The purpose of this paper is to propose six recommendations to alleviate the accounting doctoral shortage. The problem has many dimensions including a shortage in the supply of qualified doctoral candidates, recent reductions in the size of doctoral programs in accounting, accounting faculty retirement, and the lack of funding for accounting doctoral students and programs. In addition, related problems include the increased faculty time required to mentor doctoral students, the increased costs of doctoral programs to the universities, longer program completion times and opportunity costs for doctoral students.

Recommendations include:

1. Fund a competitive research program that includes inter-institutional teams and provides competitive research grants that support doctoral students working on dissertations under the direction of faculty mentors. 2. The research grants should include financial buy-outs of faculty time to provide more capacity for doctoral seminars and the direction of doctoral students' research. 3. The research grants should also cover the overhead costs of the institutions involved. 4. To obtain access to more data accounting research teams should implement confidentiality protocols similar to those used for research with the Department of Defense. 5. Competitive stipends (including healthcare coverage) should be provided to doctoral students to offset the opportunity costs of a 4-5 year doctoral program. 6. The opportunity costs must be reduced by reducing the time required to complete the doctorate and consideration of the development of executive-type doctoral programs.

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