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For over a decade now, various stakeholders in accounting education have called for the integration of technology competencies in the accounting curriculum (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), 2013, 2018; Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC), 1990; American Institute of Certified Public Accountant (AICPA), 1996; Behn et al., 2012; Lawson et al., 2014; PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), 2013). In addition to stakeholder expectations, the inclusion of data analytics as a key area in both the business and accounting accreditation standards of the AACSB signals the urgent need for accounting programs to incorporate data analytics into their accounting curricula. This paper examines the extent of the integration of data analytics in the curricula of accounting programs with separate accounting AACSB accreditation. The paper also identifies possible barriers to integrating data analytics into the accounting curriculum. The results of this study indicate that of the 177 AACSB-accredited accounting programs, 79 (44.6%) offer data analytics courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level or as a special track. The results also indicate that 41 (23.16%) offer data analytics courses in their undergraduate curriculum, 61 (35.88%) at the graduate level, and 12 (6.80%) offer specialized tracks for accounting data analytics. Taken together, the findings indicate an encouraging trend, albeit slow, toward the integration of data analytics into the accounting curriculum.

The accounting profession is beginning to demand data analytics skills from its professionals to handle the increasing amount of data available to address accounting questions. Indeed, the explosion of data availability and data are changing the accounting profession, providing accountants the opportunity to continue as key financial information providers to decision-makers. We conducted a survey of accounting department chairs to help understand if, when and how accounting programs would include data analytics in its curriculum. The authors find that 90.7% of accounting department chairs believe that data analytics belongs in the accounting curriculum, with 59.3% planning to introduce an accounting data analytics course in the next three to five years. Most (66.5%) prefer an accounting data analytics course as compared to the general business analytics course and more than half of respondents (56.2%) predict that their coverage of data analytics will be incorporated both throughout the regular accounting curriculum and in a standalone data analytics course. Combined with the requirement of 2018 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business standards, the authors propose that data analytics should be incorporated both in the undergraduate level and graduate level, starting from basic analytics tools and ending with advanced emerging techniques.

Employers state that their major concern with accounting graduates is their inadequate skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening (Kranacher, 2007, p. 80). Yet, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and some state boards of accountancy have minimized the importance of these skills on professional certification exams. This conflict creates a mixed message. The purpose of our study is to determine accounting department chairs’ perceptions of the importance of writing, speaking, listening, interpersonal, and technological communication skills for both the accounting and the business curricula and where in the curriculum these skills are taught. In our study, we surveyed 122 accounting administrators from the largest North American accountancy programs. Survey respondents report that most required communication courses are in the general business curriculum and, to a lesser extent, as a required course in the accounting major. Consistent across demographics, respondents also indicate that all communication skills are important, but writing skills followed by technological skills are the most valued for the accounting curriculum, while writing and speaking skills are most important in the business curriculum. Implications for the curriculum are discussed.

This study examines the perceptions of accounting faculties toward ethics education, the extent of ethics coverage and reasons why ethics should (or should not) be taught in Japanese tertiary schools. Data for this research was collected from faculties that primarily teach accounting in Japanese tertiary schools in 2009. The results indicate that over 90% of accounting faculties believe that ethics should be taught within the accounting curriculum. In terms of how ethics should be delivered survey participants believed in a more holistic approach, which would encompass the benefits of teaching it as both a stand-alone course and integrating it with other relevant courses. This outcome is in direct contrast to the results obtained from previous studies undertaken outside of Japan. Of particular interest was the fact that the current survey revealed that only 55.2% of respondents actually intend to incorporate ethics into their accounting courses in the foreseeable future. This research successfully adds value to the shortage of literature existing on the perceptions of ethics education among Japanese accounting faculties.

Prior research (Harrast, Olsen, & Sun, 2023) analyzes the eight emerging topics to be included in future CPA exams and discusses their importance to career success and appropriate teaching locus in light of survey evidence. They find that the general topic of data analytics is the most important of the eight emerging topics. To further understand the topics most important to career success, this study analyzes subtopics underlying the eight emerging topics. The results show that advanced Excel analysis tools, data visualization, and data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) are the most important data analytics subskills for career success according to professionals and that these topics should be both introduced and emphasized in the accounting curriculum. The results provide useful information to educators to prioritize general emerging topics and specific subtopics in the accounting curriculum by taking into account the most pressing needs of the profession.

This study examines corporate governance and ethics (CGE) education by conducting a survey of academicians and practitioners in the United States. Results indicate that the demand for, and interest in, CGE continues to increase. More universities are planning to provide CGE education and many CGE topics are considered important for integration into the curriculum, although the degree of importance varies between academicians and practitioners. The two prevailing methods of CGE education integration are offering a stand-alone course in CGE or infusion of CGE topics into accounting courses. Results pertaining to the importance, delivery, and topical content of CGE education may be useful to universities that are, or are considering, integrating CGE into their curricula or redesigning their CGE courses. The CGE educational issues addressed in this study should help business schools design curricula to prepare students for the challenges awaiting them in the area of CGE.

Tax education, a subset of accounting education formed in the early 1900s, was largely ignored as a discipline until the 1970s. Over time, tax became a more prevalent part of accounting practice and the CPA examination. In 1996, the AICPA developed the Model Tax Curriculum (MTC) to give a practitioner’s perspective on how taxation should be taught in higher education. This chapter provides a history of tax education and the responses of tax educators to the MTC Task Force’s recommendations in 1996 and the revisions in 2007 and 2014. The authors surveyed tax educators five times over 23 years to get a sense of the MTC’s adoption, both in the past and future terms. The authors found that tax educators largely ignored the MTC Task Force’s recommendations. This chapter discusses reasons given by respondents for not following the MTC and offers various strategies the MTC Task Force and others might consider when recommending future tax education reforms.

This study examines 117 verbs associated with 2,872 learning objectives, and 377 questions taken from 24 textbooks across the accounting curriculum. To determine the level of cognitive ability associated with the individual learning objectives I analyzed the verbs based upon Bloom's Taxonomy. To reach across the accounting curriculum I chose texts from Financial Accounting, Intermediate Financial Accounting, Advanced Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Cost Accounting, and Auditing. Results of the analysis found that the authors used verbs at the lower learning levels of the cognitive domain. The verbs used by the author teams depend upon individual preference rather a specific segment of the cognitive domain. In addition, as the student progresses through the accounting curriculum some topics in upper level textbooks use learning objectives at the same level as in introductory level textbooks.