The Expectation-Performance Gap in Accounting Education: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Since the mid-1980s, professional accounting bodies, employers of accounting graduates and academics alike have lamented the failure of universities to equip accounting graduates with the competencies required for the modern business environment. Changes to accounting education have been made but the gap between the competencies which employers expect—and perceive—accounting graduates to possess has not previously been examined holistically. Based on a review of the literature, a framework of accounting education's expectation-performance gap (comprising an expectation gap, a constraints gap and a performance gap) is proposed. The paper also reports an exploratory study designed to test the proposed framework. Following a document study of the accounting programme of a New Zealand university, interviews were conducted with students, academics, graduate trainees and employers associated with the programme. The research provides support for the proposed framework and resulted in identifying ways in which the gap may be narrowed.

Keywords:

• Accounting education
• graduate competencies
• expectation-performance gap
• institutional constraints
• student constraints

Notes

‘The profession’ is used in this paper to mean professional accounting bodies, members of the profession in general, and public practice employers of accounting graduates.

For example, the ICAA's 1998 study involved interviews with 28 Australian Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officers; in its 2001 study, it surveyed 46 Australian business people with a wide range of expertise and experience. This compares with Albrecht and Sack (2000) who surveyed 1,000 individuals, held discussions with 120 people in focus groups, and conducted interviews with 20 individuals from accounting academia, the profession, and university administrators from universities throughout the USA.

It noted, in particular, the increased demand for assurance services as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), the Australian Society of CPAs (now CPA Australia), and the New Zealand Society of Accountants (now the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants) participated in this study.

The QAA assesses and validates accounting degrees in the UK. Professional accreditation is undertaken by the relevant UK-based professional accounting bodies.

The Carnegie classification divides accounting schools into three categories, namely: (i) doctoral-granting high research support school (Research I and II); (ii) doctoral granting low research support school (Doctorate I and II); and comprehensive schools (non-doctoral granting).

As a consequence of this factor, the liberal component within the ‘ideal’ programme was significantly reduced.

It is generally accepted that case studies are an appropriate method for research of an exploratory nature (Yin, 2009).

The interview guide is available from the authors upon request.

Structural data displays provide a summarised presentation of interview transcripts which facilitates an understanding of the full data set while enabling the research question to be addressed (Lillis, 1999).

Under NZ's Health and Safety Regulations students are not permitted to sit or stand in aisles or on lecture theatre steps.

The introductory accounting course has in excess of 1600 student enrolments each year, and courses required for entry to NZICA have in excess of 250 student enrolments each year.

Since the introduction of PBRF in 2003, a portion of Government funding allocated to NZ universities is determined by the research productivity of academics in each university—as assessed by the Tertiary Education Commission (and the panels of research assessors it appoints).

This course is taught by an exceptionally talented lecturer—but one who devotes virtually all of his/her efforts and time to teaching activities.

At the time of the interviews, these two students were taking the final year auditing course that requires students to work in groups of three to four students to research a topic and present their findings to their tutorial group (of approximately 15 students).

The final year auditing course was singled out as seeking to achieve this.