1. Educating accounting professionals: investigating the relevance of an overloaded curriculum
Ilse Lubbe

2. ACCOUNTING EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
Current accounting curriculum remained relatively unchanged
Additional/new knowledge added
Resulting in overloaded curriculum
Dominant role of accounting profession
Accreditation of programmes
Is the current curriculum still relevant for a professional accounting qualification, given the challenges in HE in SA?

3. Recognition & realisation
CURRICULUM THEORY
Selection:
Relevance
What counts as valid knowledge?
Sequence,
Pacing,
Framing:
Pedagogy
Evaluation:
Recognition & realisation
Student learning
knowledge /skills
curriculum
assessment
World of work;
Profession
Teaching & learning
Student expectation

4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Selection
Pacing
Sequence
Evaluation
BERNSTEIN (2000)
CLASSIFICATION & FRAMING
What?
How much?
What order?
What counts?

5. Literature Burns et al (2004) Hopper (2012)
“ … accounting education overly inculcates technical skills and rote, rule-based learning; neglects theory, ethics and morality, and is overly concentrated on the interest of private capital”
Hopper (2012)
Making accounting degrees fit for a university
“...aspiration is to develop critical and creative thinking by engaging students in holistic, multidisciplinary analyses of ‘real’ accounting cases illustrating shortcomings of capitalism”
Chabrak & Craig (2013)
“... conventional accounting pedagogy neglects critical thought”
“accounting curricula are orientated towards ideologies and interest of the privileged”
Venter & De Villiers (2013)
“Strong control of SAICA over the CA curriculum ...”
Lubbe (2016)
Challenges in curriculum design: Considerations for a four year business and accounting degree in South Africa

6. METHODOLOGY SAICA accredited programmes 13 institutions; 5 selected
Selection based on:
Geography
Length of accreditation
Continuity of accreditation
Based on information available in public domain, via institutional websites
relevant size, geographical location, and the length of time that these programmes have been accredited by SAICA

7. Investigation & findings
Entrance requirements
Sequence and pacing – when, where?
Weighting of specific disciplines
Density of programme – how many courses?
What is different/new?

8. Entrance requirements
Institution
Entrance requirements A
Admission minimum of 32 NSC points, including Level 5 Mathematics, Level 4 English, Level 4 Life Orientation B
APS 30 and Mathematics level 5 (60-69%)
Grade 12 Accounting is a recommendation, but not a prerequisite. C
NSC with Bachelor’s Degree admission, with English at Level 5 and Mathematics at Level 5 D
Points score of no less than 30, with English at least level 4, Another language at level 3, Mathematics at least level 5, or Accounting level 5 and Maths level 4 E
Points score of 38, with English, Afrikaans or isiXhosa - at least level 3, and Maths at least level 5

9. Undergraduate programmes (3 years)

10. Weighting of disciplines

11. What counts?

12. Students’ performance
“We are so proud ... that is such an indicator of the quality of our graduates .. “ [Fort Hare comes out tops, SAICA, 2016]

13. Other observations Programmes tailored around SAICA CF
Different levels of completeness and accessibility of information on websites
Institutions that were subject to restructuring and reorganisations provided more comprehensive, clearer and relevant information

14. What is unique? What is missing?
Ethics & Professional skills
Language: basic IziZulu
Academic Literacy
Personal finance literacy
Capstone courses and integration (with IS)
Accountability & sustainability
Localised curriculum – towards the needs of SA’s developing economy

15. Limitations Visible curriculum – selection, pacing, sequence
Hidden curriculum – not visible: framing
What is taught and how
Focus on HOW (technical skills), instead of WHY
Use of case studies (critical thinking)
Integration
Assessment

16. Conversations around the relevance of the curriculum, including:
SAAA conference (June 2017) “Quest for relevance in a changing world” – call on Acc Academics to engage in collaborative research
Conversations around the relevance of the curriculum, including:
Ethics, accountability, responsible citizens
Integration: IS and case studies
Localise: consider knowledge associated with public sector, SMEs, etc.