Senate Bill Would Require Master's Degree for CPA Licensure

Submitted by Melissa Hoffmann on Fri, 06/12/2009 - 08:49

Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Queens), the senator who cosponsored the accountancy reform bill in the state Senate last year, has introduced new legislation that would require a master's degree as a minimum education requirement for CPA licensure.

In her memorandum of support for the bill (S5835), Stavisky says it is necessary for CPAs to hold a master's degree because the CPA profession is evolving, which will require CPAs to be "as comprehensively trained as possible to deal with all the nuances of their professional responsibilities."

The NYSSCPA's Quality Enhancement Policy Committee in 2008, when Immediate Past President Sharon Sabba Fierstein was chair, published a white paper on pre-certification education that made a similar proposal.

The bill was referred to the Senate's Rules Committee. You can read a related story in yesterday's NYSSCPA E-Zine.

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Overkill on requirements to sit

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/23/2009 - 15:31.

Maybe I have been at this too long. We are already the most expensive state in the Union to sit for the exam now we also want to push the credential past the point most of us went when we received the designation. If I wanted to have an MBA I would have gone for the designation. Why are we burying candidates with non essential burdens?

Overkill on requirements to sit

Submitted by Thomas Riley (not verified) on Tue, 10/13/2009 - 17:33.

I believe your concern is not the ability to sit for the exam, rather the perceived cost of an additional education requirement to become licensed.

My take on the Master's requirement is a bit different. Students who are CPA candidates in New York already have a 150 credit hour requirement. (48 States currently have the 150 hour requirement for licensing and 22 permit the candidate to sit for the exam after 120 hours) If I can obtain a Master's Degree during the 150 hours, I can't imagine why I would not want to avail myself of the advanced degree. If I tell a student that they have to take 150 hours to become a CPA, and then ask "would they rather have a 5 year Bachelor's degree or a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in the same time frame", I believe they can only answer for the 2 degrees.

I see the result of the requirement not as burden, rather as an opportunity.

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