Accounting education at a crossroad in 2010 and challenges facing accounting education in Australia

Of the various reports released in 2010, two purport to examine the state of accounting education in Australia. These are Accounting Education at a Crossroad in 2010 and Challenges Facing Accounting Education in Australia. Both were released as collaborations of the leading academic organisation, the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) or professional accounting bodies in Australia including the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA),1 and Certified Practising Accountants of Australia (CPA Australia). As their titles imply, the main thrust of these reports is to examine the challenges facing accounting education in Australian universities and, as such, they act as the input for this AE Briefing. The main challenges articulated in these reports portray a sector suffering from the combined pressure of a large international student enrolment, high student-to-staff ratios, an inadequate funding model, and an ageing academic staff profile. By way of commentary, we suggest that, if these gloomy circumstances continue to develop unabated, then the future for the sector will play out as a ‘perfect storm’2 with the sector suffering on-going troubled development.

Students' perceptions on using iPods in accounting education : a mobile-learning experience

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to assess the benefits derived from the application of mobile devices as part of the students’ online learning experience and the extent to which the perceived benefits are linked to student learning styles.

Design/methodology/approach – A small group of students enrolled in an exclusively online graduate accounting program were issued with iPods as part of their learning materials. Two data collection instruments were issued: a questionnaire to elicit students’ opinions on the usefulness of the iPod as a tool for learning; and a questionnaire to establish their learning styles (using a VARK© questionnaire).

Findings – The findings indicate that the primary advantage of iPods lies in its portability, which, in turn, facilitated efficient and effective use of time and study planning. The portability attached to iPods allowed students to take advantage of what otherwise have been down-time, such as commuting. Students with a preference for visual learning rated the iPod as being important to their learning.

Research limitations/implications – The generalizability of the findings is limited due to the low sample size (23) that constrains the robustness of the results.

Originality/value – The exploratory nature of this study provides preliminary evidence on the perceived usefulness of handheld devices as a learning tool.

Towards a global model of accounting education

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the accounting education systems in three countries - Australia, Japan and Sri Lanka - to inform the development and testing (by application) of a Global Model of Accounting Education.

Generic skills in accounting education in a developing country: exploratory evidence from Sri Lanka

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the generic skills developed during the undergraduate degree from the perspectives of final year undergraduates and graduate employers. Design/methodology/approach - The list of generic skills tested in this study was contextualized to Sri Lanka and developed based on prior studies. Data obtained from stakeholders via a questionnaire survey was analyzed using paired sample t-test; independent sample t-test; principal component analysis; and one-way analysis of variance, with a view to explore, evaluate and compare respondents' perspectives. Findings - The findings revealed both stakeholders believe that most of the generic skills tested in this study are important for graduates' career success. Consistent with prior studies, respondents prioritized generic skills for career success above technical skills. Final year accounting undergraduates are aware of the skill expectations in the employment market. However, they perceive that most of the important generic skills are not adequately developed during the degree. Practical implications - Findings of this study inform the importance of adopting a holistic approach to the redesign of the accounting curricula to accommodate generic skill development during the degree. Suggestions include: establishing strong links between universities, professional accounting institutions and employers; introducing participatory methods of curriculum design; and assimilating continuous reviews and frequent updates to curricula. Originality/value - Sri Lanka, a developing country, was selected for this research given that little has been reported in the literature in terms of generic skills development of accounting graduates in developing countries.

The role of scrrencasts in virtual accounting education

[ES]Despite the rapid growth of new technologies in universities, there is still little empirical evidence on the incidence of certain e-learnings mechanisms on students’ success or failure, particularly among accounting students. According to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, screencasts are an effective and efficient tool for enhancing students learning, particularly in online accounting education where face-to-face interactions between instructor and students are limited.

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.

Ethics education for accounting students - a toolkit approach

In 2006, the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB), an independent standard-setting board of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) released an information paper entitled Approaches to the Development and Maintenance of Professional Values, Ethics and Attitudes in Accounting Education Programs. The information paper stems from a global research project on ethics education in the accounting profession. The paper is designed to stimulate discussion and debate on the subject of ethics education and includes the provision of an Ethics Education Toolkit to encourage and assist accounting educators and member bodies of IFAC to implement ethics education programmes. Through a review of the literature, this paper considers why we should teach ethics, the types of ethics interventions that have been undertaken and the issues in teaching ethics to accountancy students. The paper then describes in detail the Ethics Education Toolkit and provides some evidence on the positive reaction of a group of students who are taught ethics, based on the principles and practice included in the toolkit.

International education, the formation of capital and graduate employment : Chinese accounting graduates’ experiences of the Australian labour market

Since the late 1970s, international education has steadily gained in popularity in China.An emerging middle class seeks to strengthen its position in China’s rapidly stratifyingsociety under its socialist market economy with the shift from wealth creation for all towealth concentration for a few. Previously, a foreign qualification was considered apassport to success in either the host or home country’s labour market. But the growingpopularity of overseas study, coupled with the massification of the Chinese highereducation, means Chinese international students are seeking to distinguish themselvesin an increasingly competitive global labour market. This longitudinal study of internationalgraduates, backgrounded by Australian employer perceptions, examines thejourneys of 13 Chinese accounting graduates as they attempt to transition from anAustralian university into the Australian labour market. Bourdieu’s thinking tools offield, capital, disposition and habitus are utilised to consider how different cultural,social and linguistic capitals inform employer understandings of ‘employability’ meantChinese accounting graduates significantly adjusted their life goals.

Dialogic education:reflections from an accounting course

Our paper aims to contribute to the growing body of literature that has suggested that tertiary accounting education should not simply transfer technical/functional/vocational accounting knowledge. This literature suggests that a more critical accounting educational content complemented by a more dialogical teaching approach is more appropriate. Our paper provides further reflections on just such a course and the challenges that this raises. Specifically, it comments on learner resistance and engagement, syllabus design, delivery and assessment methods. In addition, this paper introduces the role that theory, secondary research and debates have played in this course. The value of this type of course, in terms of developing and transforming the learners is discussed.

Innovators or inhibitors? Accounting faculty resistance to new educational technologies in higher education

While technology affords new opportunities and benefits for educators in their teaching practice, a significant number of faculty are resistant to adopting new technologies. Unprompted, 93% of faculty interviewed in the Australian study to be discussed in this paper pointed to accounting educator resistance as a key barrier to technology adoption and use. Adopting the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a framework, this paper argues that one of the greatest challenges facing business schools and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the 21st century is not new technologies themselves, but the ability of educators to embrace educational technologies. Drawing on the qualitative data to emerge from interviews with accounting educators recognised as exemplary in their use of innovative technologies, this paper explores the reasons for lack of faculty uptake and argues for academics to become innovators rather than inhibitors. The findings offer a timely insight into a twenty-first century issue affecting HEIs and, specifically, accounting academics. While carried out in the Accounting discipline, the findings may be relatable and applicable to all disciplines. A suite of recommendations are proposed for institutions, business schools and academics to consider.

Benchmarking introductory accounting curricula : Experience from Australia

Within the context of debate about the state of accounting education in general, introductory accounting subjects have been the target of considerable criticism, particularly in terms of narrow content, technical focus, use of transmissive models of teaching, and inattention to the development of students‟ generic skills. This paper reports on the results of an exploratory study of these issues in introductory accounting and which involved the review of subject outlines and prescribed textbooks, and the conduct of a cross-sectional survey of the introductory accounting teaching coordinators in Australian universities (n=21). The primary aims of the study were to establish and apply benchmarks in evaluating existing curricula with respect to subject orientation, learning objectives, topics, teaching delivery, learning strategies, and assessment. The results of our study suggest that traditional approaches to subject content and delivery continue to dominate, with limited indicators of innovations to enhance the diversity and quality of learning experiences and learning outcomes.

An investigation into the use of a blended model of learning in a first year accounting subject

The weaknesses of ‗traditional‘ modes of instruction in accounting education have been widely discussed. Many contend that the traditional approach limits the ability to provide opportunities for students to raise their competency level and allow them to apply knowledge and skills in professional problem solving situations. However, the recent body of literature suggests that accounting educators are indeed actively experimenting with ‗non-traditional‘ and ‗innovative‘ instructional approaches, where some authors clearly favour one approach over another. But can one instructional approach alone meet the necessary conditions for different learning objectives? Taking into account the ever changing landscape of not only business environments, but also the higher education sector, the premise guiding the collaborators in this research is that it is perhaps counter productive to promote competing dichotomous views of ‗traditional‘ and ‗non-traditional‘ instructional approaches to accounting education, and that the notion of ‗blended learning‘ might provide a useful framework to enhance the learning and teaching of accounting. This paper reports on the first cycle of a longitudinal study, which explores the possibility of using blended learning in first year accounting at one campus of a large regional university. The critical elements of blended learning which emerged in the study are discussed and, consistent with the design-based research framework, the paper also identifies key design modifications for successive cycles of the research.