DePaul University’s School of Accountancy & MIS is collaborating with KPMG to advance data analytics educational opportunities for students in the Master of Science in Audit and Advisory Services (MSAA) Program.
The partnership gives DePaul access to extensive data analytics resources—data sets, cases, tools, auditing practices and techniques—through KPMG’s Master’s in Accounting in Data Analytics (MADA) program, which helps to educate accounting students with respect to data analytics innovations and methodologies. Only a few universities around the country have a MADA partnership with KPMG, and now DePaul joins this small network.
As part of this collaboration, KPMG also has gifted the school scholarship funds for underrepresented students in the MSAA program, a move that aims to support diversity and inclusion efforts within the accounting profession.
“Today’s professionals need a blend of accounting and STEM skills. The future accountant needs to be data-centric, with skills in data mining, analysis and visualization. Auditors need to ‘speak the language of data’ and should be well-versed in artificial intelligence, data science, blockchain and other technologies as well as auditing standards and accounting practices,” says Becky Sproul, KPMG’s audit talent and culture leader. “KPMG is shaping Next Gen auditors by expanding our KPMG MADA Program to schools such as DePaul University. Together, we’re preparing professionals for the data age by integrating data and analytics skills into accounting programs.”
“Having KPMG as a partner as we continually work to advance our data analytics curriculum is a big win for our students. It means they’ll be learning from real-world materials, insights and data, from one of our most highly respected industry partners,” says David Wang, director of the MSAA program. “This also deepens our connections with the professional audit community, which has many important benefits for students and also the school.”
The School of Accountancy & MIS has been emphasizing the integration of data analytics into its programs for a number of years. The KPMG MADA collaboration only furthers these efforts to equip students with the most cutting-edge information directly from the field.
By Nadia Alfadel Coloma