Accounting Education at a Crossroad in 2010 and Challenges Facing Accounting Education in Australia

Of the various reports released in 2010, two purport to examine the state of accounting education in Australia. These are Accounting Education at a Crossroad in 2010 and Challenges Facing Accounting Education in Australia. Both were released as collaborations of the leading academic organisation, the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) or professional accounting bodies in Australia including the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA),1 Prior to April 2011, the IPA was known as the National Institute of Accountants (or NIA). View all notes and Certified Practising Accountants of Australia (CPA Australia). As their titles imply, the main thrust of these reports is to examine the challenges facing accounting education in Australian universities and, as such, they act as the input for this AE Briefing. The main challenges articulated in these reports portray a sector suffering from the combined pressure of a large international student enrolment, high student-to-staff ratios, an inadequate funding model, and an ageing academic staff profile. By way of commentary, we suggest that, if these gloomy circumstances continue to develop unabated, then the future for the sector will play out as a `perfect storm¿2 Reference to the state of accounting education as moving toward a `perfect storm¿ is an analogy that has been widely used in the higher education press in Australia and in dialogue at the local level. View all notes with the sector suffering on-going troubled development.