Tilburg University department Accountancy

Department of Accounting

Tilburg University’s Department of Accounting has a long tradition of combining high quality research with strong ties to practice. In the past decade, the department’s research has been consistently ranked within the top 3 in Europe in the UT-Dallas ranking, which is based on publications in the three leading journals of the field.

The international group of scholars working in the Department of Accounting has diverse interests, encompassing all areas of auditing, management accounting, and financial reporting. Notwithstanding this diversity, the research produced in Tilburg stands out because of its innovative qualities. Members are known to have introduced ideas from heretofore under explored fields (e.g., biology, textual analysis, political science) to gain new insights on long-standing accounting problems.

The department organizes weekly seminars in which leading scholars present their research. An annual highlight is the Accountancy Spring Camp, which brings together researchers from across the world for a two-day intensive conference. The Department of Accounting is the only department in Europe to date that has had two of its members appointed as an Editor at The Accounting Review, one of the top journals in the field. Department members have also played senior roles in the premier journal of the European Accounting Association, the European Accounting Review.

Top Publications

Seminars

Department members have received different kinds of awards.

-Willem Buijink for example with his EAA Hopwood Award in 2019 The Anthony G. Hopwood Award for Academic Leadership | EAA (eaa-online.org)

Also for their innovative teaching practices the department members have received many awards. Indeed, the department has been recognized by the American Accounting Association for its contribution to modernize accounting education. Its flagship program, the MSc in Accountancy, prepares students to become consummate accounting professionals, well-equipped for today’s challenges. A unique blend of faculty, combining those who are at the international frontier of research with those who are at the top of the auditing profession ensures that students receive not just a solid foundation in accounting, but also the critical faculties that enables them to effectively deal with complex problems in practice.

The department offers ambitious programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive/post-master levels. Its Research Master/Ph.D. program has achieved notable successes, placing graduates at top schools in the US, Europe, and Asia, including Chicago Booth, University of Southern California, University of Texas-Austin, University of Mannheim, Nanyang Technical University, and University of Melbourne. Unique in the world, three Ph.D. students, and their supervisors, have won the prestigious American Accounting Association/Management Accounting Section Best Dissertation Award.