Accounting education, research and practice: After Enron, where do we go?

Recent accounting scandals have brought into question the efficacy of accounting education and research and the relationship of accounting educators to the profession. This paper calls for a comprehensive reassessment of accounting education, especially in terms of: undergraduate accounting programs; the development of an approach to accounting research and scholarship that is more closely focused on impact rather than purely methodological rigor; and the establishment of significantly more interaction between the profession and accounting educators. These changes, some of which could be painful and disruptive to the current structure of accounting departments, must begin to occur or we as accounting educators run the risk of being marginalized as the accounting profession tries to respond to the needs of society.