About MPA Program
INTRODUCTION:
The Department of Accounting in the University of Dhaka is a center of excellence for accounting, auditing and taxation education in Bangladesh. The graduates of this department are playing pivotal role in corporate, businesses and the accounting profession both at home and abroad. This department is endowed with a pool of world class faculty members having Ph.D.s and/or professional degrees. It is also deeply integrated with government institutions, professional organizations and corporate bodies. As internationalizing of higher education has accelerated in recent years, the Department of Accounting has undertaken many academic exchanges and research collaborations with foreign universities. A motivation of this deepening integration at home and abroad is to address a widening skill-gap in the Bangladesh job market by devising new programs. Policy makers and industry leaders have observed that thousands highly skilled foreigners are now employed in Bangladeshi organizations, providing them accounting, auditing and other managerial services. Over time, the outbound remittance of their earnings has kept soaring into billions of U.S. dollars. This emerging pattern is threatening job security of local executives and hundreds of thousands of new entrants into the job market. The Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) is a graduate program for addressing this widening skill gap in the country in accounting, auditing , taxation and corporate affairs.
OBJECTIVE OF THE PROGRAM:
The job market for professional accountants is growing day by day with a rise in private sector. Every firm, from auditing to accounting, manufacturing, trading, government etc. needs an accountant to carry out day to day business. Also, accounting is becoming a global profession meaning that professional accountants can work anywhere in the world.
However, in Bangladesh there is an acute shortage of places to train students with good quality masters’ level professional accounting education. The Department of Accounting, University of Dhaka has world class curriculum, excellent evaluation methods and highly trained faculty members, trains students to speak up courageously and professionally to uphold the image of the accountants in Bangladesh and abroad. The objective of the MPA program is to supply good quality professional accountants for the national and international market with advanced level training in professional accounting. This program also aims to train executives working in government and private sectors who require masters level professional accounting training.
COLLABORATION AT HOME AND ABROAD:
To enhance its linkage with industry and professional accounting bodies, the program has establish academic collaboration with reputed professional accounting bodies, audit firms and corporate houses. The Department of Accounting has done a number of academic and research exchanges with foreign universities for internationalizing its degree programs. Enhancing the linkage between the department and professional organizations at home and abroad is one key organizational capital. This program has a collaboration with ACCA Global and students of the program can receive exemptions in nine subjects [F1 to F9] of the ACCA program. We were the first to receive such exemption from any professional body in Bangladesh. This is the manifestation of the high standard of the program.
The MPA program authority is committed to further broadening this collaboration. It is now negotiating with a number of MOUs or agreements with professional organizations so that MPA graduates further secure a faster route to become members of other professional accounting and finance bodies. These include the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB), CFA and so on. It is noteworthy that the department has a long partnership with the chamber bodies including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCAI), and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DCCI).