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BY APPLYING PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES DEVELOPED IN INDUSTRY, EDUCATORS CAN REFINE THE CONTENT, PEDAGOGY, ORGANIZATION, AND ASSESSMENT METHODS EMPLOYED IN THEIR ACCOUNTING COURSES TO HELP ENSURE THAT STUDENTS GAIN THE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS THAT WILL MAKE THEM MOST DESIRABLE TO EMPLOYERS.
Are accounting professors teaching the right stuff? This question has been asked many times over the past 20 years with study after study concluding that accounting education is broken and needs fixing. In 1986, the Bedford Report said, "There is little doubt that current content of professional accounting education, which has remained substantially the same over the past 50 years, is generally inadequate for future accounting professionals. A growing gap exists between what accountants do and what accounting educators teach....Accountants who remain narrowly educated will find it more difficult to compete in an expanding profession. The Committee's analysis of accounting practice has indicated that accounting education as it is currently approached requires major adjustments between now and the year 2000."1
A more recent study states, "Accounting leaders claim that accounting education (as currently structured) is outdated, broken, and needs significant modifications. Students don't perceive an accounting degree to be as valuable as it used to be."2 Industry is dissatisfied with the way colleges and universities train management accounting students. A 2004 article describes the lopsided nature of accounting curricula and makes a case for a better cost management focus in accounting curricula.3 As it stands, only a handful of colleges and universities offer cost management (accounting) courses beyond the one or two required junior-level courses.
In many respects, today's accounting education resembles yesterday's industry-outdated, fragmented, inefficient, obsolete, and producing poor-quality products. Just as industry did, accounting education lost its relevance because of complacency, acceptance of the status quo, lack of accountability, and lack of customer understanding.
Over the past few decades, industry underwent phenomenal and revolutionary changes. With tools and techniques such as Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, business process reengineering, and concurrent engineering, the manufacturing industry made radical changes in the way it conducted business and gained a better understanding of customer needs. Lean philosophy and Value Stream Mapping helped organizations streamline their operations, eliminate waste, and produce cost-effective products. Using balanced scorecard techniques, organizations developed metrics to align...
