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ABSTRACT
A steady decrease in accounting PhD graduates has led to a shortage of accounting faculty classified as 'Scholarly Academie' (SA) according to AACSB standards for accreditation. To increase the supply of qualified accounting faculty, programs like the University of Florida's Post-Doctoral Bridge Program (PDBP) have evolved to enable faculty to become qualified as Scholarly Academie (SA) per AACSB standards. From 2008 to 2020, the PDBP produced 43 SA qualified graduates from the accounting concentration track of the program. This increase in SA accounting faculty resulted in an average of 3.3 graduates per year, with two-thirds of graduates currently employed in AACSB accredited programs. Results suggest that non-traditional programs like the PDBP are a viable option to help alleviate the shortage of SA accounting faculty faced by academia.
Keywords: Scholarly academie, Accounting faculty, Post-doctoral bridge program, AACSB accreditation, Accounting major
INTRODUCTION
It has been well established that the demand for qualified, tenure track accounting faculty in higher education has been exceeded by its supply. This shortage is expected to continue as doctorate granting universities reduce or eliminate production of Scholarly Academie (SA) qualified accounting PhD graduates. Additionally, as senior faculty retire, the shortage can be expected to grow. This long-standing problem has worried accounting faculty recruiters for decades.
In this paper we evaluate a non-traditional program designed to increase the supply of Scholarly Academie accounting faculty: The University of Florida's Post-Doctoral Bridge Program (PDBP). The PDBP is one of a handful of programs endorsed by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). It was created to prepare participants for teaching and research careers in business schools, and to increase the supply of Scholarly Academie faculty. Participants in the PDBP can select one of two concentration tracks to focus in during the program. One track is a concentration in Marketing and Management while the second track is a concentration in Accounting and Finance.
The University of Florida's PDBP graduated its first Scholarly Academie business cohort in 2008 and continued to graduate cohorts through 2020. In this study, 13 years (2008-2020) of available data are analyzed to determine the impact the PDBP may have had on alleviating the shortage of SA accounting faculty. For the years studied, the PDBP produced 43 SA classified graduates...