Accounting Degree Review recently published its first affordability ranking survey of the top 30 master's degrees in accounting, naming Wichita State University's School of Accountancy as the No. 6 program in the nation.

Accounting Degree Review is an independent online resource for current and prospective accounting and finance students. The rankings were based on calculations of tuition and fees for an out-of-state, full-time accounting student who started in fall 2014. Only universities accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) were included.

That WSU was the only institution in Kansas to make the top 30 list doesn’t surprise Professor Paul Harrison, director of the School of Accountancy and H. Dene Heskett Chair in Accountancy.

“Other schools made a conscious decision to increase their tuitions back in the early 2000s,” he said. “We did not do that. Wichita State made a strategic decision to stay affordable for students, given how most states have decreased their support for higher education.”

One factor that makes WSU’s accounting program stand out is that in addition to the college being accredited, the School of Accountancy is also accredited by the AACSB. That distinction is an indicator of higher quality, Harrison said, and gaining it was one of the reasons WSU brought him to Wichita State in the first place 15 years ago.

AACSB certification evaluates the qualifications of the faculty, standards of the school’s research accomplishments, the activity of its advisory board, which is composed of professionals in the community, as well as the general satisfaction of area firms with the quality of students WSU turns out.

Another major advantage Wichita State has is its location.

“The big thing we have here, being a major metropolitan program, are that coop’s and internships are more readily available to students,” Harrison said. “If they want to take a semester off and do an internship, it’s all right here. If they want to do a co-op while they’re going to school, they can do that and have a great paying job. That’s a big advantage for our students.”

Wichita State graduates 100-120 accounting students every year, many of whom find employment locally.

“What we have always focused on is to provide the highest quality we can for the firms that hire our graduates,” Harrison said. “Our goal is to educate our students so they can get good jobs – that is our No. 1 priority, and it’s going to stay our priority. If the firms are satisfied with our product, we will continue producing quality students who will do a good job for them, who will progress up the ranks and make positive contributions here in Wichita and the surrounding communities.”

WSU’s School of Accountancy offers a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s of accountancy degree with an option of a tax or accounting information systems concentration.

To view the 2015 30 Most Affordable Residential Master’s Programs in Accounting list, go to goo.gl/EJzmYr.