Changes, problems and challenges of accounting education in Libya

Abstract

While accounting education has existed in Libya for over 45 years, knowledge about it is scarce among Western accounting academics. This paper reports the development of accounting education and curricula since Libya's independence in the 1950s and examines its current problems during a decade of United Nations (UN) sanctions. Following an introduction to the accounting profession in Libya, the paper provides an overview of the changes to accounting education since 1957 and analyses major issues currently faced by Libyan accounting educators, including: a shortage of qualified accounting academics; inappropriateness of imported syllabuses to the peculiarities of the economy; the unfit marriage of academic teaching and professional training in the accounting curricula; and inadequate accounting research. The paper concludes that social and economic characteristics must be fully taken into account in the case of Libya in importing accounting education systems from the West.

Keywords:

• accounting education
• accounting profession
• accounting research
• curriculum
• Islamic accounting
• Libya

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Rashad Abdel-khalik, Keith Dixon, Gordon Guo, Omneya Abd El-Salam, Iain Wright, Jane Zhang, Brian Windram, participants at the Accounting and Finance Research Conference held at Napier University in March 2002 and the two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions made on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

The Green Book is a political work edited by Colonel Muammer al Qaddafi, the leader of Libya, covering political, economic and social problems and solutions in Libya. The book has been used widely in Libyan society as the solution guidance. Earlier versions were published in Arabic. The English version was published in 1981.

The objective of the development plans was to achieve 10.3% annual growth of the non-oil sector and 17.2% for the whole economy (Secretariat of Planning, 1980, p.57).

Before the country's independence, the colonizers (Turkey from 1551 to 1911, Italy from 1911 to 1943, and Britain and France from 1943 to 1952) were responsible for running the country's affairs and implemented their laws.

The general broad function of the SAB, as stated in the law No. 79 of 1975, is to exercise effective control over public resources. In order to undertake its responsibilities, the SAB performs four main tasks: (1) post-audit of government revenues; (2) post-audit of government expenditures; (3) pre-audit of government obligations; and (4) reporting of audit findings. Particularly, according to part 2, article 18, of the Law No. 79 of 1975, the SAB is responsible for the examining and auditing of the accounts of the state, organizations and public agencies. In addition, the SAB is responsible for auditing government-owned companies and any account or entity assigned for government audit by the RCC.

The University of Libya was founded in Benghazi in 1957, with a branch in Tripoli. In 1973, the two campuses became the Universities of Benghazi and Tripoli, and in 1976, they were renamed as Garyounis University and El-Fatah University.

These comprise the Faculty of Economics at El-Fatah University, and the Faculty of Accounting at Al-Jabal Al-iGarbi University. An additional set of new higher institutes and universities was created in the early 1990s and many new accounting faculties and departments were opened at Sebha University, Omar El-mukhtar University, Nasser University, Seventh of April University and Al-Tahaddi University.

For instance, the first three Libyan accounting teachers who joined the accounting department in 1967 had their master degrees from American universities.

This applies to wider economic indicators. For example, The Economist reported that, when asked, neither the head of the Libyan Central Bank nor his director of research knew what the country's inflation rate was (Anderson, 2001).

The master's programme has also been offered by the Postgraduate Studies Academy in Tripoli and the Faculty of Accounting at al-Jabal al-Gharbi University in Gahrian since the 1990s with almost the same textbooks and a similar curriculum to those of Garyounis University.

We appreciate the comment by an anonymous reviewer on the similarity of accounting in Libya and the one in Egypt under Nasser. ‘Both were socialist and Islamic regimes. Egypt had a uniform accounting system with public sector audit, both external and internal, performed by the National Audit Office. Within such a system the demand for accounting services is very different from that in a capitalist economy’. Clearly, it would be interesting for international accounting to compare the two accounting systems as suggested by the reviewer. As the focus of this paper is on accounting education in Libya, however, it would be beyond the scope to give a comparison on accounting systems in these two countries.

The Green Book states: ‘If we analyse the economic factors of production from ancient times till now we always find that they are composed of these essentials: raw materials, an instrument of production and a producer. The natural rule of equality is that each of the factors has a share in this production, for if any of them is withdrawn, there will be no production. Each factor has an essential role in the process of production and production comes to a halt without it. As long as each factor is essential and fundamental, they are all equal in their essential character within the process of production. Therefore, they all should be equal in their right to what is produced. The encroachment of one factor on another is opposed to the natural rule of equality, and is an attack on the right of others. Each factor, then, has a share regardless of the number of factors. If we find a process of production, which can be performed by only two factors, each factor shall have half of the production. If it is carried out by three factors, each shall have a third of the production’ (Qathafi, 1981, pp. 47–8).

Although some Libyans sent to the USA and UK in the 1970s and 1980s returned with a PhD degree, the number was very small and has been decreasing. Particularly during the decade of UN sanctions, very few Western countries granted visas to Libyan students to study.