Accounting scandals haven't derailed students' career plans

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Students studying accounting at the University of Illinois and other Illinois colleges say recent scandals in the field haven't altered their career plans.

In fact, enrollment has increased in general accounting classes at some schools this fall, while others saw new courses such as accounting fraud-detection fill up faster than anticipated.

Traditional accounting classes offering basic training as well as specialized courses are now popular in the wake of accounting scandals at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and the criminal conviction of the Andersen accounting firm.

At the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, 270 students enrolled this fall in an elective course called "Financial Statement Analysis" -- an increase of nearly 50 percent from a year ago.

Wake-up call

"The events of the last eight or nine months have served as a wake-up call," said Geoffrey Pickard, spokesman for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "The institute and a number of people in academia have recognized that the curriculum hasn't kept pace with the demands of the marketplace."

The renewed interest in accounting classes has caught some school administrators by surprise. The 30 slots in a new course at DePaul University on detecting and investigating business fraud filled up within two days -- much faster than anticipated.

"I know that fraud will be an issue in everything I do in the future," said Moises Sanchez, an MBA student who is enrolled in the course. "I want to gain experience on how to detect it and how to prevent it."

At the University of Illinois, where the number of accounting majors is up 17 percent this year, sophomore Courtney Davis said the scandals didn't change her career plans.

"It's a call for people who are going into accounting to pay attention to ethical standards," Davis said.

Davis said it was good the scandals happened while students were in school so they could learn new procedures and the ways things will be done.

Steve Goldfarb, spokesman for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, said the accounting scandals have a positive side.

"It's showing high school kids and first- and second-year college kids how important good audits are," Goldfarb said.

Before Enron, "either students did not know what accountants did, or they had it wrong. Only 1 percent were interested in choosing the profession," Goldfarb said. "Now they're hearing that accounting and auditing are in the middle of things in an important way, and that's changing their perception of the profession."