The student must contact faculty members to find one who agrees to serve as faculty advisor for the project. If the student has a topical area in mind, he or she should contact a faculty member who teaches in that area. Or, a student could ask a faculty member for suggestions of a topic or study area.
The faculty advisor in conjunction with the student will develop a syllabus to define the area of study and the course requirements. The student’s proposed ACCT 8910 syllabus must be approved by the Accounting Graduate Program Committee.
The course requirements may take different forms. Usually it will involve self study by the student such as reading scholarly books, journal articles, standards, regulations, completing a self study course, etc. and result in the preparation of a substantial paper, preparation of several short papers, writing solutions for cases, completing written examinations, etc. The student’s faculty advisor will determine when the course requirements have been completed and assign a grade for the course.
The ACCT 8910 course work should not be hastily prepared, but should be a scholarly effort deserving of graduate credit. The scope of the work should be such that the student spends approximately 130 hours on the course requirements. If the output is a single paper, the length of the paper will be determined by the topic selected and the treatment of that topic. However, as a guide, it is anticipated that the paper will normally consist of approximately 20+ double-spaced typewritten pages.