Tom Scott
Bachelor of Commerce (BCom)
Master of Business (MBus)
When Tom Scott graduated from the University of Otago he found himself heading in quite a different direction than he had initially planned.
After completing his BCom and MBus in Accounting at Otago, Tom was offered a teaching fellow position in the Department of Accounting and Business Law. Now Tom embarks on a new and exciting chapter in his academic career, as he takes up a prestigious PhD scholarship at the University of Technology in Sydney (UTS).
Like most accounting students, in the early stages of his studies Tom expected to walk out of Otago and into a highly-paid accounting role. Somewhere during his time at Otago, his direction changed and Tom decided to continue on to postgraduate studies with an eye to a career in accounting research.
“I've chosen to focus on financial accounting research because of the importance of such information in decision-making. Understanding the effects of regulations, managerial incentives, and investor responses to such information provides me with a rich set of possible research projects. I am particularly excited as I will be working with leading researchers in this area at UTS and of course I still have my connection to the active researchers at Otago.”
The stepping stone between his BCom and being accepted for a PhD was the 18 month Master of Business programme. “The MBus is a fantastic degree. Mine had a strong academic focus as I hoped to move on to study a PhD, but others in the programme were working on more professional projects, similar to a high-level project at a professional service firm.”
“I owe so much gratitude to my supervisor Associate Professor David Lont. He supervised my research project, aided my development as an accounting researcher, acting as a mentor during my time in the department, and even introduced me to UTS. The fact that the staff in my Department go over and above their responsibilities to assist, encourage and improve their students, is what makes it such a fantastic place to study.”