The Becker Agreement, which was put into effect over the summer, provides back to back study for business majors, from undergraduate degrees to graduate degrees; allowing information to stay  fresh in students’ minds. 

The agreement specifically targets those who need to get their Certified Public Accountant certification. Gordan McClung, chair of the Business Administration Department and professor of marketing said in order to get your CPA, you have to pass an exam, and the studies Becker offers help them do that.

“The CPA exam requires students to pass multiple sections, and Becker preps them,” McClung said. “It’s a prep course to review everything you have taken in your undergraduate program through all your accounting, business law and every [other class] and to be able to pass those sections.”

Another feature of the agreement is that Becker has a better rate for students who graduate from Waynesburg, meaning students save money if they take advantage of the partnership.

“Becker actually offers special rates, and through this agreement, our students are able to get credit for a course while there actually doing Becker. And Becker guarantees that if they don’t pass the CPA, they can continue to study through Becker,” McClung said.“So, it’s actually a great opportunity for any student in accounting or any area that really wants to set for the CPA,” Students who are planning on studying through Becker start the program after they have completed their undergraduate degree. They then have to earn 150 credit hours through the program. McClung encourages students to get their graduate degree by adding a few more credit hours. 

“They have to get the 150 credit hours, so it’s actually to their benefit to get a graduate degree, because you’re so close when you get to 150 hours, you should just get the extra 10 hours to get the graduate degree. Because then you’re even more valuable, because now all of a sudden you have the NBA and the CPA,” McClung said.

Professor McClung expresses that receiving a CPA is almost necessary in order to excel and move forward in a career path like accounting, as well as, how having a CPA makes a student more valuable to future employers. 

“You can be with them as a bookkeeper and a lot of other functions within an organization or within a firm but with a Certified Public Accountant you can sign off on a lot of documents. So, you’re far more valuable to them within the accounting firms or even investment groups or anything. The CPA is highly valued,” McClung said.

This is the first time the business department would have had an agreement like the Becker Agreement. The agreement took about a year to formalize and is unique to what the University needs and what best accommodates the students.

“I’ve only heard of a few schools that have actually started entering into these agreements,” McClung explained, “so we are sort of on the forefront of getting these agreements structured this way.”