Accounting education: Filling competencies gap

• Main Authors: Che Abdul Rahman, Mara Ridhuan, Tengku Abdullah, Tengku Akbar, Agus, Arawati, Rahmat, Mohd Mohit
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: HF5601 Accounting; LB2300 Higher Education
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/2890/1/paper2mara_ridhuan.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/2890/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

Globalisation has changed the competitive and technological environments in which businesses operate. This in turn has resulted in new expectations of accounting profession. Accordingly, accounting education must change to meet the needs of the profession. In the USA and UK, there is a widespread belief that the current accounting program is inadequate to meet the present and expected needs of the profession. Accounting educators have always been reproved for creating competencies gap, which means that what is important in the workplace, is not being emphasized in the universities. In the Malaysian context, our accounting degree curriculum has already been integrated by other disciplines in order to fulfill the need of current state in accounting profession, but do the local higher institutions still suffer the similar problems and be blamed on the same ground accordingly? This research aims to identify the competency gap probably created by local universities and it will be a basis for reviewing accounting education. In this study, 1,300 questionnaires were sent to accounting graduates from local public universities such as Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, International Islamic University, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara, and Universiti Putra Malaysia who are members of Malaysian Institute of Accountants. There were 243 returned questionnaires. Gap analysis found 2 categories of gaps; 1) large gap and 2) small gap. Large gap suggest that the most important competencies in the workplace but less emphasized at their universities are broad competencies such as communication skills, decision-making skills, leadership etc. The small gap suggest that the competencies which almost fulfill the workplace requirement are core competencies such as skill in financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, accounting system & control and taxation. In restructuring the accounting education, this study suggests that more revision and expansion should be placed on broad competencies such as existing marketing, communication, decision-making and leadership courses in the local universities. Finally, co-operation between universities and practitioners is important in bridging the gap.