The Fisher School has a track record of accounting excellence

The Fisher School of Accounting has long been viewed as one of the top accounting programs in the country. The University of Florida has hosted an accounting program for more than 75 years and accounting was established as its own school in 1977.

The Fisher School worked its way up national rankings and has now become a mainstay in the most prestigious accounting rankings. It currently ranks No. 5 among public undergraduate accounting programs and No. 9 overall, according to U.S. News & World Report. Fisher has ranked in the top 10 publics and top 15 overall for 13 consecutive years. Fisher graduates currently serve as deans or lead three of the top four accounting programs.

These rankings are consistent with student outcomes. For Fisher School students who graduate with a bachelor’s in accounting, 90% had a job secured or moved on to graduate school since the Fisher School started tracking employment outcomes. For Master of Accounting graduates over the last 10 years, more than 95% of students seeking a job had an offer before graduation and 80% of them starting with one of the Big Four accounting firms. Fisher School PhD graduates are regularly placed in faculty roles at peer universities.

The standout results continue in CPA Exam national pass rates. While the national pass rate was 54% in the most recent exam year, Fisher students had an overall pass rate of 83%. This put the Fisher School No. 6 among 251 large programs nationally. Fisher students with a bachelor’s degree had a pass rate of 81%, which ranked just behind the University of Texas at Austin for No. 2 among peer programs. Fisher graduates are also consistent recipients of the Elijah Watt Sells Award, the top honor for outstanding performance on the CPA Exam.

The strong student outcomes are fueled by strong leadership from faculty and staff. Director Gary McGill was recently voted president-elect of the American Accounting Association, which is the largest community of accountants in academia with almost 7,000 global members. The association also awarded him with the Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator Award in 2018 and the Jim Benjamin Lifetime Service Award in 2024, which recognizes outstanding lifetime contributions to accounting education.

Fisher faculty remain some of the most productive researchers and editors in the world. Over the last five years, Fisher faculty have produced 320 intellectual contributions, including publishing over 85 articles in peer-reviewed journals. They also hold key editorial roles in accounting journals – Jenny Tucker is the senior editor of Accounting Horizons and an editor for Contemporary Accounting Research. Robert Knechel is the founding editor of Accountability in a Sustainable World Quarterly.

Lisa Hinson, Marcus Kirk, Robert Knechel, Paul Madsen, Michael Mayberry, Gabriel Pundrich, Mike Ricci, Michael Schadewald and Jenny Tucker also serve on editorial review boards for many leading accounting publications.

Knechel has made an especially large impact on the Fisher School and accounting as a profession. He is a member of the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group (SEIAG) of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and on the Board of the Foundation for Audit Research in the Netherlands.

Knechel recently completed a term as the Senior Editor for The Accounting Review, and previously served as Senior Editor of Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory. He was honored with the 2015 Outstanding Educator in Auditing Award given by the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association and currently serves as the Director of the International Accounting and Auditing Center (IAAC).