More than 70 CPA firms and several state CPA societies are aiming to reverse the shortage of accounting professors at U.S. colleges and universities by providing $15 million to finance the educations of Ph.D candidates.

The Howard University School of Business’s Center for Accounting Education recently held a weeklong program to improve the retention and advancement of young African American accountants and increase the numbers passing the CPA Exam early in their career.

John Gimigliano, former senior tax counsel of the House Ways and Means Committee and staff director of the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, has joined KPMG.

The KPMG Foundation has granted $410,000 in scholarships to 41 minority doctoral scholarships for the 2008-2009 academic year as part of its effort to increase the number of minority students and professors in business schools.

The Schonbraun McCann Group LLP has changed its name to Cornerstone Accounting Group LLP and announced some management changes.

A shortage of experienced accounting and finance professionals is affecting employers around the world, according to a new survey.

A new Web site is providing sample questions for the CPA Exam for free.

In preparation for the eventual transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has launched a suite of educational products and services to help accounting students learn IFRS fundamentals.

The AICPA 2008 Succession Survey, as you would expect, has a great deal of information about the current state of succession at multi-owner firms and recommended best practices for those firms. What will come as a surprise to some is there is an equivalent amount of information, observation of trends, and recommended best practices for the sole practitioner.

The seven deadly sins of career management were delineated by Kathleen Grace, founder of Grace Consulting Services, a professional services firm specializing in executive assessment, executive coaching and strategic succession planning, at the recent Forum for Women in Accounting, presented by The Advisory Board and Crosley + Company.

Deloitte plans to invest approximately $300 million to create a learning and leadership development center in Westlake, Texas.

The American Institute of CPAs plans to offer training in International Financial Reporting Standards and the Extensible Business Reporting Language.

The American Institute of CPAs has awarded research grants to accounting and management professors from the University of California, Rice University and the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Bob Graham paid a visit to the American Institute of CPAs' Spring Council Meeting last month to learn more about what the profession was doing, especially in the way of education for the newly approved forensic accounting credential as well as international accounting. A former U.S. senator, Florida governor, and presidential candidate, he recently opened the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. Sen. Graham spoke to WebCPA about his views on education in the accounting profession.

The American Institute of CPAs has formed an online Succession Planning Resource Center to help small and midsized firms deal with questions of how their firm should be managed in the future.

"Not everybody has to like me." This statement is a solution to the first of seven deadly sins of career management, as explained during a keynote at the Forum for Women in Accounting, a three-day confab that has attracted approximately 250 participants.

The labor union Unite Here has started a Web site to provide information about the progress of a class-action lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers over the firm's overtime policies.

All eyes are on the Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares to issue a detailed roadmap this summer for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, but some representatives gave hints about what might be in that roadmap at a conference held by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in New York.

After floating the proposal roughly one year ago, the American Institute of CPAs has approved the creation of the Certified in Financial Forensics credential, a new designation that will include expertise in a range of areas such as bankruptcy and insolvency, computer forensics, economic damages, family law, fraud investigations and litigation support.Approval for the credential — which will be the fourth offered by the institute, joining the Personal Financial Specialist, the Accredited in Business Valuation and the Certified Information Technology Professional — was approved at the annual meeting of Spring Council here.

It’s a good news/bad news/good news story.Demand for the services that CPA firms provide is widely expected to remain strong into the foreseeable future.