Accounting Education for the 21st Century: Meeting the Challenges.

Abstract This article focuses on the challenges facing accounting education for the 21st century. Boyer states that the work of the professoriate consists of four overlapping functions: the advancement of knowledge, the synthesis of knowledge, the application of knowledge, and the communication of knowledge to those who would learn. This suggests that accounting education embraces both teaching and research dimensions. There are some changes currently undeway in the environment of accounting. One could identify numerous forces that will radically alter the business scene during the 21st Century. However, the two primary forces are globalization and information technology. Continued advances in computer and information technology will also have numerous effects. One effect will be the growing Importance of intangibles; i.e., tangible assets will not be as important as the information about them and the management of that information. Another major effect of information technology will be a radical change in the economics of production and distribution. Vertically integrated production will no longer be an efficient mode of operation. Real time global information linkages mean that production will increasingly go to whomever, wherever and of whatever size can do the job, or portions of the job, best. The future developments described suggest that the approach to business and accounting education will and must shift from being "supply-driven" to "demand-driven." Business education and research must become more markets-based than before. The implications of these developments are clear. Accounting educators need to shift the emphasis in accounting away from a preparer of information premise to more of a user/interpreter/communicator of information premise.