الگوها، ویژگی ها و روندهای برنامه های تحصیلات تکمیلی مالیات ایالات متحده برای اعطای مدرک کارشناسی ارشد مالیات (MST)

Survey data gathered from graduate tax program directors at 26 universities, a response rate of about 43% of all programs contacted, is used to benchmark characteristics and trends of U.S. programs awarding a Master of Science in Taxation (MST) degree. The impetus for this paper was the absence of current literature regarding curriculum, enrollment, and delivery of graduate tax programs in the United States, and it is the first study to compile information on MST program trends. A survey was mailed to MST program directors requesting information about enrollment, core courses, time to complete the degree, admission requirements, efforts required to maintain AACSB accreditation, faculty credentials, faculty compensation, and online instruction. We found that admission requirements, course scheduling, required and elective courses were consistent across MST programs, but enrollment numbers varied widely. Results show that programs often enroll students who received an undergraduate degree from their institution, although there was a consensus that students are unprepared for MST program study immediately upon receiving their undergraduate degree. There is substantial disagreement regarding online delivery of MST instruction, with most programs reacting negatively for pedagogical reasons. This survey represents the beginning of an annual effort to collect data from all MST programs and post data to a website (https://sites.google.com/a/mail.rmu.edu/mst/home). The website will provide a resource for MST program administrators to share curriculum information, course syllabi, teaching innovations, experiences with on-line courses, and other information relevant to MST programs.

This paper benchmarks characteristics and trends of U.S. graduate tax programs awarding an MST degree. Reported data were obtained from a nationwide survey of MST program directors. The motivation for this paper was the absence of current literature regarding curriculum, enrollment, and delivery of graduate tax programs in the United States. This is the first survey in nearly 15 years to collect information on graduate tax programs and the first ever to compile information on MST programs. The survey collected a broad range of information about MST programs, including course curriculum, admission criteria, faculty compensation, enrollment, program marketing, perceived challenges in meeting AACSB accreditation requirements, and both the use and efficacy of online course delivery. Survey results will be of interest to MST program directors, faculty, and accounting program administrators for comparison and evaluation. Survey curriculum data are also compared to academic benchmarks such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Model Tax Curriculum (MTC) (AICPA, 1996), which recommended formalized course content, and the Revised MTC (AICPA, 2007), which links desired learning outcomes to technical tax topics, to determine if the Revised MTC has been adopted by MST programs. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses the survey instrument development, design and delivery, and then analyzes the overall survey response rate. Section 3 provides a summary of the survey results. Section 4 examines the survey findings, discusses MST trends, presents ideas for MST program development, and suggests future research. Section 5 concludes the paper with our forecasted future for MST programs.

In summary, our data show that respondent MST programs are much more similar than they are different. Admission requirements, course scheduling, and required and elective courses were consistent across MST programs included in our sample. Student recruiting showed that many programs enroll students who received an undergraduate degree from their institution. The vast majority of MST programs were offered by AACSB-accredited institutions and those programs reported substantial efforts are required to maintain AQ/PQ faculty coverage ratios. There was also a general consensus that undergraduate students were not prepared for MST studies, which may hinder undergraduate accounting students enrolling in MST programs to meet the 150-h requirement. Where MST programs differed most was in their view of the future of online MST instruction. Those MST programs resisting distance learning claim pedagogical rigor will be diminished without live classroom teaching. These concerns caused one MST program to discontinue its online courses and return to a live presentation format. However, several MST programs reported offering online courses and one AACSB-accredited institution offered its MST program fully online. We project that the future of MST instruction lies in distance learning. In part, we base our forecast on the fact that currently some 90 institutions accredited by the AACSB are offering online MBA programs with about 11,000 students pursuing degrees (Byrne, 2011). These enrollment figures indicate that many AACSB-accredited institutions have successfully addressed the pedagogical issues attendant to online delivery in MBA education. Our study shows that the MST programs that successfully offer online courses use asynchronous delivery, which has the possible disadvantage of denying immediate student/teacher/class interaction. This disadvantage can be overcome with synchronous online delivery that can provide live instruction to satisfy MST program concerns of pedagogical thoroughness and immediate student interaction. The overwhelming advantage of synchronous and asynchronous delivery is that they both provide a more efficient and comfortable delivery for working MST students, who comprise the bulk of MST enrollment. We posit that synchronous and asynchronous forms of online delivery will in the next 10 years become the dominant means of MST program instruction with revenue from increased enrollments satisfying possible fiscal constraints noted by some survey respondents.