FSU Accounting Professor Kicks to the Top of Global Rankings with #1 Worldwide Honors
A Scholar, a Fighter, and a Force in Academia, Meet FSU's Most Prolific Professor.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Shattering world records is nothing new for longtime Fayetteville State University accounting professor Dr. Robert W. McGee. Not only is he a renowned master of numbers and research, but he has also earned a mind-boggling array of academic degrees – 23, total – including 13 doctorates from universities in the United States and four European countries.
His most recent accolade is being ranked #1 worldwide for his research on corporate governance and earnings management for the 15-year period 2009-2023, according to a recent bibliometric study.
In various studies, McGee also ranks #1 globally for accounting ethics and business ethics scholarship. He ranks #1 in the world for tax evasion research for the 47-year period 1975-2022 and for the 70-year period 1952-2022. (See below.)
He is rated among the Top 10 Economists in the World for research impact.
Dr. McGee, who has taught at FSU since 2012, has also achieved #1 all-time in the world among accounting professors by the Social Science Research Network. He holds a law degree and is a retired CPA who currently teaches three classes in the Broadwell College of Business and Economics: Financial, Managerial, and International Accounting.
He calls FSU and the city “the perfect size” and applauds the University’s people and mission – along with the mild climate. That is, “no harsh Northern winters,” like the ones he has experienced during much of his life.
Add published author to his credits, too. Since 1978, he has penned more than 60 nonfiction books and several novels (https://www.robertwmcgee.com/), several of which have been translated into multiple languages. His first and second novels, “Justifiable Homicide: A Political Thriller” and “Annie and the Senator” made Amazon’s best-seller list in the mystery and thriller category. All told, he has also written over 1,500 scholarly papers in about a dozen disciplines.
“The first word is the most difficult,” he says of the writing process. In short, get down the first sentence and just write – consistently and often, he advises. “My best ideas come to me early in the morning.”
At 79, Dr. McGee shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, quite the opposite. Three more books are slated to come out this year.
Keeping physically active is as important to him as staying mentally sharp. He embodies the belief that it’s never too late to make your dreams come true. Case in point: When he was 65, he returned to a teenage passion: martial arts.
“In 1961, I took judo, but had to quit because I couldn’t afford the lessons,” he recalls, explaining that he spent time as a boxing sparring partner, but also took to street fighting at times to fend off bullies.
When he noticed that a Fayetteville martial arts studio was offering free lessons for a month, the temptation was too great to resist.
“I didn’t know if I could do it anymore,” he says. “I didn’t have a heart attack, so I decided to keep going.”
Fast forward and he has won more than 50 world championships in taekwondo, karate, kung fu, tai chi (both Yang style and Sun style), and qigong. He has 80-plus gold medals in taekwondo and karate national championships (USA). His career gold medal count is 1,118.
Dr. McGee’s post-doctoral studies include certificates in tai chi from the Harvard Medical School and Chinese medicine from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been inducted into the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame, International Martial Arts Hall of Fame, Taekwon-do Hall of Fame and Who’s Who in the Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
HOW DOES HE DO IT ALL?
Ask Dr. McGee if he follows a special diet and he responds with a semi-serious tone, “Ice cream and chocolate chip cookies.” He “tries” to take vitamins every day. Sometimes he’s successful.
Sleep? “I go to bed at different times,” he says.
A constant in life is his wife of 56 years, Margaret, who he met in a “hippie bar” in Kent, Ohio, on Halloween night in 1969. The couple have two grown daughters, Mary and Michele. We caught up with Dr. McGee during a brief vacation to Myrtle Beach that he says his family convinced him to take. He fielded phone interview questions poolside with a nearby cold beverage – and a ready laugh.
The key to his accomplishments, he muses, may very well come down to one word: Curiosity.
“I’m just interested in a lot of different things,” he says.
Dr. Robert W. McGee has earned impressive world rankings on ScholarGPS. The database ranks more than 29 million academics in thousands of subspecialties in all disciplines. For the most recent ranking (2025), Dr. McGee’s all-time world rankings in the Productivity category are:
- #1 Accounting
- #1 Accounting reform
- #1 Corporate governance
- #1 Governance
- #1 Tax
- #1 Tax evasion
- #1 Transition economy
- #2 Business and Management
- #2 Developing country
- #2 Public finance
- #3 Ethics
- #7 Financial statement
- #42 Financial crime
“My overall productivity ranking among 29,161,103 scholars in all disciplines is 90, which places me in the top 0.0003%,”- Dr. McGee.
THE BACKSTORY
He grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, in a modest Catholic household where hard work and keeping busy were valued.
He stayed at home while earning his first degree: a BA in Social Science from Gannon University. “It was cheap, my mom made good hamburgers, and I didn’t want to pay rent,” he says.
He could also indulge his interest in music, as a self-taught bass guitarist and sometimes keyboardist in a band called The Intruders. He would play gigs, teach guitar to youngsters, and even work in factories, to help pay for college.
Gannon required students to take a wide array of interesting courses, which only whetted his appetite for knowledge and to continue on his educational journey.
He had an idea … a goal. Break “The Guinness Book of World Records” for the greatest number of academic degrees, which he recalls was nine at the time. He more than doubled that achievement, but the category had been eliminated, he says.
The education led to real-life experiences, some of which sound like an adventure movie in fast motion.
On a plane headed for an accepted position in Armenia in 1998, he recalls reading a book about international accounting standards in the country. By the time he arrived, he felt qualified to perform well.
A fast learner, he ended up drafting the accounting law for Armenia and Bosnia and reviewed the accounting law for Mozambique.
He assisted the Finance Ministries of Armenia and Bosnia convert their countries to International Financial Reporting Standards – and he also assisted all the major universities in Armenia and Bosnia to upgrade their accounting curriculum to international standards as part of USAID Accounting Reform Projects.
Perks of his new career included a chauffeured vehicle, extensive travel, and two apartments.
Other highlights include lecturing or consulting in more than 30 countries in North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, Eastern and Western Europe and Oceania.
Sometimes he experiences “Impostor Syndrome,” he admits, and has even written a case study on the subject.
MULTIPLE DEGREES
Dr. McGee says he has always worked various jobs, some being high-level positions in Europe, while earning his academic degrees, which include:
- BA, Social Science, Gannon University (1969)
- BS, Economics, Excelsior University (1976)
- MST, Taxation, DePaul University (1976)
- JD, Law, Cleveland State University (1980)
- AS, Liberal Arts, Excelsior University (1979)
- AA, Liberal Arts, Excelsior University (1980)
- AA, Thomas Edison State College (1980)
- AS, Thomas Edison State University (1983)
- BA, Social Science, Thomas Edison State College (1982)
- BSBA, Accounting, Thomas Edison State College (1983)
- BS, Business, Excelsior University (1983)
- PhD, Accounting, University of Warwick (1986)
- PhD, Accounting, Taxation & Economic History, Union Institute & University (1986)
- PhD, Economics, Law & Political Philosophy, Union Institute & University (1993)
- PhD, International Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1993)
- Dr.oec., Accounting, University of Latvia (1993)
- DUniv, Public Finance, Lajos Kossuth University (now University of Debrecen) (1993)
- PhD, Philosophy, University of Bradford (2000)
- PhD, Law, Manchester Metropolitan University (2002)
- PhD, Politics, University of Sunderland (2003)
- DPhil, Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England (2006)
- PhD, Applied Global Ethics, Leeds Metropolitan University (now Leeds Beckett University) (2011)
- DSc, Public Finance & Economic Development, Tartu University (1994)
Plus:
- A certificate in tai chi from the Harvard Medical School
- A certificate in Chinese medicine from the Chinese University of Hong Kong
- A certificate in Health After Cancer: Cancer Survivorship for Primary Care from
Stanford University School of Medicine
The most beneficial “money” degree he earned was the doctorate from prestigious Warwick University in England, he says, adding, “When there’s a shortage of accounting professors, it opens a lot of doors.”
Not as useful: a philosophy degree. “Anyone can become philosopher after five drinks,” he quips with his usual humor.