Developing a Global Model of Accounting Education and Examining IES Compliance in Australia,Japan, and Sri Lanka

The introduction of International Education Standards (IES) signals a clear move by the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB) to ensure high quality standards in professional accounting education at a global level. This study investigated how IES are perceived and valued by member bodies and academics in three counties: Australia, Japan, and Sri Lanka. It examined: (1) levels of awareness of IES; (2) drivers of compliance and convergence and non-compliance and non-convergence with IES; and (3) key factors influencing IES adoption. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been collected from interviews and questionnaire surveys to report on these findings. Further, as part of the study, comprehensive case studies of the accounting education systems of Australia, Japan, and Sri Lanka were developed. These case studies not only provided an insight into issues of diversity, culture, and language as they relate to IES, but also preceded the development of a global model of accounting education.¹1 In this paper, accounting education refers to education that is provided at both university level (or equivalent) and that offered by member bodies. This model is proposed as a way to assist interested parties in any country to readily identify their own unique system of professional accounting education.     

斯里兰卡社会福利探析

摘要：尚属发展中国家的斯里兰卡向民众提供了项目丰富的社会福利,降低了民众的生存风险,同时也为经济发展提供了优质的人力资源。普选、福利刚性、宗教和意识形态等都是深刻地影响着斯里兰卡的社会福利。囿于经济发展水平和政府财力,斯里兰卡的社会福利供给方面也存在某些不足。在今后转变经济增长方式的过程中,斯里兰卡应该更加重视社会福利建设,实现社会福利和经济发展的良性互动。     

Motivations behind human capital disclosure in annual reports

Although much has been discussed about voluntary disclosure of human capital in annual reports there has been limited examination of the motivations behind such disclosure. This study uses the perspective of the political economy of accounting to understand motivations. Using the method of content analysis, this paper examines human capital disclosure practices in annual reports of a sample of firms in Sri Lanka, a developing nation. Eleven case study interviews from the sample explore the motivations behind the disclosure practices of firms. Findings reveal that firms use disclosure to reduce tension between firms and their constituents, in the interest of further capital accumulation.     

Conceptions of Learning and Approaches to Learning—A Phenomenographic Study of a Group of Overseas Accounting Students from Sri Lanka

This study explores conceptions of learning (SCL) and approaches to learning (SAL) of a group of Sri Lankan students studying accounting in an Australian university. The focus is on how cultural background and home country learning experiences shape SCL and SAL of these students. This research is based on the phenomenographic method, and semi-structured interviews are used for data collection. The results indicate that the interviewed students have lower-order conceptions of learning, and show characteristics of surface learning. Although the social approval motive was dominant in these students, it was not manifested in an achieving approach. Students in this study embrace the pedagogical tradition of the West, and engage in deep learning when they are exposed to research or practice-based assessments. Remnants from years of secondary education and aspects of a collectivist culture play a vital part in the ways in which these students perceive and approach learning. In addition, preconceptions of accounting as a vocation and a discipline strongly embedded in practice, drive learning conceptions and learning approaches.     

Literature section

Abstract

The goal of professional accounting education is to produce competent professional accountants capable of making positive contributions over their lifetimes to the profession and society in which they work. International Education Standards (IESs) establish global benchmarks for pre-qualification education and continuing professional development for professional accountants.     

Ethics and accounting education in the UK — a professional approach?

Although the expectation of accountants is that they will always employ high ethical standards, empirical evidence suggests that individual accountants are, at best, no more ethically aware than average. This gap between expectation and reality could be the result of inadequate education. Universities cannot be relied upon to teach accounting ethics to prospective professional accountants principally because too few accountants have an accounting degree and because of the surface nature of accounting students' learning. The professional bodies pay only lip-service to ethics education in their syllabi and their treatment of ethics is thus both quantitatively and qualitatively inadequate. Accountants are consequently ill-prepared to face ethical dilemmas.     

Is it Shameful to be an Accountant? GenMe Perception(s) of Accountants' Ethics

The function that accountants fulfil in the economic system is dependent on their ability to maintain the perception of high ethical standards. Building on the idea that birth cohorts, otherwise known as generations, are a useful proxy for the socio‐cultural environment of different time periods, we focus on the so‐called ‘GenMe’, that is, students and young workers born in the 1980s and 1990s. In particular, combining the accounting and business ethics literature, the purpose of our paper is to contribute to an increased awareness of the GenMe perceptions of accountants, with special attention given to ethical aspects. We believe that the perceptions of this age group are particularly crucial for the future of the accounting profession as it is these young people who will either become professional accountants or the accountants' future clients. Using an extensive database of 1,794 questionnaires, results show that the impression of the accountant as a corrupt professional is not dominant among GenMe and seem to suggest the existence of a multifaceted perception of accountants' ethics. Specifically, the factors that contribute to influencing GenMe perceptions of accountants' ethics are level of education, having attended an accounting course at high school level, gender, and belonging to the accounting profession. Finally, our study indicates that there is room for improving public perceptions of accountants' ethics through university courses in ethics, continuing education programs, and focused communication strategies by accounting firms and professional bodies.     

Professional–Organisational Commitment: A Study of Canadian Professional Accountants

This paper extends the literature on professional and organisational commitment through an online survey of professional accountants that examines the influence of several contextual features; namely, workplace diversification, occupational stress, professional involvement and culture. The survey was carried out around the end of 2002 with Canadian chartered accountants (CAs) from four Canadian provincial institutes. Three of these provincial institutes are located in English-speaking provinces (Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia), while the fourth CA association is in Quebec, a predominantly French-speaking province. In contrast to prior research carried out more than two decades ago, our results indicate that respondents in public practice do not differ from respondents in non-public accounting settings in their level of professional commitment and in their level of organisational commitment. Our results also suggest that occupational stress and professional involvement are both significantly related to professional commitment. Finally, our survey data indicate that accountants working in Quebec had a lower professional commitment than their peers working in English-speaking provinces, thereby suggesting that culture exerts significant influence on professional commitment.     

Does the Holland model of occupational choice (HMOC) perpetuate the Beancounter-Bookkeeper (BB) stereotype of accountants?

This article investigates the Holland model of occupational choice's (HMOC) development, influence, and validity in relation to its classification of bookkeepers, accountants, and business professionals. Study 1 reanalyzes published data and provides evidence that the Beancounter-Bookkeeper (BB) stereotype, which is promoted in the HMOC, is partially predictive of the personality characteristics of individuals who choose to enter professional accountancy. Study 2 investigates the influence of HMOC training, and exposure to accounting education, on perceptions of the personality type needed for accounting work; results indicate that: (1) HMOC training is associated with perceptions that accounting work requires a BB personality, and (2) the importance of investigative skills to accounting work increase with accounting education. Following this, we review evidence that suggests low validity in the HMOC's claims of greater job success and satisfaction among BB accountants. Finally, we consider three possible processes that may explain Holland and colleagues’ conjoining of accountants with bookkeepers. Together, the analysis promotes skepticism regarding whether the HMOC's claim that professional accounting success demands a passive, compliant, subservient, i.e., BB, personality supports the public interest obligations of professional accountants.     

A new approach to accounting examinations: The Final Qualifying Examination in New Zealand

New Zealand's Final Qualifying Examination for accountants was introduced in 1989 and has developed in a different way from professional accounting examinations in other countries. It provides a final check on the quality of the individuals concerned, but it does not re-test the subjects studied at the university. It includes ethical issues facing accountants, and current issues facing the accounting profession. This paper examines the origins of the Final Qualifying Examination (FQE), and the influences on its subsequent development. Some problem areas are also discussed in order to assist others to learn from the experience of the FQE. Further modifications that will shortly impact the New Zealand accounting profession's admission policy are also introduced.     

CAP Forum on Forensic Accounting in the Post‐Enron World: Education for Investigative and Forensic Accounting*/FORMATION ET JURICOMPTABILITÉ

Recent financial scandals have raised the awareness that accountants should be alert to potential fraud and other economic disputes and can provide significant assistance in preventing, investigating, and resolving such matters. Forensic accountants provide these services with knowledge of court requirements and proceedings so that effective legal action is possible, even though most actions are concluded without the involvement of the courts. Although forensic accounting was growing in importance even before Enron and the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act, the ensuing tightening of the securities regulations in both Canada and the United States triggered recognition that accounting students and professionals need a fuller understanding of fraud and other economic crimes, and how to find, prevent, and resolve them, as well as the career choices that could be involved. While some of this material is covered in auditing texts and courses, emerging expectations will require the enhancement and restructuring of forensic accounting education within university programs, and will encourage more interest in graduate specialist professional designations. This paper has two objectives: to offer insights into the design and delivery of forensic accounting programs, and into the availability of professional programs; and to provide some exploratory evidence on the type of services currently rendered by investigative and forensic accountants in Canada.     

Professor R. J. Chambers: A biographical note

The paper attempts to assess the potential value of generic standards of competence to the future education and training of accountants and the implications for education, training and assessment practices. It identifies some problems in applying the technique of functional analysis to the definition of professional standards in general before looking at the specific problems of setting standards for accountants. Eraut's classification of types of knowledge which underpin professional performance is applied to the case of accounting. These comments are related to the draft accounting standards which have been produced under the Occupational Standards Programme with particular reference to the Management Accounting Standards.     

Who should teach what? Australian perceptions of the roles of universities and practice in the education of professional accountants

This paper addresses the respective roles and responsibilities of universities and practitioners in educating professional accountants. The issues are explored by a review of the literature in accounting and other professions regarding the respective roles of universities and employers in the development of both technical and non-technical knowledge and skills of professionals, particularly accounting practitioners. The literature review suggests that critics of university-based education fail to recognise (a) the changes that have occurred in the roles and responsibilities of accounting practitioners, and (b) the opportunity costs necessarily associated with providing generalist accounting degrees. Universities and employers have comparative advantages for the development of different types of professional skills and knowledge. These insights are extended by way of a series of interviews with Australian accounting practitioners, representatives from professional accounting bodies, recent accounting graduates, and accounting students about their perceptions of the respective responsibilities and roles of universities and employers. Although some interviewees recognised that universities cannot be ‘all things to all people’, there was a tendency to expect universities to have the major responsibility for the development in accounting graduates of both technical and non-technical knowledge and skills. Such perceptions tended to understate the responsibilities and comparative advantage of employers and result in unrealistic expectations about the outcomes of a university education. Employers need to be made more aware of the resource and other limitations associated with university programs and should develop meaningful opportunities for learning and reflection within workplace contexts.     

Changes in accounting curricula: discussion and design

This paper illustrates a model accounting curriculum developed to meet the needs of future accounting professionals. In addition, it offers a process for encouraging change in accounting curricula and discussion concerning teaching, pedagogy, and curriculum development. Calls for change in accounting education from academics and professional accountants are reviewed and the conclusion is reached that accounting education, as a whole, is still in need of reform.     

Ethical evaluations and behavioural intentions of early career accountants: the impact of mentors,peers and individual attributes

This study examined how mentoring support, peer influence and individual attributes of early career accountants (ECA) influence their ethical evaluations and behavioural intentions. Respondents indicate that their evaluation of the seriousness of the ethical conflict is affected by the perceived standard of ethical conduct of their peers, their personal ethical orientation, the extent of ethics education at university, and gender. ECAs’ evaluation of a senior colleague's unethical behaviour is affected by mentoring support and the perceived standard of ethical conduct of peers. In terms of ECAs’ willingness to contact accounting professional bodies for ethical advice, the size of the accounting firm and the extent of their ethics education at university are significant factors. Furthermore, the likelihood of respondents choosing a more ethical decision is correlated with his or her individual ethical orientation and the extent of ethics education at university.     

Dissemination and institutionalization of public sector accounting reforms in less developed countries: A comparative study of the Nepalese and Sri Lankan central governments

One of the major issues in the developing world today is the alleviation of poverty and it is acknowledged that public sector accounting has a key role to play in this through the effective allocation of resources. Implementing public sector accounting changes in developing nations has been a key agenda of international organizations since the 1980s. This study, drawing on the ideas of new institutionalism, strives to explore the implementation of public sector accounting reforms in two less developed countries (LDCs), namely Nepal and Sri Lanka. The empirical findings of the study demonstrate that, while internationally propagated public sector accounting reform ideas have not gone beyond the trial/proposal stage in Nepal, colonialism has bequeathed on Sri Lanka the promotion of accounting education and training, enabling the country to implement some of these reform ideas. However, increasing resistance to accounting changes at the lower administrative level, witnessed in both countries, indicates a need to understand the contexts of LDCs and to fulfil basic preconditions prior to disseminating/embarking on reforms there.     

Improving the writing of accounting students: A cooperative venture

Many accounting departments have initiated programs to integrate writing into the accounting curriculum; others have just begun the process. The purpose of this paper is to present the unique features of the writing program used at our university. As with many programs, this one elevates our accounting students' perceptions about the importance of writing, and improves the quality of accounting students' writing within the framework of the kinds of writing accountants actually do on the job. What's different about our approach is (1) a transition workshop, (2) the collaboration of an accounting instructor, a writing consultant, and professional accountants, and (3) a unique way of incorporating peer reviews. After these differences are discussed, a final section of the paper provides recommendations for designing a writing program.     

From Accounting to “Forecounting”*

Using Ross Skinner's 1995 CA Magazine article, “Judgment in Jeopardy", as a stepping stone, we revisit the meaning of professional judgment in accounting in light of developments in standard setting, financial markets, and business operations that have taken place over the past two decades. We argue that it is time to change the view that accountants' professional judgment is the application of accounting‐based knowledge and experience in the selection of an appropriate accounting method. Accountants now face a standard‐setting context that emphasizes the estimation of future cash flows as well as new business and financial realities. This context implies that, in exercising their professional judgment to choose between forecast alternatives, accountants must rely on knowledge and experience from other disciplines (even though this is not well integrated into accounting). Hence, accounting must evolve from its traditional stewardship role to the new role of “forecount‐ing” (the estimation of future cash flows). The implications as well as the challenges of that evolution are discussed.     

Experiential learning in accounting education: A prison visit

Traditional pedagogic methods in accounting education have been the subject of some criticism with potential solutions referring to out of classroom experiences. This paper relies on the concepts of situated and experiential learning to assess the effects of a learning opportunity involving visits to prison by students enrolled in the final year of an accounting degree program. Data collected from a self-designed survey suggest that the students were intellectually and emotionally engaged in the experience emanating from the novelty and anticipation of entering closed walls and meeting inmates who were former professional accountants. Students appeared to learn a number of lessons including the nature of conflicts faced by professional accountants, factors contributing to fraudulent conduct, and strategies on how they might deal with such conflicts in their professional careers.     

Integrated Reporting: A Review of Developments and their Implications for the Accounting Curriculum

Integrated reporting (IR) is a major development in a number of sustainability-related accounting initiatives and, if widely adopted, will require significant developments in professional and university accounting curricula. These will include: a strategic rather than operational or transactional focus; longer- rather than short-term outlook; prospective rather than retrospective analysis; qualitative commentary as well as quantitative information; and reports on wider business performance metrics rather than on narrower external financial reporting data or audit compliance. This paper reports on ACCA's support of and response to the latest initiatives in IR, in particular the impact this will have on the education and training of accountants in order to reflect these new principles to prepare the twenty-first-century accountant for a much more challenging role in the near future. These developments can only be in the wider public interest of improving the relevance of information for decision-making, for all stakeholders, and allow greater efficiency in the allocation of financial and other resources and in adding public value.