Bridging the education–profession gap: The Accounting Student–Practitioner Day (ASPD) program

This paper provides a detailed discussion of an annual (and cost-effective) professional-development event we call the Accounting Student–Practitioner Day (ASPD). This program brings together, for a single day, students, accounting faculty, and accounting professionals in a conference-like setting. The conference format provides a unique, and formal, link between the classroom environment and the professional world students will be entering. The program is attended by accounting and non-accounting students from our university, senior students from area high schools, and undergraduate students from other universities in the area. Specific objectives of the program are to help students learn what it takes to become an accounting professional, to provide students with information that facilitates their career-choice decision, and to encourage networking and community-building activities. Assessment data indicate that the ASPD program is successful in terms of its stated objectives. The relatively low cost of operating the program makes it attractive for other accounting programs. The paper includes a set of recommendations for those faculty interested in implementing an ASPD program at their own institution.     

Accounting education: Turning wrongs into rights in the 1980's

This article speculates upon the evolution of accounting education in the 1980's. Ideas are presented which impact upon many facets of higher education including undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs, as well as research and service. Further, institutional issues concerning the role of academics are addressed.The paper begins with “wrongs” of accounting research, education, libraries, and continuing education. Particular stress is placed upon weaknesses in educating and motivating accounting faculty to teach and have primary concern for students. Promotion, tenure, expense support, and reward structures are biased toward research and publication rather than teaching. Funding and faculty attention are not directed toward innovation in accounting education and development of university libraries as learning centers. In short, accounting educators continue to “educate for absolescence.”The paper ends with some suggestions of how to turn “wrongs” into “rights.” More than increased funding is needed. Of primary importance is a shift in attitudes and reward structures.     

Accounting “Boot Camp”

This study examines the effectiveness of a program designed to set appropriate student expectations and motivate students to put forth the necessary effort to succeed in intermediate accounting and other upper-division accounting courses. At a mid-sized public university in the Western US many students enrolled in Intermediate Accounting I (their first upper-division course) struggle with the rigor and academic demands of this course, resulting in failure rates of 30–45%. In many cases, students new to upper-division courses appear to lack a commitment to, or awareness of, the effort needed for success in the accounting program. The faculty implemented an accounting “Boot Camp” to prepare new accounting majors for the expectations of the program. This paper details the implementation of the Boot Camp and reviews its effectiveness by comparing the performance of attendees with the performance of non-attendees. After controlling for other contributing factors, the evidence suggests that attendees outperform their non-attending peers in Intermediate Accounting I. This relatively low-cost intervention should be attractive to faculty concerned about the common problem of students failing and then retaking intermediate accounting.     

Sustainability of the accounting and finance academic profession: students’ and supervisors’ views about the PhD supervision process

This study explores the research supervisory practices of accounting and finance PhD students at Australian and New Zealand universities. Given documented faculty shortages in the accounting and finance disciplines, such investigation is timely and relevant. In the context of student engagement with their community of academic practice and their intrinsic motivation related to individual competence and autonomy, situational adjustments are inevitable and explain some differences between students’ perceptions and supervisors’ expectations. Our findings demonstrate that, despite general satisfaction with the PhD supervision process, students articulated concerns regarding constructive feedback and pastoral care provided by their supervisors, as well as guidance regarding data analysis/statistics.     

Personality types of accounting students and faculty: Comparisons and implications

This exploratory study presents and discusses differences found in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) types (personality preferences) of undergraduate and graduate accounting students, as well as accounting faculty members as they apply to two concerns. The first is the ability of today's accounting education programs to attract the types of students demanded by the profession. The second is the propensity of accounting faculty to expand traditional teaching modalities beyond those aimed at disseminating technical accounting knowledge. The results (using chi square tests) indicate significant differences in certain MBTI types among the groups, which have implications for accounting programs as they attempt to implement fundamental changes advocated by the profession and the Accounting Education Change Commission. The implications are discussed as they relate to accounting students who are predominantly extraverts, sensors, thinkers, and judgers, as well as to attracting and retaining a more diverse group of students. The implications of expected changes in teaching modalities are also discussed as they relate to accounting faculty who are predominantly introverts, sensors, thinkers, and judgers.     

Undergraduate student research programs: Are they as viable for accounting as they are in science and humanities?

This paper reviews a recent thrust in academia to stimulate more undergraduate research in the USA, including a rapidly growing annual conference. The paper also describes programs in which significant foundation grants have been received to fund undergraduate research projects in the sciences and humanities. In particular, selected humanities students working in teams in a new “Philosophy Lab” are allowed to embark on long-term research projects of their own choosing. Several completed projects are briefly reviewed in this paper.In April 1989, Trinity University hosted the Third National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and purposely expanded the scope of the conference to include a broad range of disciplines. At this conference, 632 papers and posters were presented representing the research activities of 873 undergraduate students from 163 institutions. About 40% of the papers were outside the natural sciences and included research in music and literature. Only 13 of those papers were in the area of business administration; none were even submitted by accounting students. In 1990 at Union College, 791 papers were presented; none were submitted by accountants. In 1991 at Cal Tech, the first accounting paper appeared as one of 853 papers presented.This paper suggests a number of obstacles to stimulating and encouraging accounting undergraduates to embark on research endeavours. These impediments are somewhat unique to accounting, and it appears that accounting education programs are lagging in what is being done to break down obstacles in science, pre-med, engineering, humanities, etc. This paper proposes how to overcome these obstacles in accounting. One of the anticipated benefits of accounting student research, apart from the educational and creative value, is the attraction of more and better students seeking creativity opportunities in addition to rote learning of CPA exam requirements. This, in part, might help to counter industry complaints that top students are being turned away from accounting careers nationwide.     

Accounting and business students’ approaches to learning: A longitudinal study

This study reports the results of an investigation into the learning approaches of undergraduate accounting and business students from three universities in Ireland who were exposed to a learning environment, namely the case study method, which aimed to encourage a deep approach to learning. In order to assess the effectiveness of the intervention, the ASSIST research instrument was used to investigate changes in students’ approaches to learning over time. Consistent with previous research, this study considers whether gender is related to students’ approaches to learning over time and if there are differences between students majoring in accounting or business in their approaches to learning. The results of the study indicate that the case study intervention was successful in some respects. However, contrary to expectations, an overall statistically significant increase in students’ surface approach to learning was found. Additionally, it is reported that changes in students’ approaches to learning over time are not associated with gender or degree program. The results of this study offer insights to accounting educators developing educational interventions to encourage deep approaches to learning.     

Innovation or renovation: effective project design for accounting and MBA students

It has long been recognized that accounting and finance students need multidisciplinary skills and most degree courses reflect this in the curriculum. In addition, the growth of business administration courses, with a high accounting and finance content, and the constant call for relevance and ‘real world’ application, has persuaded many academics that educational progress can be made by employing project-based group work to bring together diverse skills and disciplines. This paper endorses that view, but suggests that careful thought is required to match the aims of the project with the developing skills and experience of the student groups. It explores the role of project clients and student learning and also the level of faculty involvement necessary to fulfil learning objectives. These issues are explored within the context of a project on mergers and acquisitions, which combines strategy, economics, accounting and behavioural considerations and has been employed on full-time MBA courses at one UK university (disguised as ‘Utopia’ in the paper) for more than 20 years. Experience from the project suggests that renovation of old methods is often preferable to major innovations and that the involvement of outside clients needs to be thought through carefully. A semi-live close-bounded version of the project is shown to work better than an open-ended pure consultancy project.     

Sustainability + Accounting Education: The Elephant in the Classroom

Despite the growing importance of sustainability and the sustainable development agenda, and despite the growing presence of papers recognising the critical interaction between sustainability and accounting and finance (and, indeed, with all social science), there has been a relatively muted response apparent within the accounting education literature itself. This relative lack of literature may well be unexpected but what is not unexpected is the difficulty that accounting and finance teachers have in developing such demanding new ideas with accounting and finance students in the classroom. Without in any sense gainsaying the considerable impediments to innovation, this explicitly polemical essay seeks to address a more fundamental difficulty: that of the way in which sustainability is approached and represented in both the literature and the classroom itself. The contention is that, unless sustainability is ‘keeping you awake at night’, you do not understand it. The paper seeks to support this contention and then offers an example of one undergraduate course that is explicitly designed to stop students sleeping peacefully.     

Integrating a virtual learning environment into a second-year accounting course: determinants of overall student perception

Rapid acceptance of, and changes in, information technology are revolutionizing the way educators teach and students learn. This study reports on the use of Blackboard as a tool for creating a virtual learning environment (VLE). Responses from undergraduate accounting students in New Zealand provide data on the use of the VLE as a learning aid. Findings suggest that the students have openly embraced the VLE and support its adoption by faculty members in other courses. However, students appear unwilling to actively participate in two-way online activities. This has implications for faculty contemplating the adoption of a VLE in their courses.     

The Impact of Research Assessment Exercises on UK Accounting and Finance Faculty

Published research outputs have for a long time been used to assess the performance of UK accounting and finance faculty. This process has been institutionalised and formalised through the introduction of Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs). RAEs have now become a central and recurring feature of university life. This research evaluates the perceptions of UK accounting faculty of the RAE. We surveyed 713 research active academics in November 1997 drawn from old and new universities, and from senior and non-senior faculty. The 182 academics who responded perceived that the quality of their individual and their department’s research had been increased. However, teaching and administration were believed to have been negatively affected. Overall, twice as many academics believed the RAE had a negative rather than a positive impact upon their jobs. The results across the university divide (old vs. new universities) were fairly homogeneous. However, the responses of senior and non-senior staff were significantly different. Non-senior respondents believed the RAE had a significantly greater negative impact on their teaching, administration, promotion prospects and job mobility than senior respondents. Overall, respondents perceived the RAE ratings to be fair. Publication in top UK research journals was perceived to be the greatest indicator of research quality. The findings have important implications, particularly for the recruitment and retention of non-senior accounting and finance faculty.     

美国会计博士生培养方式及其启示

优秀的会计师资是世界各国院校稀缺的人力资源,而高质量的会计博士教育是达到这一目标的首要前提。本文详细阐述美国会计博士的招生、培养、去向,为我国会计博士的培养方式提供借鉴。本文提出,我国应实行独立的博士生与导师关系,大力提高会计教师职业的市场竞争力,以期实现高质量的博士生教育,并提高我国会计研究水平。     

Accounting and finance in UK universities: Academic labour,shortages and strategies

This paper contributes to the literature on change in the higher education sector arising from massification, increased political control, international mobility and competition. Drawing on various data sources and labour shortage models, it considers academic labour in UK accounting and finance academia over the period 2000 to 2012. A disequilibrium between supply and demand is evidenced through the identification of recruitment problems, unfilled vacancies, and retirements. The impact of research assessment on faculty backgrounds is shown to result in inadequate supply of faculty with the required skills. Strategic responses to labour shortages include: increased recruitment efforts, early promotions, enhanced remuneration and reducing restrictions on occupational entry. The consequences and future implications of shortages and strategies are considered. In particular, the decoupling of research and teaching in accounting is challenging the future existence of accounting as an academic discipline. The current generation of accounting academics is also under threat – if they neither excel at research nor are professionally-qualified they risk becoming undesirable.     

Guest Editorial

This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study of the determinants of student performance on undergraduate accounting degree examinations. The educational background, demographic characteristics and financial/investment characteristics of a group of undergraduate students were determined in an attempt to explain differences in student performance in both first year and third year examinations. The results indicate that few of these background variables had a significant impact on examination performance and that the best predictor of third year performance was in fact performance in the first year examinations.     

Using Pacioli’s pedagogy and medieval text in today’s introductory accounting course

Students today see little relevance in learning double-entry bookkeeping and find it difficult to learn how to prepare journal entries correctly. In particular, they struggle with the first stage of the double-entry process: identifying which accounts are to be debited and which are to be credited for each transaction. This paper reports on an attempt to overcome this situation by using the first printed instructional text on the subject (Pacioli, 1494) as the principal textbook on a 20-hour component of the introductory financial accounting course in an undergraduate accounting degree program. Instruction followed the pedagogy presented by Pacioli and only minimal additional costs to faculty were incurred.     

Accounting education literature review (1991–1997), part II: students,educational technology,assessment and faculty issues

This paper updates literature reviews by Rebele et al. (1991)and Rebele and Tiller (1986)by reviewing a subset of the accounting education literature published during the period 1991–1997. In a preceding paper (Part I), Rebele et al. (1998)reviewed accounting education articles related to two topics: curriculum and instructional approaches. In this paper (Part II), we review articles related to the topics of students, educational technology, assessment and faculty issues, published primarily in the following five journals: Journal of Accounting Education, Issues in Accounting Education, The Accounting Educators' Journal, Accounting Education: A Journal of Theory, Practice and Research and Accounting Perspectives. Recommendations for future research are offered at the end of each major section. An appendix identifies instructional cases and educational resources published in accounting education journals during the 1991–1997 period.     

THE COMPUTER BASED ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS COURSE

This note examines the importance of the accounting information systems course in the undergraduate accounting curriculum. Most accounting departments offer this course on an elective basis. However, the course should be required by all undergraduate accounting majors. By scheduling the course late in the formal academic program, the material will serve as a consolidating and integrating device. Accounting students will learn specific techniques enabling them to fully comprehend the interrelationships among all accounting courses completed.     

Faculty perceptions of online homework software in accounting education

Emerging technologies are providing a variety of tools for accounting educators. One of these tools is Online Homework Software (OHS). This study collects survey data from accounting faculty in the U.S.A. who were queried as to the utilization and perception of OHS in undergraduate accounting courses. Analysis of the survey data indicated five differences between OHS users and nonusers: (1) years of teaching, (2) number of course sections taught, (3) Accounting AACSB accreditation status, (4) faculty rank, and (5) courses taught by the respondents. Faculty indicated the tool is helpful when teaching in the online format and that OHS saves faculty time by reducing the time spent grading and processing student work. Users of OHS raised concerns about whether and how the tool helps students learn, how the students view the tool, and the cost of OHS. The data reported in this study are relevant to educators who have never used OHS as well as those who are currently using OHS. The data collected is important in promoting dialog concerning OHS usage and developing recommendations for continued improvements in the software.     

Student ratings of teaching effectiveness: What the research reveals

Over the years, evaluation of teaching effectiveness has been a significant issue facing faculty and administrators of accounting programs. This paper examines prior research on the validity and reliability of the most commonly used evaluation method, student ratings. The reviews purpose is to provide accounting educators with an understanding of the major research findings as well as their implications. The extent to which these findings can be generalized to an accounting program setting is a question that should be addressed by future research studies.     

Technology acceptance: Not all organisations or workers may be the same

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is widely accepted by researchers in the IT field as a reliable tool able to predict acceptance of new technology by individuals. The majority of these studies have used participants (both students and non-students) from within traditional businesses functions, e.g., accounting and finance. The ability of TAM to predict technology acceptance across all situations is not well documented. During the past decade there has been an increasing interest in research within Not-for-Profit (NFP) organisations. This paper considers whether people likely to pursue careers within the NFP sector have different attitudes to technology and whether such differences affect the measures used within technology acceptance models. A survey of business and social science undergraduate students, those most likely to enter careers in the Business vs. the NFP sector, indicated differences between the two groups that may impact on the technology acceptance models.