University Degrees

In the US, a bachelor’s degree is supposed to take 4 years, if the student is full-time and passes all classes.

In the Netherlands, a bachelor’s degree is only supposed to take 3 years.

In both the US and in the Netherlands, a master’s degree is one additional year of study.

In the US, accounting students never go beyond the master’s degree if they plan on being an accountant (e.g., auditor, tax professional, controller). Often they stop at the bachelor degree.

In the Netherlands, at least at Tilburg, the bachelor degree is a generic business degree. All students who want to be accountants do a master’s degree. Many do a “post-masters”, which focuses on preparing for professional certification exams, is a part-time program, and is paid for by the employer.

So, if you ever have to convert degrees, you can sort-of think of it as a master’s degree in the Netherlands took as much time and gives as much education as a bachelor’s degree in the US, while the post-masters in the Netherlands is similar to a master’s in the US.

Another big difference between the US and the Netherlands is that a university student must do a thesis in order to finish either a bachelor or master’s degree. I got to supervise 7 master’s theses this year at Tilburg. By requirement from the school, all were about accounting research. Specifically, students had to propose and design a research project (e.g., and experiment or archival study) and talk about how it fits into the literature.

I’ve never seen an accounting program in the US require much research, let alone a full thesis. Some have a thesis requirement for honors students, but even that is rarely about research.

While here I also had the privilege of serving on Christian Peters’s dissertation committee. That process is a little different than in the US. The paper requirements aren’t that different, but the defense is.

First, all full professors wear their robes at the defense (I’m not a full professor, so I wasn’t allowed to wear a robe; I wore a suit). Meanwhile, Christian wore a tuxedo.

Christian had to stand for the entire hour. He got to select two other PhD students to stand behind him to support him.

The committee took turns, one by one, asking questions. Christian always responded with “Dear honorable opponent …” or “Most honorable adversary” or something like that. Then he would answer the question.

Here’s a picture of his committee.

You’ll notice that one of these things is not like the others … I am the only person who was not a full professor, not wearing regalia, and not a current or former editor at The Accounting Review (premier accounting journal). Can you say “imposte syndrome?” Haha. We had a lot of fun though.

There were about 50 spectators at the defense. After the defense, Christian took us all out for drinks and snacks. Then he took the committee, his family, and a few close friends to a very fancy restaurant. I’ve heard that a PhD defense can cost as much as a wedding all told.