisite course work. Please talk to your advisor for more information.

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Careers in Accountancy

By completing a degree in accounting, you are preparing yourself for a career in which a broad background and general knowledge in the field are requirements. You may choose to pursue a new job search in accounting, to start your own business, or to seek a career with local, state, or federal government.

 

As a Master of Accountancy graduate, you could choose to pursue a career in any of the following areas:

 

  • Accountants and Auditors
  • Financial Examiners
  • Tax Preparers
  • Credit Analysts
  • Tax Examiners and Collectors
  • Revenue Agents
  • Controller
  • Chief Financial Officer
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