What's New about Accounting Education Change? An Historical Perspective on the Change Movement.

Abstract The last decade has been filled with calls for change in accounting education. Practitioners and academics alike have criticized accounting education as being too narrow and too technical to properly prepare entrants for the rapidly changing and expanding profession. This paper reviews the history of accounting education in the United States and traces the origins of such calls for a broader, more liberal accounting education back to the inception of university programs in accounting near the turn of the century. The leaders of the early profession believed accounting required a wide range of knowledge and minds trained to think analytically and critically. However, accounting programs through the years have largely emphasized technical training and CPA exam preparation at the expense of the broad, liberal education that was intended by the founding practitioners who sponsored the first university schools of business. Forward-looking accountants both in the profession and in academia have for many years been deeply disappointed with the narrow focus of accounting programs and with the rules-based, procedural approach of accounting courses. Early criticisms of accounting education sound remarkably similar to recent concerns. The intensity and urgency of current mandates for change may be a result of 90 years of frustration. Factors inhibiting comprehensive, universal change in accounting education are identified. A pragmatic perspective on academic efforts to effect the types of changes needed is presented.