To be or not to be: an investigation of accounting students’ career intentions

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zauwiyah Ahmad ◽  
Hishamuddin Ismail ◽  
R. N. Anantharaman
Keyword(s):  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
Career Intentions ◽  
Extrinsic Rewards ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
Student Cohorts ◽  
New Finding ◽  
Changes Over Time

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study accounting students’ intentions to pursue their careers as accountants and modelling this within the context of Malaysian accounting education. Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered via a questionnaire survey involving undergraduate accounting students. Factor analysis, independent sample t-tests, and multiple regressions were employed. Findings – In total, four findings were derived from this study. First, within the undergraduate accounting programmes, non-commitment towards the accounting profession can still exist. Second, intrinsic interest is a significant predictor of career intentions. Third, the influence of anticipated conflict provides a new finding in relation to accounting students’ career intentions. The last finding is concerned with the influence of internship experience on students’ career intentions. Research limitations/implications – It was assumed that differences detected between the accounting student cohorts reflect changes over time in students’ intentions. Practical implications – Suggestions that have been previously put forward in efforts to market the accounting profession were mainly focused on promoting the extrinsic rewards. However, findings from this study suggested that sole focus on extrinsic rewards is not enough to warrant commitment towards the profession. Instead, marketing efforts should also focus on intrinsic values of the profession. Originality/value – The study has provided evidence that anticipated conflict should be given more attention by accounting researchers. Although students’ career intentions seemed to become clearer and more uniform as they progressed with their studies, two issues remain to be addressed by education institutions and accounting professional bodies, namely anticipated conflict and the conduct of internship programme.

Perceptions of online self- and peer-assessment: accounting students in a large undergraduate cohort

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Michelle Pidduck ◽  
Nadia Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Student Cohorts ◽  
Reflective Skills

PurposeSelf-assessment (SA) and peer-assessment (PA) are considered useful tools in the development of lifelong learning and reflective skills. The authors implemented a teaching intervention using SA and PA amongst a large cohort of final year undergraduate students. The purpose of this study was to investigate students' perceptions of online SA and PA in order to understand the differences between these perceptions and to allow instructors to adopt differentiated instruction in developing a diverse student group's professional skills.Design/methodology/approachThe research design adopted a mixed methods approach through the use of surveys that were administered before and after the SA and peer-assessment intervention in a taxation module taught at a large public South African university. Through the use of a series of open and closed questions students' perceptions on SA and peer-assessment were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively.FindingsThe findings show that student perceptions of SA and peer-assessment differed significantly, where perceptions of SA were more positive than those towards PA. The findings indicate that SA and peer-assessment still present a challenge in an online context for large student cohorts, despite improved tracking, faster feedback and anonymity.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature by analysing students' perceptions about SA and peer-assessment in an accounting education context and in an online setting in South Africa.

USING A WHITE-COLLAR PROFESSION IN ACCOUNTING COURSES: APPROACHES TO ADDRESSING DIVERSITY

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
William D. Samson ◽  
Cheryl L. Allen ◽  
Richard K. Fleischman ◽  
Ida B. Robinson-Backmon
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Role Models ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

Accounting educators no doubt agree that diversity is an important and much neglected part of accounting education. They further recognize that it is difficult to incorporate this important topic into the accounting curriculum. This paper describes the efforts of various professors to expose business and accounting students to the evolution of diversity issues related to the accounting profession by using the book A White-Collar Profession [Hammond, 2002]. A White-Collar Profession: African-American CPAs Since 1921 is a seminal work which presents a history of the profession as it relates to African-American CPAs and documents the individual struggles of many of the first one hundred blacks to become certified. This paper describes efforts of faculty at four different colleges to utilize this book in their teaching of accounting. Instructors found that students not only developed an enhanced awareness about the history of the accounting profession, but that other educational objectives were advanced, such as improved communication and critical thinking skills, increased social awareness, and empathy for others. African-American students, in particular, embraced the people in the book as role models, while most every student saw the characters as heroic in a day when the accounting profession is badly in need of role models and heroes. This is encouraging given the profession's concern with diversity and the attention and resources directed at increasing the number of minorities entering the profession.

Ethics and accounting education: does teaching stand-alone religious courses affect accounting students’ ethical decisions?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim El-Sayed Ebaid
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
T Test ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Credit Hours ◽  
Ethical Decisions

Purpose Undergraduate accounting program at Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia is a unique case. The program includes 147 credit hours of which 28 credit hours are religious courses. This study aims to examine the effect of teaching these religious courses on students’ ethical perceptions and decisions. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted for a sample of accounting students at Umm Al-Qura University. The sample was divided into two groups; the first group includes students who did not study religious courses, while the second group includes students who study religious courses. The questionnaire contained three groups of questions that aimed to explore students’ perceptions of ethics in general, students’ perceptions of business ethics and explored their ethical attitudes regarding some accounting decisions that involve ethical dilemmas. Independent two-sample t-test and multiple regression analysis were used to determine whether the responses of the two groups were significantly different. Findings The findings of the study revealed that teaching religious courses led to an improvement in students’ perception of business ethics and an improvement in students’ ethical decision-making. However, the results of the independent sample t-test showed that this improvement was not significant. The results of the study also revealed that male students tend to make less ethical decisions than female students. Research limitations/implications The findings offer an indication for those responsible for managing the accounting program at Umm Al-Qura University to start developing the program so that some of the general religious courses are replaced with specialized courses in accounting ethics that focus directly on ethical dilemmas faced by the accountant when practicing the accounting profession. Originality/value This study contributes to the current literature related to examining the effect of teaching ethics courses on the ethical perception of accounting students by focusing on accounting students in Saudi Arabia as a context that has not been examined before.

SMEs project: a method to encourage interpersonal skills among pre-service accountant

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 883-895
Author(s):  
Gaffar Hafiz Sagala ◽  
Tri Effiyanti
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Interpersonal Skills ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Social Loafing ◽  
Evaluation Instrument ◽  
Content Type

Purpose Accounting Education Change Commission reveals that accounting professionals are required to have interpersonal skills. For this reason, higher education requires the dynamics of learning that can foster critical thinking skills, analysis, communication, negotiation, cooperation and argumentation. Therefore, studies in the field of accounting education have led to a project approach to provide students with complex learning experiences to develop various supporting skills in addition to learning outcomes. Interestingly, the methods have its own dilemma with social loafing in groups. Therefore, a lecturer must be able to match it with an appropriate evaluation instrument. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of implementing peer evaluations and project-based learning (SMEs project) on improving the interpersonal skills of accounting students. Design/methodology/approach The population of this research is Accounting students at Medan State University, while the sample is students who are undergoing Cost Accounting courses taken with purposive sampling. The within-sample of field experiment method was conducted in the current study. Furthermore, data analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA analysis assisted by SPSS 19. Findings The results of this study showed that students had an increase in interpersonal skills in their board, and peer-evaluation design resulted in learning satisfaction and fairness in students. Originality/value The results of this study produce practical recommendations for lecturers to innovate their learning activities with actual project design and control group dynamics with accommodative evaluation designs. This study provides new insights in building a comprehensive instructional design, so it can strengthen the concept of instructional and evaluation designs which are integral parts that should match between one another.

Undergraduate accounting students’ perception of a course in accounting research and theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Baker ◽  
Sara Wick
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Faculty Shortage ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Accounting Practitioners

Purpose This study aims to measure the response of undergraduate accounting students to a stand-alone course in accounting theory and research. The aim of the study was to gauge students’ perceptions of the usefulness of this course and to determine if exposure to this material would increase student interest in accounting research and in pursuing a career in academia. Design/methodology/approach Three cohorts of students enrolled in the course completed an in-class survey. The study was conducted from 2015 to 2017. Findings The results of the survey show that student interest in accounting research and theory increased substantially as a result of the course. Students felt that learning about accounting research and the theories used in accounting research enhanced their overall understanding of accounting and would be useful to them as accounting practitioners. This study also reports that students interested in pursuing a PhD and/or an academic career also increased. Research limitations/implications Data were only collected at a single university and represent student perceptions only. Practical implications The results of this study and the description of the course design will inform academics seeking to answer the American Accounting Association Pathways Commission’s call to integrate accounting research and education. This study also suggests a pathway towards addressing the chronic academic accounting faculty shortage. Finally, the results will be of interest to those designing undergraduate accounting curriculum. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on the “teaching-research nexus” in accounting by providing evidence, from the perspective of undergraduate accounting students, of the usefulness of integrating research into undergraduate accounting education. While many accounting researchers view accounting research and teaching accounting as separate activities, the response from students suggests that there is value in fostering a more complementary relationship between these two activities.

Accounting students’ perceptions of important business communication skills for career success

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Atef Oussii ◽  
Mohamed Faker Klibi
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Business Communication ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Practice ◽  
Graduate Unemployment ◽  
Accounting Graduates

Purpose This paper aims to examine the business communication skills that accounting students see as having the highest importance for career success. It also explores the current levels of development of these skills and analyzes them through a comparative study between three Tunisian business schools. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a questionnaire sent to180 students from three business schools to provide insights into the development of communication skills perceived important for a successful accounting career. Findings The results indicate that all students are conscious of the importance held by communication skills for career success in the accounting profession. However, they feel that their aptitudes are sometimes poorly developed, especially when it comes to proficiency in French (as a language of business in Tunisia) and written skills. Practical implications The paper’s findings offer important guidance concerning the communication skills that accounting students consider most needed by the Tunisian labor market. The findings of this study may be useful for curriculum development in local and international contexts. Originality/value This study is conducted in a developing country where the graduate unemployment rate is about 30 per cent. This high unemployment often affects service professions like accounting. Moreover, in Tunisia, accounting education focuses particularly on technical aspects. So far, no studies have been conducted to show whether students nowadays are aware of the increasing importance of generic skills in accounting practice. As a result, the conclusions of this study could provide Tunisian stakeholders with insights into ways of potentially improving accounting graduates’ employability.

Exploring future accountants’ academic fraud (in)tolerance: Oman evidence

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-83
Author(s):  
Hairul Suhaimi Nahar
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tolerance Level ◽  
Academic Fraud ◽  
Academic Activities ◽  
Accounting Major ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
And Training

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the (in)tolerance level of accounting major students in Oman toward identified integrity destroying academic activities. Design/methodology/approach A triangulation approach was adopted whereby a questionnaire survey on academic fraud (AF) was administered to a group of Omani major accounting students. The descriptive statistical results were further analyzed and validated using in-depth interviews in exploring further the students’ tolerance decisions. Findings A conceivably low and non-disturbing tolerance level toward the myriads of integrity destroying academic activities was documented. The tolerance is, however, observed to be dynamic in nature as it is sensitive to fraud “severity” and “seriousness”, i.e. it increases as AF activities become less severe and serious. Minor free-ride is tolerated the most, followed by minor plagiarism and seldom forgery. These AF activities were tolerated most by female and academically weak students. The varying results suggest that demographic factors do play a role in shaping Omani future accountants’ AF tolerance. The interview results further point to the intertwined factors of academic, family and peers, as well as religion that primarily influence their AF tolerance levels. Originality/value The research fills the extremely scarce accounting education literature in Oman by documenting fresh evidence of AF (in)tolerance among future members of the country’s accountancy profession. As academic is the primary source of accountants’ accountability and integrity knowledge and training base, investigating accounting students’ tolerance toward integrity in the acute context of AF would effectively provide a reflection of the profession’s future integrity environment.

scholarly journals The Effect Of Gender And Knowledge On Students Impressions Of Accountants In The Post-Enron Era

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven C. Hunt ◽  
Robert C. Intrieri ◽  
A. Anthony Falgiani ◽  
Marie T. Papini
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
High School ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Two Factors

This study examines college students’ impressions of accountants from various sources. It extends previous research on students’ impressions of accountants by analyzing impressions after Enron, gender differences in impressions, and the effect of knowledge on impressions and adding news reports as an impression source. Students rated their impressions of accountants when they selected a major on each of 30 characteristics (such as ethical, versatile, and exciting) from each of four sources, plus a general rating. When qualities were combined into two factors, Professionalism and Personability, accountants were seen as professional, but not particularly personable. In many areas, finance majors had impressions of accountants equal to or higher than those of accounting students, while other majors had significantly lower impressions of accountants. News reports did not significantly influence students’ views of accountants. Knowledge was strongly correlated with impressions. Accounting students had the lowest knowledge of accountants from news reports and movies/TV of any major. Females held more positive impressions of accountants than did males. Implications for various groups, including college and high school accounting education and the accounting profession, are discussed.

A narrative on integrating research and theory into undergraduate accounting curriculum

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Baker ◽  
Sara Wick
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Student Response ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Professional Certification ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Student Reaction ◽  
Accounting Curriculum

Purpose This paper aims to describe an effort to integrate accounting research and theory into an undergraduate accounting education program through the development and delivery of a fourth-year course. Informing ideas for the course design and content are discussed, and feedback from the students and instructor is provided. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes the form of a commentary and offers the authors’ opinion based on the experience of designing and teaching the course. An in-class survey was conducted in three separate offerings of the course. Findings Student response to the course and material was more positive than anticipated, indicating that undergraduate accounting students are receptive to learning about research and theory, even when it is not required for entrance into a professional certification program. Also, many students often went above and beyond the course requirements in the work they submitted. This indicates that there is an appetite for engaging with material that presents accounting as a social phenomenon rather than solely as a technical activity. Research limitations/implications While the data were collected over multiple years, the survey was conducted at a single university. These findings have implications for the design of undergraduate accounting education programs and, potentially, for addressing the gap between accounting research and practice. Originality/value This review contributes to the discourse on integrating research into undergraduate accounting education as recommended by the AAA Pathways Commission. It describes one method of doing so and identifies the literature that informed the approach taken. This paper also contributes to the accounting education literature by providing evidence of student reaction to a course that uses research and theory as a subject matter rather than a pedagogical tool. This evidence may also inform the teaching –research nexus discourse.

Do entrepreneurial skills affect entrepreneurship attitudes in accounting education?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 739-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameh M. Reda Reyad ◽  
Abdalmuttaleb Musleh Al-Sartawi ◽  
Sherine Badawi ◽  
Allam Hamdan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Entrepreneurial Intention ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Test Statistic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Entrepreneurial Skills

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the evidence of accounting undergraduates’ attitude toward entrepreneurship, in particular, whether entrepreneurial skills developed in accounting education engender cognition of skills and intentions of starting a business. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a χ2 test statistic used to evaluate a logistic regression to gauge the effect of delivering six entrepreneurial skills (risk taking, critical thinking, problem solving, innovation, autonomy and need for achievement) on entrepreneurship attitudes (cognition of skills and intentions). Data consist of questionnaire responses obtained from 668 undergraduates attending Egyptian and Bahraini universities. Findings The results reveal that accounting students perceive the following four entrepreneurial skills as a key for starting their own business: risk taking, critical thinking, problem solving and innovation. In addition, Egyptian students incline toward cognition, whereas Bahraini students head toward intentions. Practical implications Some changes to accounting curricula are proposed to enhance entrepreneurial intention. Originality/value This paper offers a new contribution as it focuses on the challenges and the considerations in the Arab World Universities.

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