Turning snake oil into liquid gold: The alchemy of aligning a finance program with the CFA® body of knowledge.

A finance program determines relevance by aligning with professional standards, such as the CFA's body of knowledge (CBOK). Resistance to the integration process occurs when faculty members disagree with the program's targeted cognitive rigor (CR). This study suggests mapping the CBOK's CR facilitates integration by allotting CFA learning outcomes across existing courses and provides a framework for measuring a program's assurance of learning. This map demonstrates that Level-I CBOK should be viewed as a minimum requirement for an undergraduate finance program, and higher-level topics with comparable CR could improve students' comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]