This September, the first ever cohort of Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc) students will make history as they begin classes on campus at Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego.
It’s an exciting time to be around the buzzing Rady campus, not just for the students but for the faculty and staff too. James Deiotte, Executive Director of Rady’s MPAc program, is particularly excited to kick off the 2019-2020 academic year with a refreshed take on the traditional masters of accountancy program.
“Our students will be taught by professionals in the field they’re entering. They will gain great insights as to what goes on and what’s expected to become successful in the profession,” says Deiotte. “Being taught by research faculty and industry professionals, including retired accounting firm partners, will accelerate the career development of our students.”
What makes the Rady MPAc different is that we’re leveraging on the strengths of being a young business school that is entrepreneurial at its core. Rady is a school that has a collaborative and innovative culture and the MPAc program is no exception. The collaborative approach is reflected in the program’s crossover with other disciplines offered at the school, including business, analytics, and finance.
“We have approached embedding data and business analytics into most of our classes to accelerate the understanding of these changes and putting more context around it,” says Deiotte. “For example, we want our students to understand the legal nuances and the accounting implications of what is a digital asset and how you might want to account for the acquisition of those assets. We are especially interested in the accounting and reporting related to the new and restrictive regimes arising around the world like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).”
Our program embraces students that want to change and make a meaningful impact in their careers and the profession. With the changes taking place in technology and data, students that have majored in data science, economics or international studies are finding that the accounting profession is interested in them, provided they can understand and use the language of business – accounting.
Getting into the profession is Job #1! “We’ve built a curriculum that accomplishes the most important tasks with respect to the professional development of our students,” says Deiotte. “We want to make sure that students are ready for certifications within the profession, including the CPA and CMA exams, which are both recognized globally.”
Growing in the profession and future proofing the student’s investment in their career is enhanced by Rady electives focused on leadership, communication and decision making courses and experiences from Capstones. “We have heard from firms, both large and small, that soft skills development is even more important today because of the rapid technology enabled changes taking place and the use of BOTS, AI and ML platforms,” says Deiotte.
For more information on Rady’s MPAc program, or if you’d like to apply for next year’s class, please visit https://rady.ucsd.edu/programs/masters-programs/master-of-professional-accountancy/ or email RadyGradAdmissions@ucsd.edu
Rady School of Management Professor Kevin Zhu recently received a prestigious honor at the 2018 Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Annual Meeting. Zhu was recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the INFORMS Information Systems Society for his outstanding intellectual contributions to the information systems discipline. Three scholars received the highest honor in the field of 3,000 scholars worldwide.
As the first information systems expert at UC San Diego, Zhu has significantly expanded the wealth of knowledge on campus, instructing undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students, and bringing key conferences to campus.