Exploring the effectiveness of total quality management in accounting education: the case of Egypt

ABSTRACT

In this study, we explore actual and perceived effectiveness of accounting education (AE) pre/post the application of total quality management in Egypt, which constitutes an interesting educational context. In a mixed-methods approach, we examine the effect of applying quality measures on accounting-major senior students’ performance, measured by test scores. Then, we target various stakeholders to assess deficiencies and potential quality improvement. Using in-depth interviews and survey questionnaires, we identify eight performance-improvement dimensions for the application of quality measures in AE institutions using a sample of 513 respondents. Results show that the current practice of AE generally suffer from deficiencies that can be significantly improved by applying quality measures related to students, instructors, institution, program, facilities, training/internships, financing costs, and employer feedback. The findings are relevant to educators and policymakers seeking to sustain competitive advantage of graduates in a fiercely competitive market. We provide future avenues for research to accounting scholars.

KEYWORDS:

• Accounting education
• total quality management (TQM)
• stakeholders
• emerging markets
• Egypt

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to the valuable comments of Mohamed Hassan and the participants of the 2017 Cairo University International Conference on Business Sciences (CUCBS) to an earlier draft of this paper. The authors are also thankful to the valuable remarks of the editor, associate editors, and anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The mixed approach allows us to test the pre/post TQM application through actual and perceived performance and to combine the benefits of having comparable objective results based on students’ performance, on the one hand, and the rich elaborated views of respondents’ reflections on the other hand.

2 As per the bulletin of Cairo University Faculty of Commerce, the total number of undergraduate students for the academic year 2018–2019 is approximately 58,000, of which 51,527 are registered in accounting modules at the undergraduate level.

3 Dean of Ain Shams University Faculty of Commerce as in Youm 7 News (Arabic reference): https://bit.ly/3e9B2Mg (5/3/2019)

4 Minister of Higher Education of Egypt as in Youm 7 News (in Arabic): https://bit.ly/2L52KNm (12/3/2019).

5 Dean of Cairo University Faculty of Commerce as in Vetogate news (Arabic reference): https://www.vetogate.com/2697800

6 Different accounting jobs require different qualification and skill set. Most accounting programs at HEIs are not accredited for quality of education. Most programs are not accredited internationally, few of the programs are either accredited nationally or on the way to get the national accreditation. Moreover, studying accounting modules in most HEIs do not qualify students for accounting or auditing professional certificates, except for few initiatives that are not available to all students. Graduates are expected to get out-of-class education and training to gain basic technical and professional skills required by employers. The number of candidates joining accounting programs are increasing annually, with no or little improvement in academic curricula or available resources. The number of business graduates, of which majority students are accounting majors, approached half a million students in 2018. Hence, business schools are popularly known in Egypt as “Schools of the Masses”.

7 Youm7 News (Arabic reference): https://bit.ly/2L52KNm (12/3/2019).

8 Ministry of Higher Education: http://portal.mohesr.gov.eg/ar-eg/Pages/default.aspx

9 The ratio is for full-time faculty at all levels relative to students enrolled in accounting programs.

10 Statistics provided by Ministry of Higher Education (2019).

11 TQM has been defined as having a set of dimensions, based on prior literature, to facilitate innovation (Martinez-Lorente et al., 1999). These include top management support, workforce management, employees' attitudes and behavior, supplier relationship, customer relationship, product design process, process flow management, quality data and reporting, role of the quality department, and benchmarking. These dimensions are extrapolated to adapt to the educational system after taking into account responses from the participants through empirical study.

12 The sample consists of accounting-major senior students enrolled at the ‘Cairo University Faculty of Commerce English Section’ program (FCES) and the ‘joint Cairo University–Georgia State University’ (CUGSU) program. The treatment and control groups (consisting of 59 students each) are comparable at baseline according to age, gender, religious orientation, household income, and educational level characteristics. Hence, any change in sample attributes post the intervention is attributed to the application of TQM.

13 Treatment group comprised accounting major senior students of the ‘Cairo University-Georgia State University Joint’ (CUGSU) Program. Control group comprised accounting major senior students of the ‘Cairo University Faculty of Commerce English Section’ program (FCES).

14 Both the treatment and control groups were exposed to the same accounting curricula, which are already built in the respective programs of FCES and CUGSU, the same instructors, and the same unified tests. Students in the treatment group performed significantly better as reflected in their mid-term and final-term grades compared to students of the control group.

15 Ethical concerns are not an issue in this study as all students have the choice to join any of the two programs provided to the treatment and the control groups.

16 Interviews were conducted in Arabic, then translated into English via a professional business-translator and editor. Then one of the authors cross-checked the translated transcripts to ensure completeness and avoid loss of content. The same method was used for survey questionnaires. To minimize researcher bias, the interview questions were planned carefully, all data were analyzed even if they do not seem useful to avoid selective omission of specific data, and the answers were checked by independent third parties several times during the study.

17 Interviewees were selected based on their academic and professional competence and relevance to accounting education. The interviewees included 13 academics who teach accounting modules, 8 chief financial officers, 7 financial managers in banks, and 6 audit managers. All professional interviewees were also MBA/DBA candidates at university programs, who are in touch and directly affected by accounting education.

18 Academia include professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and teaching assistants.

19 Administrative staff and policy makers include provosts, vice provosts, deans, vice deans, department chairs, non-academic managers at various departments.

20 Employers include external audit managers, internal audit managers, CFOs, and financial managers.

21 The results reported in table 3 are for final exams. We investigated the difference in mean test score percentages over mid-term exams and similar results were obtained. However, the final exam results are reported for more relevance and to allow the total effect of applying TQM measures to be fully reflected in students’ test scores.

22 In the system of “Tanseeq” students are admitted to universities and colleges based on (1) their cumulate GPA at high school level, and (2) their geographical location. This system is followed in a student-intensive setting, where education provided in public universities is almost free.

23 An alternative test of internal consistency is used to validate Cronbach's alpha results. Untabulated results show high correlation coefficients confirming the validity of questions in testing quality dimensions.

24 Amidst a period of Covid-19 pandemic, e-learning has proven to be a necessity, not an optional alternative. Applying quality measures to e-learning during these conditions opens ample avenues for interesting AE research.