1. 10th Annual Kate Stanton Memorial Lecture
CPA Australia and the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics
The future isn’t what it used to be – 45 years of accounting education: a personal reflection
Emeritus Professor Gary O’Donovan, FCPA
August 2017

2. Overview Kate Stanton Background
Personal reflections, not strictly empirically based
Focus on accounting education, but not solely
Focus on university education, but not solely
Provocative – maybe?
Panel

3. Structure – changes over time
Classroom
Students
Government policy, structural settings, higher education changes, structures and pressures
Research and its impact
Accounting employers and the accounting profession
Other influences
Panel discussion, questions and answers

4. 1970’s

5. Classroom Pedagogy Large lectures Small tutorials Staff/student ratio
Part-time/full-time
Flipped classroom
Blended learning
Online/distance
Learning outcomes/CRA
Technology
Presentation and student engagement
Automation of tasks
Content
More breadth and less depth
Number of accounting standards/rules

6. Technology

7. Technology

8. Students Gender Generation differences Mode of study
Methods of teaching and learning
Access to and amount of information available
Expectation gaps
Employers, educators, students
Customers, clients or learners?
Move to postgraduate studies
Abolition of the binary system
Impact of growth in international student numbers
The student experience
Importance of professional membership and recognition
Why study accounting?
Breadth vs depth

9. 1980’s

10. Government and Universities
Free education
1980s
Hawke/Keating policies – opened up the market economy
HECS
1990s
Abolition of the binary higher education system
University funding base
Growth of international student numbers and global expansion of universities
2000s
Continued growth of Master of Professional Accounting and international student numbers
More regulation and pressure, AUQA, and increase in private providers
2010s
University funding (still) and how universities allocate resources
Increased regulation, TEQSA and even more private providers

11. Accounting research - impact
Not a big deal until the late 1960s – Ball and Brown and positive accounting theory – market theories – reporting the impact of accounting information on the market
The conceptual framework development in the 1970s based on the uses and usefulness of accounting information for different users rather than just a stewardship function.
Normative theories – what ‘should be’ rather than ‘what is’ – a move to understand and understand the influence and uses of accounting information in business and society
Critical accounting theories – moving away from existing paradigms, as the argument is if one starts from what is happening now then other possibilities will never emerge.
Research became a much bigger deal in accounting curriculum content in Australia when the binary education system was abolished
To survive, teachers were required to become researchers and introduce the link between accounting research and practice into the curriculum and classroom
For career progression, most academics were under much greater pressure to concentrate on research outcomes and performance over teaching performance

12. Normative research - my research
McNamara fallacy (quantitative fallacy)
Measure whatever can be easily measured.
Disregard that which cannot be measured easily.
Presume that which cannot be measured easily is not important.
Presume that which cannot be measured easily does not exist.
Named for Robert McNamara, Secretary for Defence, USA from

13. 1990’s

14. Employers and Professional Bodies
Changing needs
Training or educating?
Domestic numbers flat
International numbers increasing
Generic skill, graduate attributes
Broader skill sets required (e.g. MPA)
Professional Bodies
Entry requirements increased
Specialised designations (e.g. Public practice, public sector)
Internal courses, exams post membership
CPD requirements
Value proposition for members

16. It’s not the way we would like it to be, but I tell you that’s the way it is. We will hire any student who has brains, regardless of academic preparation. It’s easier to hire smart people, without regard to their academic background and teach them the accounting they need to know than it is to search through the smaller pool of accounting trained people, looking for the same level of native talent. Forty percent of what has to be done in audit does not have to be done by accounting people. It has two fundamental needs; well educated people have skills in either business processes or wealth accumulation. The first is handled best by engineering type people and the second by finance people.

17. Other influences 1970s Inflation accounting - CoCoA, CCA 1980s
Creative accounting – Bond, Skase, etc.
1990s
Focus on research on accounting as an agent of social change
Corporate social responsibility, Environmental accounting (Exxon Valdez)
Financial and corporate collapses (e.g. Pyramid)
2000s
Corporate collapses (e.g. HIH, One Tel)
Growth of dubious financial instruments – swaps, options, junk bonds, etc.
Global financial crisis, ethics and governance – the accountant’s role
2010s
University and business and accounting schools’ mission, role and purpose – corporatisation?

18. Thank You
Over to Ric and the panel