Introduction
Profile of the Department
The Graduate Institute of Accounting was established in 2003. Besides recruiting faculty with Ph.D. degrees, it has also been engaging scholars from prominent American universities to serve as chair professors and inspire the academic climate. In addition, the Department has been offering practical lecture classes and inviting experts from industries to give lectures and guidance, which has established an interchange platform between industry and academia.
In 2004, the Graduate Institute of Accounting merged with the night school bachelor's program of accounting, initially subordinated to the Division of Continuing Education. The merged entity was renamed the Department of Accounting.
The Department of Accounting is the sole national accounting department and graduate institute in Taichung responsible for training high-level professionals and enhancing industrial competitiveness. Furthermore, in 2006, an in-service program for master's degrees was established for people who want to continue pursuing education.
The daytime bachelor's program was established in 2008, and the continuing education bachelor's program ended simultaneously. The Department's in-service master's program was also merged into the Accounting Information and Management Group of the School of Management's Executive MBA (EMBA) program in 2008, and it was renamed the "Accounting and Management Decision-making Group" in 2020.
The Department has a day bachelor's program with 40 students in admission, and a day master's program 25 students in admission every year.
Development focal points and directions
The Department's mission is to cultivate all-round accounting professionals who have broad outlook and knowledge in both theory and practice. The Department has designed four developmental directions. Besides, the plan of faculty hiring, course design, and practical training all reflect these four directions.
1. Specialization
The Department emphasizes the fundamental accounting curriculum, which includes basic professional financial accounting, cost and management accounting, auditing, tax accounting, and government accounting courses.
2. Informatization
Responding to the spread of computers, the Internet, and e-commerce, the instruction in the Department's information-related courses is supported by the Information Management Department, which helps students learn how to use information technology to establish corporate accounting systems and strengthen internal control.
3. Practicality
Apart from encouraging graduates to participate in CPA and internal auditor professional licensing examinations, the Department also actively holds academic and practical seminars in relevant fields.
4. Providing formative professional education combining finance, economics and law
The Department's curriculum and courses combining finance, economics, and law ensure that graduates possess diversified professional skills encompassing the fields of accounting, finance, economics and law and enhance their competitiveness in the job market.
Future perspective
The Department's mid-term plan seeks to train accounting professionals possessing both expertise and ethics with a global perspective. We hope to transform the Department into an internationally outstanding center of accounting research. Our future goals include the following:
1. Training professionals in corporate value analysis
The Department seeks to train accounting professionals who are able to assess corporate value. The focal points of instruction in this area include risk management, financial forecasting, earnings management, and management accounting. Students pursuing this direction will learn financial management, financial statement analysis, financial product accounting, and corporate value analysis, etc. We expect this Department will be a professional accounting knowledge management center which provides the public, government agencies, the corporate sector, and scholars a platform for obtaining and sharing new accounting knowledge.
2. Training professionals in multinational tax and finance/economics/law
We hope to train tax accounting specialists with a broad international outlook, and ensure that students understand multinational firms' operating environment, and possess accounting system design and multinational tax planning ability. Apart from basic accounting courses, students will also learn tax law, international trade law, securities law, fair trade law, and intellectual property rights law, etc. This work will gradually boost the Department's international visibility and professional influence.
3. Training specialists in computer auditing and accounting information system
We seek to train specialists in accounting information system design by learning such aspects as database management, accounting information systems, and computer security and auditing, etc. This will enable accounting professionals to use information technology to improve the quality of accounting information, which will help them do well in the fickle business environment in the e-commerce era.