Excellence Perspective for Management Education from a Global Accountants' Hub in Asia

Abstract

This chapter discusses how accounting education in Sri Lanka, an emerging South Asian country, has evolved over time to become a global hub of accountants through its accounting education system. The chapter presents a detailed description of the history of accounting education in Sri Lanka, the role of professional accounting bodies and academic accounting education, a comparison of professional and academic education systems and finally the current status and future directions of accounting education of the country. Having roots of accounting education well over twenty centuries, the professional and academic education systems of Sri Lanka have evolved independently creating an anomaly when compared with the global practice in which the graduate accounting profession is the norm. Sri Lanka will have to continually strengthen the accounting education system to sustain its stature in the ever dynamic and complex global business environment that poses many challenges for the accounting profession.