Philip Slater ’13

Gardner-Webb Alumnus has paper in European Academic Journal

“The Gardner-Webb professors are like, ‘I want to partner with you, not intimidate you,’ and they want to help you graduate. You learn a lot more with that approach.”

Philip Slater of Winston-Salem, N.C., a student in the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program at Gardner-Webb University and a GWU alumnus, experienced success after just one semester in the program. He had his first paper published in an academic journal.

“I’m thrilled,” Slater shared. “Being a brand-new doctoral student, I wasn’t thinking it would get published.”

He wrote the paper for Dr. Anthony Negbenebor’s International Business class. Part of the assignment was to submit it to a journal for publication. His paper examined why the framework for accounting used around the world hasn’t converged with the United States standard. Slater sent it to the “European Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance Research,” and the editors accepted it with minor revisions.

His professors gave him the tools that led to his success. “In my classes, research methods—both quantitative and qualitative were emphasized—as this is foundational to any doctoral-level course,” Slater observed. “I was able to utilize these newly-acquired research skills to locate a large amount of empirical research to support the hypotheses presented in my paper.”

Slater, a 2013 graduate of the GWU Master of Accountancy program, runs a consulting firm. He has been an adjunct instructor at Gardner-Webb since 2012. He also teaches and is the department head of Accounting and Finance at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem.

Because of his experience with GWU, he knew the DBA program would be top-notch. He’s found the classes to be structured with working professionals in mind. “I really felt like the instructors here actually cared about me,” Slater affirmed. “The Gardner-Webb professors are like, ‘I want to partner with you, not intimidate you,’ and they want to help you graduate. You learn a lot more with that approach.”