Strength of High School Accounting Qualification and Student Performance in University-Level Introductory Accounting Courses in Hong Kong

Abstract

Prior studies on the effects of high school accounting qualification on student performance in university-level introductory accounting courses have focused primarily on the United States and other Western countries. For this article I examined (a) the generalizability of U.S. results to Hong Kong and (b) the effect of strength of high school accounting qualification, by incorporating different accounting strength variables in the U.S. model. Results show that students who had passed accounting in a public examination at the end of either the fifth or seventh forms all significantly outperformed students without high school accounting qualification in the first, but not the second, introductory accounting course. Despite differences in culture and educational system, determinants of student performance in university introductory accounting courses were found to be similar to those in the United States.