Chairs’ Views of the Market for Doctorally Qualified Accounting Faculty

Abstract

Based on a survey of U.S. AACSB-accredited accounting program chairs, we find that the current faculty shortage at the participants’ institutions is less severe than five years ago and less severe than it is expected to be over the next five years. Specialties with the greatest current shortage at the participants’ institutions are tax, accounting systems and data analytics, and audit. Participants view the overall U.S. accounting faculty labor market in balance today, but trending toward a slight shortage over the next five years. Both today and over the next five years, participants perceive a surplus of financial accounting faculty, and shortages in audit, tax, accounting systems and data analytics, and fraud/forensic accounting. Finally, we find that the accounting faculty shortage is much more severe at small, “Nonresearch Intensive” schools than at large, “Research Intensive” schools. We discuss insights for current and prospective doctoral students and others.