PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (September 14, 2020) – PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has awarded Prairie View A&M University’s (PVAMU) College of Business with a $10,000 grant to invest in the accounting curriculum’s digital skills development, technology, and enhanced learning capabilities. This announcement comes after PwC announced a Digital Enablement program this spring for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), awarding up to 32 different schools.
PVAMU faculty and students visit the PwC offices in Houston on September 21, 2019.
PVAMU’s College of Business will use the grant to invest in its technology infrastructure as well as expand training opportunities for faculty on relevant technologies for classroom instruction.
“This grant will allow us to purchase laptops to loan to students to ease the burden of online classes,” said Clyde McNeil, an accounting faculty member who facilitated the PwC proposal opportunity. “We also want to create an internal hub for accounting faculty to share data sets, ideas, and lessons learned to ensure a cohesive teaching approach.”
McNeil says the grant will also be used to provide support for faculty members to conduct research related to incorporating digital skills into the accounting curriculum, such as journal submission fees for teaching cases.
“This timely support will help us attain our mission of providing the best education and preparation for our students,” said Munir Quddus, Ph.D., dean of the College of Business. “We look forward to building on this partnership with PwC.”
As part of the grant, a data analytics course will be introduced this semester. Faculty training will be geared toward enhancing knowledge of data analytics, robotic process automation, and artificial intelligence, areas that have been identified as vital technologies for accounting students.
“We want to build around this concept to make sure our students are expanding their knowledge of emerging technologies and shape behaviors around the importance of digital skill development,” McNeil said.
As a bonus, PwC’s Digital Enablement program encourages faculty and students to engage with the PwC Digital Fitness App, which allows users to take a digital fitness assessment, receive a digital fitness score, and create a customized learning path to enhance their digital IQ.
“This grant helps tremendously in our efforts to strengthen the digital competencies of our students,” McNeil said. “The accounting industry is rapidly evolving with the use of technology, and it’s important that our students are prepared to meet these challenges head-on. We see digital skill development as a critical component of our accounting curriculum.”
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By Kendall Hebert