TY - JOUR AB - There is increasing academic pressure on Departments of Accounting in South Africa whose academic programmes are accredited with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). The reason for this that the academic training of potential chartered accountants has long been their main academic focus, and they often fail to do justice to their real academic mission of scholarly activity in accounting (the pursuit of science as an endeavour), which is central to the essence of a university. The quality of such departments’ research is not yet an important criterion for their prestige. However, only Departments of Accounting that develop Accounting as a social science in scholarly activity in accounting deserve international recognition. This empirical study attempts to convince Departments of Accounting, particularly those whose academic programmes are accredited by SAICA, to embark on scholarly activity in accounting as soon as possible. VL - 16 IS - 1 SN - 1022-2529 DO - 10.1108/10222529200800001 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/10222529200800001 AU - van der Schyf D.B. PY - 2008 Y1 - 2008/01/01 TI - The essence of a university and scholarly activity in accounting, with reference to a Department of Accounting at a South African university T2 - Meditari Accountancy Research PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 1 EP - 26 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -