Characterizing the Gap between Accounting Education and Practice: Evidence from Lebanon

Salam Majzoub,Mehmet Aga

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v10n12p127

Abstract

<p>Over the past few decades, there has been a widening gap between accounting education and accounting practice. In this article, we present a novel framework that aims to understand this gap by analyzing the accounting educational system and profession from the perspective of the International Accounting Education Standards (IAES). We further consider Lebanon as a case study for thoroughly investigating the accounting educational system and characterizing the gap.</p><p> This study is the first of its kind in analyzing the five main groups of stakeholders in this system (fresh graduates, employees, professors, department heads, and employers) and comparing their perspectives about the competencies of accounting graduates. As part of our framework, we introduce a model that captures the interactions between the various stakeholders of the accounting educational and professional system. We then thoroughly probe the various components of this model theoretically, as well as through qualitative and quantitative studies.</p>Our findings show that while, theoretically, the accounting curriculum incorporates the competencies stipulated by the IAES, in practice, there is a large gap in how the various stakeholders assess the proficiencies of fresh accounting graduates in these competencies. Alarmingly, employers believe that accounting graduates lack the required technical competencies for the job market, while professors, department heads, and students believe that fresh graduates have acquired the required competencies by the time of graduation. In this paper, we investigate the reasons for this gap, characterize it in details, and propose recommendations for bridging it.

Highlights

Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing gap between accounting education and accounting practice (Siegel et al, 2010)
Our findings show that while, theoretically, the accounting curriculum incorporates the competencies stipulated by the International Accounting Education Standards (IAES), in practice, there is a large gap in how the various stakeholders assess the proficiencies of fresh accounting graduates in these competencies
This gap has already started taking its toll on accounting education and accounting graduates and is evident in a variety of forms (Albrecht & Sack, 2000): First, the number and quality of students electing to major in accounting is decreasing rapidly; second, accounting leaders and practicing accountants are saying that accounting education, as currently structured, is outdated, broken, and needs to be modified significantly; third, students from other related disciplines, typically with a major in a business-related field, are filling the positions previously filled by accounting majors because firms are able to train these professionals, who possess the benefits of other skills, in specific accounting functions (Albrecht & Sack, 2000)

Summary

Introduction

Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing gap between accounting education and accounting practice (Siegel et al, 2010). This gap is due to the fact that even though the accounting profession has evolved with its changing environment, accounting education has not followed pace. Studies show that accounting education today is lacking on multiple fronts to prepare such graduates for this market, including course content, curriculum, pedagogy, skill development, technology, etc. This gap has already started taking its toll on accounting education and accounting graduates and is evident in a variety of forms (Albrecht & Sack, 2000): First, the number and quality of students electing to major in accounting is decreasing rapidly; second, accounting leaders and practicing accountants are saying that accounting education, as currently structured, is outdated, broken, and needs to be modified significantly; third, students from other related disciplines, typically with a major in a business-related field, are filling the positions previously filled by accounting majors because firms are able to train these professionals, who possess the benefits of other skills, in specific accounting functions (Albrecht & Sack, 2000)

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