Accounting academics’ multiple challenges: Issues-driven learning offers a way forward

Accounting academics in South Africa are under pressure from their stakeholders, particularly the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the Department of Education (DoE), to make urgent changes. Challenges include the need for increased research output and for new teaching, learning and assessment techniques that require and enable students to develop additional competencies beyond core technical knowledge, thereby improving graduate attributes and student retention rates. Changes needed involve an educational focus and mind-shift. The purpose of this article is to establish how issues-driven learning (IDL), as an example of experiential or experience-based learning theory (ELT) can be implemented to meet the challenges.