Perception and awareness of Islamic accounting: student perspectives

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perception and awareness of Islamic accounting of undergraduate accounting students at Universitas Indonesia. The Indonesian Institute of Accountants has an Islamic Accounting Certification and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) test, meaning that the course’s competency should satisfy both Islamic and CPA certification standards to be effective. Design/methodology/approach – The researcher used primary data obtained from a questionnaire. This research was based on the students’ understanding of Islamic accounting at the beginning of the class and at the middle of the semester. The sample test included questions based on the course’s syllabus. Each statement in the questionnaire represented the main topic of each week of the class. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and tests of differences between groups of the sample. Findings – The results showed that few students were aware of Islamic accounting, but the course effectively improved comprehension. In general, respondents believed that Islamic accounting has better norms and value than conventional accounting. In fact, Muslims’ marks in the midterm test are lower than non-Muslims’ marks. This was unexpected, as Muslims had learned similar concepts about Islamic teaching. The students assumed that the course covered only common concepts, not dogma. Research limitations/implications – The sample was limited to students taking an Islamic accounting course at Universitas Indonesia. The results cannot be generalized to other cases. Practical implications – This research can narrow gaps between the needs of the accounting profession and the content of the Islamic accounting academic courses taken by students. To minimize fraud and emphasize Islamic teaching, the curriculum should feature strong and inherent Islamic principles. Originality/value – This may be the first paper to describe students’ perception and awareness of Islamic accounting after taking a course on this topic. Education on this subject should be incorporated into professional training where appropriate.