A Proposed Revision of the Accounting Curriculum.

Abstract The article comments on a proposed revision of the accounting curriculum. In recent years the growing emphasis on managerial accounting has created some perplexing problems in curriculum organization. Needless to say, any solution is only temporary since the ever changing demands of business necessitate a curriculum in flux. If accounting education is to keep pace with the growing diversity of demands placed on it, there is a need for revising the traditional program. The thesis of this article is to recommend a basic curriculum change to fill the widening gap between the supply of and the demand for managerial accountants, while maintaining the strength of education for public accounting. It is generally agreed that the heart of the accounting curriculum is intermediate accounting. This course has long been the crucial test for accounting majors. The emphasis, however, on procedural manipulations, such as inventory valuation, depreciation and fund/cash flow, often frustrates and discourages those whose minds tend more toward the interpretation of information rather than the accumulation of it. Potential managerial accountants drop to the wayside a situation obviously incompatible with the growing demand for accountants as decision makers.