The Link between Accounting Education, Research and Practice: A Review of Literature

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1 The Link between Accounting Education, Research and Practice: A Review of Literature Mohamed S. M. Salem 1 Accounting education is the technology and set of rules on which all orgnisations financial systems are based. To understand the relationship between accounting, research and practice much better, we need to understand the component factors of business education that influence the accounting choices and their consequences. In fact, the accounting education is important not because of the content, but because of the strength of the curriculum. For instance, accounting education is a great core curriculum and that we need to build on it with communication skills, analytical skills, and problem solving skills. Further, the accounting research which is conducted should consider the issues and challenges in accounting practices and suggest methods which would help in improving the accounting practices. This paper is concerned to uncover suitable framework or criteria to design and improve the accounting education program and curriculum. It is also to discuss issues that may reduce the conflict between the providers of accounting education and the enterprises demand. This paper focuses on understanding and explaining the relationship between accounting research, teaching and the practice that is being evaluated. This would help in judging the importance of accounting research for accounting practices. Key Terms: Accounting Education, Learning Style, Accounting Practice 1. Introduction The role of accounting education is drastically changing in the society and manpower is interested in participating in financial decision making (Shaftel, et al., 2005). In this case, Accounting is a very important expression in society. Society is by segmenting it into different groups or arenas, for example the social, economic, organizational and political arenas (Paisey and Paisey, 2005). Therefore, for a society to function well, these different arenas are required to communicate with each other, accounting information makes that possible. According to Paisey and Paisey (2005) accounting provides many important purposes, for instance helping users in making critical decisions, relevance to the effective allocation of scarce resources. According to Hines (1988), accounting has a long history, it has been seen as being socially constructed and practiced by people for people and, therefore, it has more of an art rather than a science. Unlike other professions, which have a body of theoretical knowledge to depend on to make decisions, accounting has evolved as a craft with few rules and little to no theoretical knowledge underpinning its practice and function (Salem, 2014; Pfeffer, et al., 2002). Many researchers believe that the accounting education has become less inventive and original and has moved away from the activities practiced in the community (Shattock (2007). Numbers of researchers agreed that there is a gap between business administrative education in general, In order to gain a better understanding of business education and how good the quality of this education being delivered to big number of students considering business administrative college (1) Dr. Mohamed Salem, Accounting Department, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box: 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). msalem2@sharjah.ac.ae Tel: Fax:

2 being one of the most popular choice for high school graduator research and practice, and need to be improving (Shaftel et al., 2005). Other researchers studied the situation of accounting education, and its efficiency and all agreed on the existence of the gap between accounting education and career (Bierstaker, et al., 2004). This may have indicated that all the educational centers that are responsible for teaching accounting to students have become "cash cows" where more and more students are allowed to be registered when the faculty members are less in number. This over capacity of students placed in big classrooms affect the way the knowledge is delivered. The quality of education gets affected (Sack, 2010). In the past many researches were conducted in which the researchers of those studies believed that accounting education should be segregated from the practices because both cannot be included in one field and both are different. It was due to fact that people perceived accounting to be related to education and not to the realistic side of performing tasks (Briket, 1990). But now this is changing as many other and new researchers believe that they both should be combined and should be aligned to one another. Without accounting knowledge, accounting practices cannot be performed. They are all linked to one another. Now more students of chartered accountancy schools are encouraged to combine the academia with research. This is a useful step taken but again in many parts of the world the accounting schools may be made to acknowledge helping their students develop the expertise and skills needed for the jobs. The gap between education, practice, and research is a problem that exists in all the fields, and accounting field is one of them. Having said that, the accounting researches which have been conducted in the past have not been sufficient enough to be innovative and also the findings of the research have been detached from the accounting practice and society (Inanga & Schneider, 2005; Paisey and Paisey, 2005). There has been an apparent gap in the accounting research and practices and there is an argument that the accounting researches should focus upon improving accounting practices rather than simply understanding or describing or criticizing the practices (Parker, et al., 2011; Bierstaker, et al., 2004). There is a need to identify the impact with which accounting research will have on the accounting practices and links should be established between research output, practice, and social impact. Overall, the accounting education is focused more on practice and less on research. The subject does not focus upon the areas which have to be explored but on the preciseness and accurateness of the method which has to be followed (Hopwood, 2007). There is stress on quant and relevancy of the practice and most people are well informed of what they would be doing in future. The purpose of this study is to examine the the link between accounting education, research and practice. In this concern, accounting research is a similar kind of research which is conducted to develop accounting education and practices. However, accounting is not a science and because of these, basic facts could change and thus developing a relationship between accounting research and accounting practices is difficult. The accounting research which is conducted should consider the issues and challenges in accounting practices and suggest methods which would help in improving the accounting education and practices. Consequently, this study attempts to answer the two research questions which are developed to explain and understand the relation between accounting education research and practices to meet the market needs. These research questions are: 1) in what sense approaches and actions must be taken to improve the accounting education 2

3 so that it is in alignment with the practices? 2) How the gap between the accounting education research and practices be bridged? These questions are answered in the context of United Arab Emirates universities (UAE-Us) through empirical fieldworks and analyses of parteciapents judgments about the component factors of business education that influence the accounting education program and curriculum. Further, this paper is concerned to discuss issues that may reduce the conflict between the providers of accounting education and the enterprises demand. The study organised as follows: the next section is the survey of literature. This will give brief information about the accounting subject which is being taught in business school. It is followed by research methodology and data collection. The third section provides the background and a discussion of accounting education issues. The final section contains the summary and conclusions of the paper. 2. Survey of literature This literature review identifies and summarizes contributions made to the body of accounting education, research, and practice for more than three decades. Tens of articles reviewed represent contributions of new ideas and reinvestigations in the traditional areas of assessment, curriculum and instruction, educational technology, faculty issues, and students. In addition to this, a review of recent tables of contents of the major accounting education journals shows an emphasis on cases as opposed to pioneering empirical research. Cases serve an important role in helping faculty to add examples and context to the classroom experience. However, what is needed most in the accounting literature is empirical evidence about how to improve the educational setting to meet with the research and practice. For example, quite a few papers have been published over the years on measuring learning styles of accounting students. What is missing, however, is empirical study of the appropriate pedagogical response when learning styles are known. In this concern, empirical research is needed on how to integrate technology into accounting education, research and practice so as to enhance student learning. Accounting education and research should be perceived as having a broad agenda that examines issues that will improve faculty and institutional inputs, processes (Guthrie, 2011). Tremendous pressure is being applied by accreditation bodies to conduct assessment. However, research must be conducted to demonstrate which assessment measures provide the highest quality feedback to improve the curriculum. Further, research to date tends to focus on small samples within one semester with one instructor, which does not provide a strong basis on which to design a curriculum. Accounting faculties have debated whether to teach a user- or re-approach the paper in accounting courses. Yet, although some empirical accounting research has addressed this issue, a broadbased study of which approach best serves the profession and investing public is needed. In the same vein, questions about the best way to teach (learn) have not been answered with longitudinal studies. It would be interesting to know if, for example, active vs. passive learning environments made a difference in the long-term (e.g., professional exam pass rates, career performance). If there is no difference, then perhaps the research should examine whether students learn better when the teaching style is in harmony with the instructor s teaching style (Hopwood, 2007; Kullberg et al., 1989). 3

4 In related to the above discussion, accounting leaders and practicing accountants believe that accounting education as currently structured is outdated, broken, and in need of significant modification (Stout, et al., 1996). These situations created a gap between accounting education, research and practice. This is one of the prevailing problems that would be addressed in this study to meet the needs of closing the gap between accounting education and practice. In this case, many researchers have argued that institutions and education centers that prepare accounting students are not performing their job well as accounting students who become professionals are not able to implement analytical skills for difficult tasks that they encounter. This problem has to be looked upon and researchers are finding a solution to it. Researchers do believe that there must be complete restructuring of the accounting education so that accounting practices could be taught and implemented. Moreover, accounting is one of the oldest studies in the business school as a clue to the Romans in 23 Before Century (BC) when they used the accounting to study their war, army and to study the amount of money that the government had. So basically studying accounting has no specific time. Nowadays accounting has changed a lot from the past, of course to better by the good effect of technologies that have been discovered in our daily day, accounting in these days has the most important studies in all universities and/or accounting institutions. That means there is a big request from students and companies to this major. Many researchers studied the situation of accounting education, and its efficiency and all agreed on the existence of the gap between accounting education and practice (Bierstaker, et al., 2004). They also indicated that accounting education does not meet demands of the enterprises. In addition, a number of studies addressed the role of universities and accounting institutions in closing the gap between accounting education and practice (Salem, 2014). Having said the above discussion, a number of researchers have carried a study in which they state that there is a gap linking accounting education and accounting practice (Cheng, 2002). It is known that in universities students are being taught how to tackle accounting work practically rather than being told how to expand their knowledge. These pupils at higher education levels are being coached to give high level exams in accounting but are rarely told what they should do to develop their skills. Moreover, it is known that all those students who complete their accounting degrees have impressive certificates and impressive degrees but unfortunately they have less skills and expertise. The students who leave universities are professionals who would be handling all the accounting procedures and practices in large organisations but if they possess no skills then things can end up in jeopardy for them and for their organisation. Continuously, there are many people who have considered this problem and have stated that accounting education should be restructuring and modified so as to incorporate the needs to make the individuals more skillful and for enable them to develop expertise. Once this restructuring is introduced then the gap between accounting education and practice would be bridged. Many believe that there should be a transformation between the education research and practices (Accountants, 1998). Some researchers are of the opinion that when it comes to accounting education it does not consider all the aspects of knowledge as it doesn t take into account the broader picture. 4

5 Additionally, researchers like (Kullberg, et, al., 1989; May and Windal, 1995) believe that the education of accounting has poor substance, blueprint and plans for the curriculum and that the solution should not only be adding new courses to the existing prospectus and programs, however they also believe that accounting education pays attention in making great business man. Moreover, they are of the opinion that this education does not fulfill its obligation in transforming normal students into professionals who would develop the skills and expertise needed. When it comes to skills, it is thought of doing the work in the right manner the way it should be done. Furthermore, accounting education is not fit to teach students how to carry out the accounting work in the real world because usually when students who turn into professionals encounter accounting problems at work, they are not able to find effective solutions or they do not know how to perform the tasks. These students are taught how to study but unfortunately little is told about how to improve expertise and proficiency. Moreover, the trainers indulge accounting students more in classroom activities rather than teaching them what to do at their workplace and how to tackle accounting problems that arise (Kachelmeier, 2001), Whatever the trainers and teachers find suitable to teach and include in the prospectus they include that and teach those things. Overall, the decision of students to major in business area or to choose accounting and practice it as a career is of interest to business educators, and consequently accounting researchers, because it affects the enrollment in business programs. In addition, these decisions are often the result of how business educators depict accounting and how students perceive accounting. Empirical articles in this subsection investigate the associations between choice of major and career and other variables, some controllable by business educators (e.g., presentation method) and some not controllable (e.g., demographics). Descriptive articles offer evidence about student choices based on observations, surveys, and opinions. 3. Research methodology Methodology is considered as most vital part which tells about the research methods in order to the appropriate solution of the problem. Research methodology provides a framework with which the research would be conducted. Secondary research literature review method for the research has been conducted with scholarly journals, articles, newspaper, magazines, and websites on the topic which has been selected for research. Secondary research would provide a better guidance for framing the questions of the research and provide better understanding about the research. In this respect, the research methodology provides a framework with which the research would be conducted. Accordingly, this paper reflects on a literature review, with special focus on empirical reports and institutional studies like those prepared by the American Accounting Association (AAA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), and AICPA, but also including academic articles and online information on accounting education. These reports and studies were jointly focused to write a high-level thought out piece, supported by evidence where possible, about the link of accounting education, research and practices. The researcher discusses the literature s principal findings and exhorts accounting practitioners to become actively engaged in supporting fundamental reform in accounting education. 5

6 Furthermore, the objective of my methodology is to investigate the existence gap between accounting education, research and practice across accounting institutions and workplaces. For instance, the way to investigate this is to ask accounting students who are graduated from different accounting institutions and involved in the workplace recently about the effectiveness teaching methods in helping closing the gap. This kind of information may help to collect graduate students opinions or suggestions of accounting educators about this existent gap. Overall, the method followed, entailed a literature review to determine general trends in education and to discuss issues related to the policies and regulations surrounding accounting systems, establish the accounting growth centers in major universities, and provide the guidelines to the nation of how to conduct the accounting practices in the country into the best level. Further, this depends on substantive changes to the current educational model. 4. Background and discussion of accounting education issues As indicated by Inanga, et al., (2005) in the literature review of this study that many journals had written about the existent gap between accounting education, research and accounting practices. In this case, many thoughts and attempts were considered to reduce or close this gap. For example, one study done by Watson, et al., (2007) to address approaches and actions that would be taken to use effective teaching methods in helping closing the gap. Other studies made by Cheng (2002) and Guthrie (2011), these studies indicated that the gap exists due to dispute between researcher and professionals, and practitioners and this investigated how this gap can be bridged. In addition to this, students internship should be considered for a longer period and would be more concerned to provide students the nature of business environment in accounting practices. In general, accounting education is under pressure to change its current teaching methods (Burnetta, 2003). As indicated by Elliott (1991) that one of accounting Professors said that accounting education is in not in the safe place. It is not catching the attention of enough right students. The courses provided to the students are not updated with the new accounting principles. Therefore the graduates are deficient in the capabilities demanded by employers. He also added that accounting programs are held in low value among many universities administrators, some people believe that the education and research of accounting are not important to the university's function, and others see it as a fringe discipline - too vocational, a service function for MBAs, and so on. Furthermore, the accounting Professor shows his concerns about faculty stimulation, instructional materials, accreditation, and professional examinations. On the other hand, this Professor was very positive due to the fact that he sees increasing in acceptance to the need for change and believes that it can be done (Elliott, 1991) Accounting education has periodically come under fire from both professionals and educators for allegedly failing to ensure that students obtain the skills needed to effectively meet the challenges facing them upon graduation (Marshall, et al., 2012). Moreover, Ehman & Glenn (1991) and (Kachelmeier, 2001) declared that the impact of technology in education has not been successful. The literature is uncertain with respect to the relationship between the use of technology in education and student satisfaction. On the other hand, (Kachelmeier, 2001) support the vision that the use of information technology (IT) developed the 6

7 learning procedure between the students. (Kachelmeier, 2001) explain the benefits of using technology in the classroom where the use of various information technology tools can be very helpful and practical for student's satisfaction. Further, Watson, et al., (2007) did not approve that technology is a factor which can affect the process of learning. He argued that technology is only an object for delivering lessons. Clark also argued that, the basic concern that affect student learning is not technology but it is instructional methods that are use by the instructor. Likewise, Watson, et al., (2007) argues that the integration of technology into educational practices is without difficulty. He agrees that technology in education is what helps the student satisfaction increases, but also said that other variables play a significant role in satisfaction, such as services, curriculum and teaching (Kachelmeier, 2001). In addition to the above discussion paragraphs, accounting education researchers have conducted studies about gaps between the skills needed by practitioners and the skills of the new graduates (Francis & Minchington, 1999; Gammie et al., 2002). The Institute of Internal Auditors (2003) calls for such studies. Researchers should not only identify the gaps, but also plan and design studies that investigate how these gaps are effectively closed. Other changes outside higher education should be reflected in the accounting classroom. Most prominently, perhaps there will be changes in accounting practice, particularly in auditing, in light of recent audit failures and the implementation of new auditing standards. The new changes in accounting practice reflect gaps between practice and education. Designing a research program in conjunction with the curriculum changes, necessary to fill the gaps offers an opportunity for a longitudinal study that measures outcomes throughout the change process and changes in the skills of graduates under a new curriculum. In both the previous 3-year review of the accounting education literature (Apostolou et al., 2000) and in this literature review, 118 articles were categorized as curriculum and instruction. However, in the previous review article, 12 empirical studies investigated developing core competencies, and eight investigated overall curriculum issues. In the current review, those numbers are reduced to two and five articles, respectively. Additional research in effective methods of developing core competencies is needed. Researchers interested in conducting these types of studies may want to consider designs that are longer-term (i.e., tracking students through a reformed curriculum) as opposed to tracking students through one course. Such an endeavor would require developing a research design in conjunction with curriculum reform and implementing them both at the same time. 5. Summary and Conclusions Commentators have suggested that accounting education has not changed in 30 years, or even more. A process that has remained unchanged for so long is probably incapable of producing currently useful output. However, we cannot save accounting education by continuing to do more of the same. In this respect, there are many things that accounting educators do better than anyone else. There are also many professional opportunities for which we can prepare graduates students in a better way to meet the requirements of future accounting practice. In general, the literature review identifies and contributes that accounting education and accounting practices are not aligned in this century and now although few researches are available, but still many researchers acknowledge that the two should be aligned. More researches have to be 7

8 carried out so as to lay emphasis on the topic and educational institutes teaching accounting students should change the syllabus so as to incorporate courses that would help students develop analytical skills rather than just cramming knowledge about what accounting is and what it does. There is a new to reform the educational accounting system so that professionals could encounter tasks with dexterity and proficiency. The accounting researches which are conducted have a wide gap with the accounting practices which are followed. Most of the accounting researches which are conducted are with the motive to debate with the rules and guidelines which have been suggested by the governing bodies for accounting practitioners. Not much stress is laid in finding solutions for the accounting practices and the major reason for this could be the disconnection which exists between accounting researchers and practitioners. Most of the practitioners do want innovative solutions and suggestions which can improve the accounting practices but they are not willing to provide the required data to the accounting researchers for conducting a proper research. Only when there would be collaboration between accounting researchers and practitioners can the existing and proposed new accounting policies can improve. While conducting the research societal impact should also be considered and the outcome which is obtained by the research should be for the benefit and improvement of the society. Universities should try to have more stress on accounting research rather than just providing them education regarding the existing accounting practices. There should be ways to improve the accounting technologies and skills which are used by accounting practitioners. The gap between accounting research and accounting practice should be reduced so that accountants benefit from the researches. Overall, the good news is that, while the gap between education and practice has been widening, with quick and definitive action we can save accounting education. Therefore, closing the gap between accounting education and career is not the responsibility of universities and education institutes alone, businesses and employers have the responsibility to communicate with education. In other words, closing the gap between accounting education and practice should be the two-ways interaction processes. Thus, the need to have all the hands together, accounting educators, researchers, graduated students in their workplace to find the solutions. Further research should focus on identifying performance about the accounting professional students that may develop more the analytical skills of graduated students. Another useful area for investigation is to examine the educational systems related to accounting practitioners to teach more relevant courses that would develop the students skills instead of selecting courses that they find easy to teach. References Accountants AAI OCP 1998, Focus on the Horizon, Executive Summary and CPA Vision Project Focus Group Public Practice, Industry and Government CPAs. CPA Vision Project. Apostolou, BA., Watson SF, Hassell, JM, & Webber, SA 2001, Accounting education literature review ( ). Journal of Accounting Education, Vol.1 9, no. 1, pp Bierstaker JL, Howe M & Seol I 2004, Accounting majors perceptions regarding the 150-hour rule. Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 19, no. 1), pp Briket RJ 1990, The sociology of accountancy:a study of academic and practice community schisms. Accounting Horizons, Vol. 4, no. 1, pp

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