Abstract The article discusses about whether accounting education properly occupies a place in the university. Accounting is not presented as an interesting subject that figures importantly in the calculations of managers, investors and creditors and government policy makers but instead as a collection of rules that are to be memorized in an uncritical, almost unthinking way. Typically, a problem facing the professions practitioners is asserted, the official solution is exposited, journal entries and sample financial statements illustrating the official solution are presented and the students are then put through the hoops of numerical problems that test their capacity to apply the official solution to hypothetical situations. Another desirable quality is the interpolation of non-accounting factors that have influenced the development of accounting practice. This quality is related to that of historical perspective, but it focuses on contemporary influences. The article finally stresses that educators must decide what should be taught in courses and curricula and not allow these questions to devolve upon writers of the CPA examination and the standard setters.
Stephen A. Zeff (Wed,) studied this question.