The burning education question

This from a guest post at AccountancyAge (via PCW) is possibly the most important question I’ve seen asked about the future of the profession:

It is clearly not sufficient to limit our learning to a question of increasingly technical methods and standards. This has been the trajectory of accounting regulation since 1970 culminating in IFRS, which recent events have shown to be both ineffectual and overly complicated.

As for who should lead this debate, those in charge of the professional bodies have thus far avoided it.

However, academics have the potential here. We are the ones writing the books and researching the failures but, to date, we have tended to accept the syllabuses set by the professional bodies rather than trying to influence them.

The current economic crisis presents an opportunity for a new debate between those in-charge of training the next generation of accountants and those researching the accounting failures of the past and present.

Given the potential impact of the current crisis and the reduction of the Big Eight to the Big Four over the course of 40 years, it may not be too big a statement to make that the future of the accounting profession as we know it depends on its willingness to engage in such a debate.

My highlights. These are incredibly important statements that put the disconnect between educators and the profession in sharp relief.

If, like me, you look upon a profession that has provided you with a good living but feel undervalued, underserved, under pressure and generally despised because of the actions of others then this is the kind of debate you all need to be having. However, past experience of the Big Four’s influence in the UK is far from satisfactory for the vast majority of professionals. Their agenda is way different to that of the majority and, as as recent history has shown, is best described as toxic. I would caution upon their involvement except on an equal footing with others.

I would be asking our learned professor to enumerate and evaluate what history is telling us in the economic context before engaging in this debate.

Update: the slightly whacky but always entertaining Adrienne Gonzalez, who teaches accounting talks about the millenials’ perspective. It’s a tough but important read for anyone looking at this through the lens of a 40+ practitioner.

Hat tip to Francine for Tweeting the link.

Image courtesy of econsolidatedaccounts.net

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Tagged as: Accountancy, Accounting, Big Four auditors, IFRS