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The Current Environment
The accounting profession faces a unique convergence of forces, which creates a critical need to re-examine the educational process.
- The profession is changing, expanding and, as a result, becoming increasingly complex.
- Declining enrollments in accounting programs indicate that the profession is becoming less attractive to students.
- Implementation of the AICPA requirement of 150 hours of education for membership by the year 2000 must be addressed.
Today's business world is more dynamic and complex than ever before. Advancing technology, proliferating regulations, globalization of commerce and complex transactions make the environment in which public accountants practice extremely challenging. Successful practitioners must develop and apply a wide range of professional capabilities to serve the business community.
Many accounting programs have experienced declines in enrollments, and questions are being raised regarding the quality of accounting graduates. While the number of freshmen enrolling in business schools has grown substantially, the proportion of students planning to major in accounting has decreased. This decline in the attractiveness of accounting as a major may not be a significant issue if the resulting pool of graduates exhibits exceptional quality. However, there is some evidence that this may not be the situation, based on indicators such as scores on college entrance examinations.
The supply and demand imbalance is a very real problem for the profession. Over the last 10 years, demand from public accounting rose substantially, while there was only a slight increase in the supply of accounting graduates from institutions accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
The result is a decreasing ability to be selective in the recruiting process, which adversely affects the quality of new hires brought into the profession.
Also, the effectiveness of accounting programs is being questioned. The AAA'S Bedford Committee undertook a comprehensive review of the subject. It found that while the profession has changed in recent years, accounting education has not and, as a result, "accounting education as it is currently approached requires major re-orientation between now and the year 2000."*
Extending university education for accounting majors has been under discussion for 20 years. As previously mentioned, the AICPA will require 150 hours of education for membership by the year 2000. Although the AICPA has provided guidance about the composition of the accounting curriculum in meeting this requirement, there is no apparent consensus among accounting educators regarding their support for these guidelines-or of alternative approaches. This issue must be addressed in the next several years, since students enrolling in college in the mid-1990s will need to meet this requirement. Effective marketing of this additional investment required of students will be essential to meet the demands of the profession.
*" Future Accounting Education: Preparing for Expanding Profession," Special Report of the American Accounting Association Committee on the Future Structure, Content, and Scope of Accounting Educational published in Issues in Accounting Education, 1986.