Knowledge base and skill development in accounting education: Evidence from China

This paper presents the result of a survey on the required knowledge, skills, and pedagogy for accounting education as perceived by accounting practitioners, educators, and students in China. Respondents generally agreed to a series of knowledge and skills that are important to the training of accounting students, although some variance exists among the respondent groups regarding the perceived importance of those knowledge and skills. The findings also reveal that the respondents were dissatisfied with the present delivery of the needed knowledge and skills. Thus it is contended that accounting education reform in China is not only necessary, but imperative. This study also makes a comparative analysis with similar studies in the US, in terms of commonalities and differences in respondents’ perceptions between the varied economic, technological and cultural environments in China and the US.     

Perceptions of master of accountancy graduates concerning their job search and employment experiences with public accounting firms

The public accounting profession has been calling for a 150-hour education requirement for new entrants to the profession for over two decades. The rationale for increasing the entry-level education requirement is that since the business world is more dynamic and complex than ever before, new professionals need broader knowledge and skills to be able to cope. Graduates of master of accountancy (MSA) programs would appear to be the type of students that public accounting firms are seeking since they often have intellectual breadth gained through undergraduate degrees in areas other than accountancy, current technical competence in accountancy, and frequently have work experience. This paper reports the results of a study undertaken to determine the perceptions of MSA graduates concerning: (1) how recruiters from public accounting firms viewed their non-accounting academic backgrounds and work experience; (2) how well prepared they were for their first jobs in public accounting as compared to traditional undergraduate accounting majors; and (3) any bias they experienced during the hiring process. The results of this study indicate that although a majority of the respondents who desired careers in public accounting were able to secure jobs in the field, they believed it was harder for them to get jobs in public accounting than their peers with just undergraduate degrees. The majority did not feel that public accounting firms viewed their non-accounting academic backgrounds and work experience favorably. Although more than half believed that they were paid more than their peers who held only undergraduate degrees, less than half felt that they were given more responsibility. The results also indicate that older MSA graduates believed that they were subject to age bias during the interview process.     

A study of the perception of public accounting skills held by UK students with accounting and non-accounting carrer aspirations

This paper examines perceptions of the skills that are important for success in public accounting. The total sample consists of 203 respondents who have operationalized carrer interest by either applying to accounting firms (n = 107) or to other large companies for non-accounting positions (n = 96). Data was gathered using an attitudinal questionnaire administered to the two groups. ttests, ANOVA and multivariate analysis were used to analyse the results. Factor analysis was used to generate inputs for discriminant analysis. The finding indicate that bot groups have similar perceptions of the importance of analytical ability and deductive reasoning. However, respondents interested in entering the accounting profession attach greater importance to the possession of good interpersonal skills, empathy, sensitivity, innovation and creativity. Accounting applicants describe accounting as incorporating a wider skill repertoire than those with non-accounting aspirants. The implications of these differing views for carrer choice and accounting education are explored.     

Excel in the accounting curriculum: perceptions from accounting professors

Public accounting firms emphasize the importance of accounting graduates being proficient in Excel. Since many accounting graduates often aspire to work in public accounting, a question arises as to whether there should be an emphasis on Excel in accounting education. The purpose of this paper is to specifically look at this issue by examining accounting faculty's perceptions of Excel in public accounting and accounting education. We survey 245 faculty members at over 100 accounting programs. We find that a majority of faculty incorporate Excel in their accounting classes consistent with their perception of Excel importance. However, we find that students are not fully proficient in Excel based on faculty's perceptions. This study contributes to the accounting education literature by identifying possible disconnections between Excel skills faculty include in the accounting curriculum and specific Excel skills faculty believe new hires (i.e. recent accounting graduates) most often use in public accounting.     

The life of an accounting information systems research course

This paper describes the development, evaluation, and the changes made to a research course for part-time Master of Science students in accounting. The course prepares students for their Master of Science thesis and aims to develop their research skills. On top of this, it managed to overcome barriers between faculty members who were chiefly involved in teaching, and those who mainly conducted research. In the course, students work in teams, closely supervised by faculty members, and go through a research process that ends with the preparation of a research paper. The course consists of 10 steps, which are described and critically discussed. Evaluation scores indicate that students appreciate the course and experience a steep learning curve. Faculty members also experience benefits, despite the extensive preparation time involved.     

Vocational skills in the accounting professional profile: the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) employers' opinion

The increasingly dynamic environment in which accountants work has necessitated a reorientation of accounting education. In some countries this issue has raised great interest amongst accounting educators and practitioners. The ongoing debate has already resulted in the publication of several statements and research papers that have raised the question of the relevance of the role of vocational skills in accounting education. Examples of these vocational skills are communication skills, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving skills. This paper reports on the importance that the employers of management accountants gave to a specified set of vocational skills and capabilities and the level of ability of these skills exhibited by students. In order to prioritize future developments an integrated analysis of the two attributes, importance and exhibited level, is enabled by the use of strategic mapping. The results of this study suggest that the employers perceive deficiencies in several capabilities that they have identified as being quite important. These deficiencies exist, in the employers' opinion, both prior to recruitment and on professional qualification. The research also indicates that, in the opinion of these employers, the development of these skills should be a central concern for universities and professional bodies. The employers also indicated that vocational skills should be attained in an integrated way.     

Accounting Undergraduates' Perceptions of Cooperative Learning as a Model for Enhancing their Interpersonal and Communication Skills to Interface Successfully with Professional Accountancy Education and Training

To interface effectively with professional accountancy training, accounting educationalists should ensure that they turn out graduates who possess the interpersonal and communication skills required of today's accountant. Attainment of these skills is promoted by group work. However, little empirical evidence exists to help academics make an informed choice about which form of group learning enhances interpersonal and communication skills. This paper addresses this deficiency by comparing perceptions of skills enhancement between accounting students who experienced traditional or simple group learning and those who undertook cooperative learning. The findings reveal that the cooperative learning cohort perceived their learning experience to be significantly more effective at enhancing interpersonal and communication skills than that of the simple group learning cohort. This study provides evidence that cooperative learning is a more effective model for delivering interpersonal and communication skills than simple group learning, thereby creating a more successful interface between academic accounting and professional accountancy training.     

Developing critical thinking: An examination of contemporary practices in accounting

Employers and professional bodies call for higher education accounting courses to emphasise the importance of critical thinking skills. This study provides an in-depth assessment of how critical thinking is currently taught and assessed across an entire accounting degree. Our study contributes to our understanding of how teaching and assessment can support students in developing their critical thinking. Using a case study approach, we identify resource restraints and disruptions to traditional forms of engagement as key challenges to developing critical thinking skills in accounting education. We conclude with suggestions for teaching practice, such as formative scaffolds and teacher-led discussions.     

Attitudes of accounting practitioners towards accounting faculty and accounting education

The purpose of this study is to assess how accounting practitioners view accounting faculty, accounting education, and the contributions of accounting faculty to the accounting profession. In general, the results of the survey indicate that practitioners have a favorable view of accounting faculty in that accounting faculty are viewed as honest, highly competent, and up-to-date, and their research as being useful to the profession. However, accounting faculty are viewed as not being very helpful in providing guidance towards solving the day-to-day problems of the practitioner. Moreover, the attitudes of the respondents towards accounting education appear related in many cases to the respondents' backgrounds, including their level of education, current position, and previous college teaching experience.     

Do Accounting Graduates’ Skills Meet The Expectations of Employers? A Matter of Convergence or Divergence

This study investigates the emphasis placed on technical and generic skills developed during undergraduate accounting courses from both the graduate and employer perspective. It is motivated by two issues. First, calls by the accounting profession and international education committees regarding the professional adequacy of graduates. Second, by the challenge facing educators and professional bodies to ensure accounting courses equip graduates with the necessary skills to add value to business. Data obtained from 174 graduates from an Australian university is compared with the perceived needs of a sample of employers. Major findings suggest that, while both groups acknowledged the importance of technical accounting skills, employers require a broad range of generic skills that graduates indicated were not being adequately taught in their accounting degree programme. Against this backdrop of skills convergence, the greatest areas of skills divergence from the employers’ perspective were those of team skills, leadership potential, verbal communication and the interpersonal skills of graduates.     

The Acquisition of Generic Skills of Culturally-diverse Student Cohorts

The changing nature of higher education and the structure of graduate labour markets have increased emphasis on employability and graduate outcomes. Universities have responded to this changed environment by embedding generic skills in the curriculum. This paper examines the generic skills that students perceived they acquired in their accounting studies in preparation for graduate employment. Given the changed background profiles of students studying accounting degree in Australia, and the employment difficulties they encounter on graduation, the study specifically addresses the perceptions of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. The findings demonstrate that, overall, students believed that their accounting course assisted in developing generic skills, while differences in perceptions were identified between different cultural cohorts. The research highlights the need to develop educational practices which embed generic skills development in the curriculum in a way that maximises the opportunities for culturally-diverse student cohorts to enhance their employment outcomes on graduation.     

University Accounting Curricula: The Perceptions of an Alumni Group

Abstract

Many of the problems associated with accounting education could be due to at least two reasons: inadequate attention given to the design of accounting programmes, and the narrow view of stakeholder approach adopted in examining education issues. The existing literature mainly focuses on students' perception about issues such as teaching quality, alumni experience in major accounting firms, and so on. This paper deals with the design of accounting programmes, and proposes to ascertain the views of an important stakeholder group (i.e. alumni) on this issue. The findings of this study give credence to some of the generally held views, e.g. that it is no longer appropriate for tertiary education providers to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. However, in some other areas, the findings represent a stark contrast to the views on certain issues promulgated by the professional bodies in New Zealand and overseas including the USA, (for example, the issue of appropriate proportions of accounting, business and liberal studies in an accounting programme). Notably, the respondents in general placed a low importance on auditing as part of an education programme. Further, in terms of the emphases that should be placed in an accounting programme, contrary to the endorsement in the literature, ‘work experience’ was not considered as important as other areas of emphasis, (e.g. global perspective, local perspective, professionalism and social and environmental perspective).     

Critical thought on critical thinking research

Calls for improving the critical thinking ability of accounting students have been clear and repeated in both the accounting education and professional accounting literature. Although numerous ideas for developing critical thinking skills have been generated, there remains a significant lack of empirical evidence, in both the accounting education and higher education literature, that any specific instructional method can enhance the critical thinking skills of students. Given the lack of empirical support for success in the development of critical thinking skills, the value of further efforts to develop students' critical thinking skills must be questioned. The premise of this paper is that accounting programs and faculty wanting to address the issue of developing critical thinking skills in their curricula should be able to empirically examine whether their efforts are achieving the desired effects. This article first presents a brief review of prior research on critical thinking skills development and then offers suggestions to improve the design of future research on this topic. The authors attempt to provide guidance on the design of more powerful empirical tests of promising curricular strategies so that accounting faculty can determine if their attempts to enhance student critical thinking skills are meeting expectations.     

Drivers of Teaching Effectiveness: Views from Accounting Educator Exemplars in Australia

Abstract

This paper summarizes the views, obtained via a survey instrument created by the authors and reported in studies by Stout and Wygal, of 22 accounting educator teaching exemplars from Australia. Each of these individuals has been cited for teaching excellence through receipt of one or more formal teaching awards. The paper responds to calls in Australia for increased attention to the dimensions of teaching effectiveness and to initiatives in the United States calling for a broader sharing of information among members of the academy regarding the characteristics of teaching effectiveness. Little direct evidence from the field of accounting education is available to date regarding such characteristics or antecedents of teaching effectiveness in the student learning environment. Our research therefore extends in a fundamental way the work of Stice and Stocks and Stout and Wygal. Specifically, perceptions from a sample of award-winning non-US faculties regarding the ‘drivers of teaching effectiveness’ in accounting education are recorded and analyzed. In decreasing order of perceived importance, drivers of teaching effectiveness are: having a student focus; commitment to teaching (as a profession); high levels of preparation/organization; the ability to link subject matter to the practice environment; and, instructor skills and attributes. This paper adds to our understanding of the drivers of teaching effectiveness and begins the process of creating a worldwide knowledge base in accounting education. The paper should be of interest to accounting faculty members interested in improving their teaching effectiveness and/or mentoring junior faculty members.     

‘Lights,Camera, Action!’ Video Technology and Students' Perceptions of Oral Communication in Accounting Education

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of an authentic assessment item on three dimensions of oral communication in accounting education: skills, self-efficacy, and relevance. An explanatory mixed methods design is used to explore students' perceptions of their development. The results indicate that an elevator pitch assessment has a positive impact on all three dimensions. In particular, the employed video technology fosters greater self-awareness and a more accurate perception of skill levels, and enhances students' self-efficacy. The contextualised learning experience also enables students to better appreciate the relevance of oral communication to their future careers. The paper extends the literature on video technology, self-efficacy, and generic skills development in accounting education, and provides relevant stakeholders with evidence of an authentic activity that can assist with bridging the skills-expectation gap.     

Survey evidence of teacher development based on AECC recommendations

Recent graduates from accounting doctoral programs were surveyed about their perceived preparation for specific teaching characteristics espoused by the Accounting Education Change Commission AECC (Accounting Education Change Commission). [(1993). Evaluating and rewarding effective teaching: position statement no. five. Issues in Accounting Education 8(2), 436-439.] Respondents also provided information on specific teacher training methods currently being used by doctoral programs, by academic employer departments, and by individual faculty. Overall, our results suggest that most faculty responding to the survey feel inadequately prepared in all AECC-espoused teaching characteristics. Further, most endeavors to develop skills reflecting these characteristics appear to rely on efforts of the individual, instead of from systematic efforts of doctoral programs or academic employers. That is, respondents generally indicate that training received in their doctoral programs is a relatively minor source of preparation for current teaching responsibilities, while investments in self-training have had the greatest impact on their preparation for teaching. Respondents also indicate that doctoral programs, academic employers, and individual efforts should share more equally in the responsibility to develop “teaching scholarship.”     

Final Year Accounting Undergraduates' Attitudes to Group Assessment and the Role of Learning Logs

Abstract

Group assessment now plays a significant role in higher education. Existing research has identified a number of benefits that derive from group assessment including the development of generic skills and the promotion of deeper learning. Despite its importance as a learning tool, there has been little research reported in the accounting literature, which has examined accounting students' attitudes towards the use of group assessment. This paper attempts to address this deficiency by exploring students' attitudes to the use of group assessment, in terms of group dynamics and generic skills development, in a cooperative learning environment within a final year undergraduate accounting module. In addition, the study analyses students' attitudes to maintaining a journal or learning log, which recorded the group's experience of completing the group assessment. Specifically, the study considers whether students' attitudes differ according to academic ability and it proffers explanations for the findings.     

The effectiveness of using spreadsheets to teach financial accounting

There have been numerous attempts to integrate micro-computers into the teaching of accounting courses in higher education. Two of the reasons that have been suggested for using computers on accounting courses are: firstly, the educational benefits and, secondly, that students will then be equipped with the computing and spreadsheet skills that they will require in the workplace. One method of using the computer is to use it as a computational tool, allowing the student to develop models from scratch. Such an approach was developed by Marriott & Simon (1990a). However, as there is little evidence regarding the educational effectiveness of using such methods, a rigourous and structured research project was conducted using first–year accounting degree students at Cardiff Business School. This article outlines the rationale for the project and analyses the results obtained. The results indicate that while spreadsheets can be successfully integrated into an accounting course, their use had no measurable impact on test performance. However, the use of computers can still be deemed to be worthwhile as the students' computer skills are enhanced and it permits further integration in other courses where educational benefits may be more readily obtained.     

Does workload and institutional pressure on accounting educators affect academia at Australian universities?

This paper examines accounting academics’ perceptions as to whether institutional pressure has increased in the previous 5–10 years subsequent to changes in the higher education environment, encouraging universities to adopt private sector managerialism. Results from 87 respondents indicated that workload pressures have increased and they experienced pressure to perform acts related to a student-as-customer model, which have negatively affected their well-being and work quality. The majority are not actively seeking to leave academia, but believe it is not a good time for others to aspire to such a career. This paper contributes to the debate about the sustainability of accounting academia at Australian universities.     

Comparative evidence about the verbal and analytical aptitude of accounting students

Concern over the declining quality of accounting students has led to widespread changes in accounting education. Yet, surprisingly little evidence exists to indicate that we can draw better students by changing curricula and teaching methodologies. This study adds to the rather small sampling of work on the relative quality of accounting majors. It focuses on the retention and attraction of high quality students with both analytical and verbal skills. The results show that the accounting major attracted and retained top students from the University. Students who chose an accounting major, however, tended to be stronger in analytical than verbal skills and this gap widened with attrition. Analytical skills related more strongly than verbal to performance in the introductory accounting course, although verbal skills became more important in more advanced coursework.