Bridging the Gap Between Accounting Education and Practice: Their SEC Academic Fellow Program

The Academic Fellow program of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) provides practical opportunities for accounting educators. The stated objective of the program is to enhance the ability of the Office of the Chief Accountant to meet its mission as the primary adviser to the SEC and the Commission's staff on matters of financial accounting and reporting policies and their implementation. A survey of past SEC Fellows indicated that the Fellows went to the SEC because they wanted to have experience at the policy-making level, to be able to see standard setting and regulation from another perspective, to gain insight for teaching and research, and to increase their marketability. The ways in which they thought they improved their teaching included giving them greater credibility with their students. Fellows indicated that their year at the SEC helped their research by increasing their knowledge of current issues and research data sources available at the SEC.