Abstract
In the last years, the worldwide changes in global, political and financial contexts have gradually modified the approaches to the accounting of national governments and international institutions. In this varying scenario, the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) and consequently national governments have introduced new accounting standards along with related regulatory changes. These issues are of ever-growing importance when considering that the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB) has recently developed “The basis for conclusions document for 2017-2021 IAESB Strategy and 2017-2018 Work Plan” (IAESB, 2017) with the aim of informing the Board’s deliberations on its future strategy and priorities about the future expectations of professional competence. The aim of this paper is to report the findings of an empirical study on this topic and address the following research question: what are professional accountants’ views on quality in accounting education? This primary research question is expanded to consider professional accountants’ beliefs on the present (what is necessary for their workplace) and future (what will be necessary for their workplace) with respect to quality in accounting education. The survey highlights how professional accountants have more expectations than in the past about their skills. The majority of professional accountants have been transforming themselves into business consultants since they are now required to offer more services than accounting and taxation consultancy. Consequently, there is a growing demand for cooperation with the university world in order to broaden the programs of accounting education with new technical competencies for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
Highlights
The worldwide changes in global, political and financial contexts over the last three decades have highlighted some critical aspects in accounting education in order to train graduates with adequate professional competencies
The study aims to test whether Italian university education programs are aligned with the International Education Standard n. 2 (IES2) containing the learning outcomes for technical competence, that aspiring professional accountants are required to demonstrate by the end of their initial professional development
Question no. 2: What technical skills do you believe are necessary for professional accountants nowadays? The data reveal that 88% per cent of the participants confirm the importance of “Financial accounting and reporting” and “Business laws and regulations” (80%) in their activity, but “Economics” (28%) they underlie their need to study more “Taxation” (80%) and “International Accounting standards” (72%) than in the past
Summary
The worldwide changes in global, political and financial contexts over the last three decades have highlighted some critical aspects in accounting education in order to train graduates with adequate professional competencies. Some authors have underlined the perceived gap by graduating accounting students in their performance: at the end of their courses they do not feel as if they have enough competencies to find a job or a place in professional studios without developing personal competencies and practice (Bui & Porter, 2010; Stephenson, 2017) It is worth highlighting how there are different studies on the factors that increase the gap in expectations; some of them are focused on subjects that perceive the gap: academics and employers (Armitage, 1991; Novin, Fetyko, & Tucker, 1997; Theuri & Gunn, 1998; Francis & Minchington, 1999) and students (Shivaswamy & Hanks, 1985a, 1985b; Kochanek & Norgaard, 1985; Felton, Buhr & Northey, 1994; Marriott & Marriott, 2003; Sikka et al, 2007); while other studies highlight the institutional constraints
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