Perceptions of accounting: Do Australian born students see accounting differently from those born overseas?

Australia's chronic shortage of suitably qualified and appropriately skilled accountants has been, in part, tackled by the Federal Government's skilled migration program. This program has in the past encouraged international students to study accounting at Australian universities with the lure of preferential treatment for accounting graduates when applying for permanent residence. This paper examines how the accounting profession is viewed by international students, their expectation of work tasks and their motivation for studying accounting. The study includes a discussion of results from a survey of undergraduate accounting students (n=252) at a Melbourne-based university. The results show that international accounting students are less likely to report a genuine interest in accounting and see the role of accountants quite differently when compared to their Australian counterparts.