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Excellencies Ladies and Gentlemen At the end of this memorable 33rd Congress of our Association, I would like to thank very heartly our hosts H.E. E.W. Mwangale, Minister for Tourism and Wildlife, the Organizing Committee, presided by Mr. Maliti as well as to Universal Safary Tours as executing agency for having done everything to make our stay in Kenya pleasant and attractive.

IN October a well‐known literary periodical appeared for a single number in a bright‐red cover to signalise a certain change. Two months earlier we had altered our size, type and cover‐colour; for the last exchanging the decorous consistent grey of our outer garment for the summer yellow in which our two Conference numbers appeared. Some readers found this too gaudy, although the three colours which have most “attention value,” as the advertisement experts say, are yellow, red and Cambridge blue. We compromise on orange, which has warmth, and we hope will have welcome.

This paper presents the design, development and trialling of the mobile execution environment (MEE), a secure portable execution environment designed to support secure teleworking. Teleworking is an established work practice, yet often the information security controls in the teleworking location are weaker than those in a corporate office. Security concerns also prevent organisations allowing personnel to telework.

The design science research methodology was applied to develop the MEE, and this paper is structured using the process elements of the methodology.

In this paper, the problem addressed and the design objectives are defined. The design and implementation is discussed, and the testing and trialling approach adopted to demonstrate the MEE is summarised. An evaluation of the demonstration results against the design objectives is presented.

The MEE is part of an ongoing research project using open source software; the structure and functionality of the software can limit or influence the direction of the research.

The MEE provides a secure portable execution environment suitable for transaction-oriented work performed remotely; e.g. teleworkers performing customer support work.

The paper contributes to encouraging the implementation of teleworking.

The MEE builds on the concept of a portable executable operating system that uploads onto a PC through an external port. The MEE extends this concept by providing a hardened secure computing environment that is uploaded from a secure storage device or a standard thumb drive (USB flash drive).

The purpose of this paper is to assess the overall alignment of undergraduate accounting degree programmes from all Certified Practicing Accountants Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand accredited higher education providers in Australia with the profession’s minimum educational expectations (MEEs).

The paper uses a series of quantitative and qualitative analyses to determine whether or not the content and focus of these programmes prepares students for contemporary accounting practice.

The results of these analyses demonstrate that most accredited undergraduate accounting degrees in Australia are largely unaligned with the profession’s expectations, with 18 (out of 57) degree programmes showing no overlap between their learning outcomes and the profession’s MEEs. In addition, only two (out of 57) programmes are shown to address all of the profession’s minimum expectations. A subsequent analysis of the focus and structure of the evaluated degree-level learning outcomes revealed additional inconsistencies between the interpretation of individual MEEs by the profession and the higher education sector.

This paper demonstrates that accredited undergraduate degrees are predominantly unable to prepare students for entry into the accounting profession, and that the prior efforts to align accounting curricula with the profession’s needs and expectation have thus far been largely unsuccessful. The findings of this paper are relevant for higher education providers and the accounting profession because they reflect the current level of alignment between the content and focus of undergraduate accounting education and the profession’s expectations. In addition, the findings of this paper highlight that the current accreditation process of the professional accounting bodies in Australia does not generate the desired alignment between academia and accounting practice.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on how the 2018 energy efficiency legislation in the UK, Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES), is impacting upon the UK market with a particular emphasis on the investment market.

This practice briefing is an overview of the 2018 legislation and comments on how market awareness has changed since its introduction and the potential impact upon prices of affected properties moving forward.

This paper discusses how capital and rental values are beginning to be discounted in the market to allow for current and future liabilities under the MEES legislation. This has a significant impact on strategies for property investment.

The role of the property professional is to ensure that clients are fully conversant with their statutory obligations and to advise on appropriate investment strategies to optimise their property portfolios.

This paper provides insights on the requirements of MEES legislation to aid the property professional.

The aim of the paper is to present the experience of New Bulgarian University (NBU) and the methodology followed for changing its educational programmes and developing new ones according to the labour market needs.

Initially, the paper focuses on the need for adapting curricula for meeting the labour market demands for information and communication technologies (ICT) professional skills. It provides an overview of the ICT skills supply and demand trends in Europe. A special emphasis is made on the dialogue of leading stakeholders in Europe for developing European E-Competence Framework. After introducing the overall picture in Europe, the paper presents the environment in Bulgaria for higher education, research and innovation and the ICT skills challenges in the country. The last part of the paper is based on the project methodology and its results. First, the methodology behind the design of a new Masters programme is given, and next, the concepts for adapting NBU educational programmes according to the labour market needs are presented.

Bulgarian universities seldom introduce multidisciplinary educational programmes. Generally, industry involvement in higher education is at low level, and university programmes are not linked to skills needs of future employees. Some good examples exist in the ICT university – business collaboration.

The development of information economy depends on the existence of adequate skills for using and developing ICT. In the last decades, ICT skills supply and demand remains an evergreen issue in many European Union Member States. Bulgaria also faces the challenges of meeting industrial demands for e-competences of its workforce. The paper presents an approach which could be followed by other university teams in designing or changing their educational programmes. At the same time, it provides insight on the overall environment in the country, and the challenges which different stakeholders face in the development of the knowledge-based economy.

An in-depth analysis of how senior managers in a large multinational corporation interpret their social and environmental responsibilities revealed that, notwithstanding formal corporate interpretations, discrepancies persisted in their interpretation of what was expected of them and how to implement it. Two fault lines emerged: (1) an instrumental versus a normative interpretation of corporate societal responsibilities, and (2) a focus on ‘doing less/no harm’ versus ‘doing more good’. This chapter introduces a theoretical framework that combines these fault lines to form four quadrants that each represent a different set of challenges managers face as they commit to improving their organisation’s impact on society. Rather than adjudicate between them, a holistic interpretation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) takes all four types into account. But the four types of challenges differ considerably in nature and thus in the strategic approach that is necessary to deal with them. In this chapter, each quadrant is discussed in detail. What characterises the issues in this quadrant, what mindset, and what strategy are necessary to address them? The chapter concludes with the observation that the framework, and the taxonomy of types of CSR challenges that it brings to the fore, creates greater awareness of how industries are confronted with different sets of challenges and thus need different strategic approaches. A better understanding of these differences may lead to more support, in particular for those managers who work in industries that face a disproportionate share of one particular type of challenges, the ‘nasty trade-offs’.

The results are presented from research carried out among a group of economics students at a Dutch university concerning their attitudes towards banks in general, and the main local financial institutions in particular. The technique used was the Semantic Differential, based on pan‐cultural as well as bank‐specific scales. The results show that banks in general are viewed as positive, powerful and dependable institutions, but not very consumer oriented and even less active and dynamic. The data concerning the individual companies provide a basis for differentiated product positioning and communication strategies.

This paper aims to explore what can be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic about adaptable, functional housing design that supports seniors’ resilience. This paper considers how physical and design features enable seniors to stay safe, develop coping strategies, give and receive care and maintain social connections.

A qualitative research strategy incorporating thematic analysis was used, involving interviews and one focus group with seniors and interviews with housing providers and community organisations supporting seniors. Forty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with 54 seniors aged over 60 years living independently, not in aged care. Interviewees were selected to cover a range of ages and housing circumstances. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 20 organisations.

The physical, amenity and design aspects of the living environment that support seniors’ well-being and resilience during a pandemic are: the ability to receive essential goods and services in the home; sufficient space and storage; flexible and adaptable living spaces; access to private indoor and outdoor space; ability to garden and grow food; having an outlook or view; functional heating, ventilation and appliances; and dwelling location allowing access to green spaces, food stores and services. The ability of housing to facilitate social connections is a fundamental enabler of seniors’ resilience.

This paper contributes to knowledge about physical and design aspects of the dwelling that enable protection and care in a pandemic and how that can help to future-proof housing. Its focus on enabling seniors’ resilience through housing recognises the growing significance of structural population ageing for housing design and delivery and the central role of housing to ageing-in-place policies that underpin health and welfare provision.