Accounting program earns top marks

Northwestern College’s accounting program is ranked highly in a paper that was presented at the Christian Business Faculty Association annual conference in Nashville, Tenn., recently.

Southeastern University faculty members William Hahn, Chris Fairchild and R. Joseph Childs presented their research, “Learning Outcomes at CCCU-Member Institutions: A Comparison of CCCU Students’ Performance on the Uniform CPA Exam to Performance at Other Institutions.” Their study investigated the differences in the CPA exam pass rates between candidates who graduated from Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) member schools and students from secular colleges. The study suggests that CCCU members, like Northwestern, are preparing students for the CPA exam as proficiently as large research universities.

The CCCU includes 120 member institutions representing 28 different Christian denominations. Northwestern students achieved the 10th highest pass rate for the 2012 CPA exam among CCCU schools, according to the scores provided by the CPA testing agency.

A learning gain was also calculated by comparing each college’s CPA exam pass rate ranking to the ACT/SAT scores of its incoming freshmen. Northwestern College was ranked second in learning gain among CCCU institutions, suggesting a strong return on investment for accounting students.