Accounting

Donald W. Reynolds Center, Room 205, (501) 916-6735, ualr.edu/accounting

The mission of the Accounting program is to provide quality educational experiences that enable students to enter and advance within the accounting profession. In pursuit of this mission, the faculty is committed to providing effective teaching, relevant research, and academic, professional, and community service.

All majors in the program are required to achieve a grade of C or greater in all courses required in their major.

Educational Objectives

Graduates of our accounting programs should possess:

• Professional and technical knowledge,
• Effective communication skills,
• Analytical thinking abilities,
• Knowledge of professional and ethical standards, and
• Professional aspirations.

General Information

Requirements to sit for the CPA Exam

In the State of Arkansas, a CPA candidate must meet certain accounting and business education requirements. Students who earn an undergraduate degree that includes at least 30 undergraduate semester hours or 20 graduate hours in business, other than accounting, and at least 30 undergraduate semester hours or 20 graduate semester hours in accounting above the principles level will be deemed to have met the education requirement for the CPA examination. Candidates who successfully complete the CPA examination must also complete 150 semester hours in order to be licensed.

Further details on UA Little Rock course offerings and their application to CPA exam requirements can be found on the program’s website. Specific and official information about the requirements to sit for the CPA Exam in Arkansas is available from the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy.

Prerequisites

Students enrolling in any accounting course for which the designated prerequisite work has not been completed previously may be administratively dropped from the course.

Attempt Limit for Undergraduate Accounting

Policy: Students are limited to a maximum of three attempts in each undergraduate accounting course. Effective Date: This policy will be effective starting in the fall semester of 2009. Attempts prior to this effective date will not be counted in the application of this policy.

Right of Appeal: Students with extenuating circumstances may appeal the application of this policy to the program chair. If a waiver of the policy is granted for a particular course, the student must enroll in that class within 12 months of the date that the waiver was granted (or in the next term the course is offered if the course is not offered within the next 12 months) and successfully complete the course in that term.

Definitions: An “attempt” is defined as either a full-term enrollment with a letter grade or an “Incomplete” being posted or a partial-term enrollment that lasts beyond the drop deadline but ends with withdrawal and a “W” being posted to the transcript. A “successful completion” is defined as a grade of C or greater in the course.

If a student drops, withdraws, or requests an incomplete this will not be considered a successful completion.​

Economics and Finance

Donald W. Reynolds Center, Room 205 | (501) 916-6735 | ualr.edu/economics

The Economics and Finance program in the School of Business offers both an Economics major and a Finance major, as well as minors in Economics, Finance, Personal Finance, and Real Estate.

All majors in the program are required to achieve a grade of C or greater in all courses required in their major.

Economics is the study of people in the ordinary business of life. Economists study how individuals make decisions, how businesses and governments interact, and how decisions made on the other side of the globe affect everyday life close to home. The knowledge and skills gained while earning a bachelor’s degree in economics will prepare you for careers in finance, law, business, and government.

Students majoring in Finance develop the strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills necessary for success in today’s global business environment. The UA Little Rock finance program is one of only two programs in the state to have received University Recognition from the CFA Institute. UA Little Rock received this distinction for developing an ethics-based investment curriculum aimed at developing serious investment professionals. Finance students manage the $400,000 Joe Ford Trust investment portfolio, complete cooperative education internship programs with leading financial firms, and meet financial and business leaders from Central Arkansas.

General Information

Economics Educational Objectives

Students completing the economics degree should accomplish the following educational objectives:

• Understand, explain, and identify how markets work with respect to the determination of prices, quantities, and allocation of resources.
• Collect economic data and be able to analyze and forecast economic activity.
• List various supply and demand shocks and identify how they affect economic activity in a complete, traditional macroeconomic model. Understand models of economic growth.
• Understand and be able to differentiate between market structures and explain their implications for pricing, output, and efficiency issues.
• Understand and explain the theory of the firm including, but not limited to, pricing, optimal input mix, and marginal analysis.

Finance

The finance curriculum provides a theoretical framework of the environment in which financial institutions operate. Individual courses deal with financial institutions, the financial management of business firms, investments, and particular institutional areas of banking, real estate, and insurance. Emphasis is on the decision-making, or analytical, aspects of the subject areas. The program offers three different degree options (emphases) in the finance area.

• Emphasis I (General Finance) provides training in business finance, financial decision-making within the firm, and the financial and banking systems.
• Emphasis II (Real Estate) provides a broad background in real estate analysis, investment, and financial decision-making.
• Emphasis III (Financial Services and Risk Management) provides training in the management of financial service firms such as banks, insurance firms, and wealth management firms.

To graduate, students majoring in finance must make a grade of C or greater in FINC 3310  as well as in all courses that constitute the major.

Finance Educational Objectives

Students completing the finance degree should be able to:

• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the time value of money (TVM) concepts by solving representative problems. This includes calculating present values, future values, and rates of return.
• Identify and explain the role and functioning of financial markets. Students should be able to explain the determination of interest rates, the role of financial intermediaries, the impact of risk, and the connections across international markets. Value financial assets. This involves being able to explain risk-return trade-offs, asset pricing models, market efficiency, and international valuation. The student should be exposed to modern portfolio theory and option pricing theory.
• Identify and explain the investment and financing decisions of the firm, and how these decisions affect value. Students should be exposed to estimating the cost of capital, should be able to identify factors affecting the capital structure and financing alternatives (domestic and international), and be exposed to firm valuation.
• Be exposed to the ethical issues involved in finance. In particular, the student should be exposed to agency theory and its implications for financial managers. This includes exposure to fiduciary issues.

Real Estate and Financial Services Educational Objectives

Students specializing in real estate, insurance, or financial planning should:

• Be exposed to the theoretical concepts and principles of each.
• Be able to apply the principles to real problems.
• Be exposed to the professional and institutional aspects of each.

Programs

• Accounting, B.B.A.
• Economics, B.B.A.
• Finance, Financial Services and Risk Management Emphasis, B.B.A.
• Finance, General Finance Emphasis, B.B.A.
• Finance, Real Estate Emphasis, B.B.A.

• Accounting Minor
• Economics Minor
• General Finance Minor
• Personal Finance Minor
• Real Estate Minor