When considering 18 semester hours in a subject area, do some schools require the course to have a certain prefix? For example, will MBA 501 Managerial Accounting suffice or does it need to be ACCT 501 Managerial Accounting. I have heard conflicting reports.
It depends Most schools will compare the actual course material/description but I have seen a few who will only consider the prefix and/or the type of program the course was offered in. Two personal examples: 1.) I have had an engineering economics course (time value of money, etc) transfer for credit to replace an intro to finance course. In the eyes of both schools, these courses were the same. 2.) I took a course on Neural Networks in my MSEE program (course # EE6213)...prior to deciding on the MBA program, I looked at a MS in IT/IS and was told by the school that they would not transfer the three hour credit into their program to replace their Neural Network elective course for 3 hours of credit...their answer was "it isn't the same class because it wasn't offered as an IS course". Want to know the most ridiculous part? Both courses used the same book...which just so happens to have been written by the prof that I took the course from at Oklahoma State.
In this case, if a school makes that distinction, you are either talking to the wrong person or need to find another school. One possible exception - some state boards of accountancy are unbelivably bureacratic and will make this distinction. The school's policy may reflect this. One insight into this kind of course numbering - using MBA course prefixes for graduate accounting courses implies that the school has limited accounting offerings at the graduate level. However, this is NOT consistently the case.
When Keiser University looks for online adjuncts, they consider prefix codes to a totally unreasonable point. For example, there was a guy with a PhD in Bionucleonics from Harvard who (God alone knows why) wanted to teach Biology 101. They turned him down, since all of his graduate level coursework was in Bionucleonics, not Biology. Now, I don't know how prevalent that mentality is, but it's something to consider. -=Steve=-
The original source of the 18-hour rule is the Southern Association www.sacscoc.org/pdf/PrinciplesOfAccreditation.PDF (scroll down to page 25). "Credential Guidelines: Faculty teaching general education at the undergraduate level: doctor's or master's degree in the teaching discipline or master's degree with a concentration in the teaching discipline (a minimum of 18 graduate semester hours in the teaching discipline)." As you can see, the original source of the 18-hour rule (and I'm sure other accrediting agencies have similar rules) never says anything about course abbreviations and all that, so it's usually just a matter of how anal colleges and state licensure boards want to be about it.
I ran into same thing My masters is in "physical education" but undergrad in psych and grad school emphasis was sport psychology. Community college allowed me to teach Physical Education and Health, but not psychology, because many of my graduate level psychology courses were sport psych and therefore did not have "PSY" prefix. As others have noted, this is an accreditation issue for the school.
It does indeed depend on who you're dealing with and whether they are willing to be bothered enough to actually look at the courses. Often, the folks doing the hiring review aren't from within the subject field and they simply don't understand themselves that BUS563 Financial Accounting and Acct563 Financial Accounting are probably the same thing. Some of these administrators would let that BUS563 count in 18 hours in "business" but not let the Acct563 do the same. Usually you can explain it yourself and they will often accept your explanation or at least ask someone who knows such things. Sometimes though, you have to deal with people who are clueless and they intend to stay that way. The worse to deal with though are subjects where graduate work generally doesn't exist. An example is music appreciation - the number of gigs I see that want a "master's in music appreciation or 18 hours in music appreciation" is mind numbing.
