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Quality in accounting education: what say the academics?

Kim Watty (School of Accounting and Law, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

Quality Assurance in Education

ISSN: 0968-4883

Article publication date: 1 June 2005

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Abstract

Purpose

To provide a view of quality in accounting education from the perspective of a critical stakeholder group – academic accountants. The identification of this view adds to the growing discussions around quality, and how it is assured in higher education.

Design/methodology/approach

Applying a framework for defining quality in higher education to an accounting context, a postal survey questionnaire was sent to academic accountants at 39 Australian universities to gather data about their views of quality in accounting education.

Findings

Academic accountants view quality, as currently defined and promoted in their immediate working environment, differently to their views about how quality should be defined and promoted. As a consequence, quality assurance and improvement systems may be currently designed to assure quality that is promoted in accounting education, rather than quality that ought to be promoted.

Research limitations/implications

Using a postal survey to gather data on the complex issue of “quality” might not always provide the richness of data that may be collected during face‐to‐face survey interviews.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide valuable input into the discussion around the design of quality assurance and improvement systems in higher education generally, and for accounting education specifically.

Originality/value

In the absence of any previous empirical research that has sought to identify these perceptions, the findings fill the gap in the literature by clearly identifying the views of quality in accounting education from a key stakeholder group – academic accountants.

Keywords

Citation

Watty, K. (2005), "Quality in accounting education: what say the academics?", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 120-131. https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880510594373

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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