Flexible Master of Professional Accountancy
Course Descriptions
MBA 8015 – Strategic Business Communication
3 hours
This course presents written and oral business communication as a management strategy critical to success in the workplace by introducing a communication model useful to identify objectives, analyze audiences, choose information, and create the most effective arrangement and channel for written and oral messages. Students will practice drafting and editing clear, precise, and readable written business documents including communications to executive-level readers. Students will also develop skills in the effective design and delivery of unwelcome information, technical information to non-technical audiences, and group communication.
ACCT 8090 – International Accounting Practices
3 hours
This course provides a detailed examination of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and their application. It identifies differences between IFRS and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and analyzes the implications of those differences. It also offers a framework for identifying and analyzing national differences in the applications of IFRS.
ACCT 8120 – Advanced Federal Taxation
3 hours
This course provides an in depth study of the federal tax law applicable to sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, estates, and trusts. In addition, this course introduces students to topics such as the alternative minimum tax, international tax, state and local tax, employee compensation, related party transactions, and tax exempt entities. Some time also is devoted to tax planning, ethical practices, taxation of cross-border business transactions, and tax research.
ACCT 8130 – Advanced Accounting Topics
3 hours
This course provides a study of accounting topics related to business mergers and acquisitions, international accounting and foreign currency issues, and other current topics of financial reporting.
ACCT 8310 – Seminar in Management Accounting Systems
3 hours
This course focuses on inventory management issues including the cost and revenue implications and managing uncertainties in the demand and supply arenas. Students will analyze issues related to distribution management, revenue generation under supply constraints and the importance of supplier alliances and outsourcing of core products and services. The importance of information flow and strategic decision making under these conditions will be discussed.
ACCT 8391 – Field Study in Accounting
3 hours
The purpose of this class is to provide course credit for students enrolled in the MPA or MBA program who have an accounting internship. Students are required to submit weekly journals describing their internship experience and a paper at the end of the semester. The topic for the paper has to be approved by the instructor. Students can register for this class only with the consent of the instructor.
ACCT 8610 – Advanced Topics in Assurance Services
3 hours
This course covers auditing and assurance topics in depth from professional and research perspectives. The topics include audit judgment research, substantive testing research, fraud, going concern judgments, attestation engagements, international auditing, professional ethics, and litigation issues. Topics of current interest, especially those related to assurance services in an e-business environment and the development of international auditing standards, are also covered.
ACCT 8630 – Information Technology Auditing
3 hours
This course focuses on the knowledge and skills required for practice of IT auditing in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley world in which internal control is assessed in financial audits. The course covers assessment of internal control in technology-intensive settings, continuous monitoring and auditing of applications, and auditing of system development. Students work through audit simulations to develop IT audit expertise.
ACCT 8680 – Security and Privacy of Information and Information Systems
3 hours
This course is designed to develop knowledge and skills for the management and assurance of security of information and information systems in technology-enabled environments. It focuses on concepts and methods associated with planning, designing, implementing, managing, and auditing security at all levels on different platforms, including worldwide networks for e-business. The course presents techniques for assessing risk associated with accidental and intentional breaches of security and covers the associated issues of ethical uses of information and privacy considerations.
ACCT 8700 – Financial Statement and Business Analysis
3 hours
This course provides in-depth use of methods for performing financial statement analyses to evaluate a company’s profitability, liquidity, solvency, and market value. It demonstrates how these analyses can be used to diagnose a company’s past performance and to set operational and financial targets in traditional and e-business environments.
ACCT 8710 – Forensic Accounting
3 hours
This course introduces the advanced accounting student to the forensic accounting profession. The specific focus in on the three primary areas involved in forensic accounting, namely, conflict resolution, fraud detection and forensic auditing. The important theories underpinning the study of fraudulent behavior, damage theories and auditing are thoroughly discussed along with the practical aspects of the profession including the tools, techniques and expectations.
ACCT 8740 – Seminar on Internal Auditing
3 hours
In this course students are introduced to the current theory and practices of internal auditing viewed as a component of organizational governance. Students will learn to evaluate the effectiveness of various internal controls and make recommendations for improving corporate governance. Important auditing-related theories including risk management will be discussed along with practical implications of internal management controls and the monitoring required for improving their effectiveness. The course will include cases and also expose students to the ethical, independence, and technological issues that internal auditors deal with.