Revolutionising the Accounting Curriculum in Higher Education: A vision of the future

Abstract

Experiences of teaching since Covid first led to campuses closing worldwide inMarch 2020 highlighted problems in how accounting is taught and assessed.Those problems threaten the integrity of the education process and the qualityof future accounting graduates. This paper considers the pressures these factorsplace on accounting faculty and proposes measures to adopt to address them.It also addresses the recognised problem that accounting programmes do notproduce graduates appropriately equipped for a career as accountants, especiallynow that technology is causing the nature of entry-level positions, and soalso those above them, to change. In response, it proposes how accountingprogrammes may be redesigned to produce graduates equipped to both meet thedemands of employers and develop careers that respond to the rapidly changingrole of accountants. In doing so, it proposes major changes to how accounting istaught in universities, to its assessment, its curriculum, to faculty recruitmentand training and, where relevant, to accreditation of accounting programmes byprofessional accountancy bodies.