703331591.

docx 08/11/23

Graduates’ vocational skills for the management accountancy profession:

Exploring the accounting education expectation-performance gap

Douglas Howcroft

Nottingham University Business School

e: [Link]@[Link]

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the Chartered Institute Management Accountants for their funding of

this research study. He also wishes to thank the guest editor, Professor Marriott, and

Professors Ballantine, Coad and Frecknall-Hughes for their help and encouragement, and to

thank Hilary Lindsay, ex-president ICAEW and two anonymous reviewers for their detailed

and helpful comments.

This article has been accepted for publication in ACCOUNTING EDUCATION

published by Taylor & Francis.

This is an original manuscript / preprint of an article published by Taylor &

Francis in [ACCOUNTING EDUCATION on 14 Aug 2017, available

online: [Link]

To cite this article: Douglas Howcroft (2017) Graduates’ vocational skills for the

management

accountancy profession: exploring the accounting education expectation-

performance gap,

Accounting Education, 26:5-6, 459-481, DOI: 10.1080/09639284.2017.1361846

To link to this article: [Link]

1
 [Link] 08/11/23

Graduates’ vocational skills for the management accountancy profession:

Exploring the accounting education expectation-performance gap

Abstract: This paper focuses on understanding the vocational skills required by graduates
and assessing the competence of graduates for the management accountancy profession. It
explores ‘expectation gaps’ by examining whether the Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants (CIMA), practitioner employers and university educators have different
expectations with regard to the important vocational skills for graduates. The research aim is
to generate a greater understanding of the factors that create identified expectation gaps
between the above stakeholders and to explore the implications of any gaps.

The research was conducted by interviewing stakeholders and a survey of university

accounting educators in UK and Ireland business schools. Expectation gaps between the
stakeholders were identified. These expectation gaps appear to exist owing to conflicting
views on the purpose of university education. The paper contributes to the growing debates
about the general role of Higher Education (HE) in society and the role of university
accounting educators in supplying graduate trainee accountants for the management
accountancy profession.

Keywords: university accounting education, expectation gaps, vocational skills, educational

objectives.

1. Introduction
There has been much debate regarding the future direction of accounting education in general
(May et al., 1995; Albrecht and Sack, 2000; Parker, 2001; Cappelletto, 2010; Behn et al.,
2012; Hopper, 2013; Evans, 2014; Flood, 2014) and the essential knowledge and skill sets
required by management accountants in particular (Novin et al., 1990; Parker, 2002; Scapens
et al., 2003; Hassall, 2005). Unsurprisingly then, there have been calls for more constructive
dialogue between university educators, accounting practitioners and professional accountancy
bodies:

In order to facilitate the creation of effective accounting practitioners, there is a need for proper
alignment in linking (academic) education in accounting and (professional) training in accounting as
complementary components of an overall developmental process (Wilson, 2002, p.309).

2
 [Link] 08/11/23

This paper focuses on the vocational skills expected of novice management accountants, who
are increasingly graduate trainees. It explores whether the professional management
accountancy body (CIMA), practitioner employers, and university educators have different
expectations about vocational skill sets required of management accountants by examining
what these different stakeholder groups say are the vocational skills needed by graduate
trainee accountants. What the stakeholders view as the required vocational skills is compared
with the education provided to determine whether there are any expectation gaps between
what CIMA specifies as the required standard for competency, the education offered by
universities and the requirements of employers.

In order to determine whether there are expectation gaps between CIMA, educators and
practitioner employers, the following research question was generated:

Are there expectation gaps between the UK management accountancy body (CIMA),
university educators and practitioner employers with regard to the important vocational
skill sets expected of graduate trainee management accountant practitioners?

To date no study has ascertained and compared the views of UK accounting university
educators with UK CIMA employers. For this reason this research study sought to establish
what the views of UK university accounting educators on vocational skills are and to
compare educators’ views with a previous survey of UK CIMA employers (Arquero Montano
et al., 2001). Accordingly a survey of educators was conducted and in addition interviews
were carried out to establish and explore the views of UK and Irish university accounting
educators and CIMA practitioner employers.

In order to address the research question, the vocational skills desired by each of the three
stakeholder groups are established so that an analysis and discussion can emerge around why
expectations gaps might exist and their implications for the stakeholders described. An
interpretive approach, namely pragmatism, using a mixed methods methodology was adopted
in this research study to generate data to help determine, interpret and understand factors that
create expectations gaps between three stakeholder groups in HE (university educators,
CIMA and practitioner employers). The following mixed methods are used to answer the
research question:

3
 [Link] 08/11/23

1. Qualitative interviewing of stakeholders – 16 interviews (nine university accounting

educators at six university business schools; a CIMA official; and six interviews of
practitioner employers of trainee management accountants).

2. A survey sent to 417 university accounting educators working in business schools in

UK and Ireland.1 The accounting educators’ survey was designed to be comparable
with the Arquero Montano et al. (2001) survey of CIMA practitioner employers,
listing a skills inventory for management accountants.

1.1 Contribution
This study establishes that there are expectation gaps between CIMA, practitioner employers
and university educators with regard to the essential knowledge and skill sets expected of
graduate trainee management accountant practitioners. It argues that the traditional identity of
academics is under threat and the autonomy of university educators is being eroded as
business schools are increasingly being subject to market forces. Accounting educators are
under pressure to meet the stakeholder expectations, specifically, in the case of this paper,
CIMA and practitioner employers, and are less able to ensure the delivery of the liberal
education they might wish to deliver, owing to the constraints imposed by these expectations
and by increased student numbers. This paper investigates whether educators in university
business schools have been successfully colonised by CIMA and practitioner employers
concluding that the colonisation has not been entirely successful. It calls for further research
into the expectations of stakeholders in university accounting education.

1.2 Structure of paper

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The next section discusses a possible
clash between vocational training and the desire of university educators to provide a liberal
education and promote critical thinking, and the range of skills that CIMA graduate trainee
accountants require. Section 3 describes the research design adopted for this study. The
analytical framework used in this study, and adapted from Bui and Porter (2010), is
explained. Section 4 presents and discusses the research findings. In the concluding section of
the paper, the limitations and contributions of the research are outlined.

4
 [Link] 08/11/23

2. Literature Review
2.1 Vocational training versus liberal education and the promotion of critical thinking
It is common practice for university accounting graduates to obtain exemptions from
professional accounting examinations and for business schools to advertise their accounting
degree programmes accreditation on their web sites. University accounting education is a
competitive market and, as Starkey and Tempest lament there is financial pressure for
business schools, as ‘cash cows’ (2008, p.383), to recruit large numbers of students. A loss of
accreditation could be a serious blow to a business school. Therefore university accounting
educators need to pay attention and give serious consideration to the professional
accountancy bodies’ and practitioner employers’ expectations of business schools to provide
vocational training.

Scholarly commentators of HE like Barnett (1990; 1994; 2012) fear that the development of
vocational skills’ agenda is in conflict with the traditional idea that what a university
education aims to provide is not only discipline-specific knowledge and skills, but also a
liberal education. Barnett maintains that that the clamour for vocational training is not just a
threat to the notion of a liberal education, but also ‘is ideological in attempting to shift the
university in a direction that reflects particular societal interests’ (1994, p.55). In this respect
some scholars argue that there should be an expectations gap between university educators
and practitioner employers and the accounting profession. For example, Craig and Amernic
(2002, p.128) maintain that university accounting educators should be allowed to decide what
to teach ‘in society’s best interests’ because professional bodies are elite organisations whose
‘language, values and prejudices’ are ‘sometimes at odds with core values in society’.
Moreover, accounting educators, such as Gray and Collison (2002), see a clear distinction
between education and training: ‘it is the role of education to supply the broad, critical and
reflective elements and for training to provide specific and technical skills’ (p.825). McLean
(2006) and Milner and Hill (2007) advocate providing a well-rounded education and
promoting critical thinking, rather than producing accounting technicians. Hopper (2013)
agrees that the development of critical skills is an essential component of university
accounting degrees and that accounting degrees should not merely imitate professional
accounting courses. Research-led university business schools need to develop ‘students’
critical skills and knowledge through research related teaching’ (ibid., p.134). However, as
Hopper (2013) points out, there is a shortage of university accounting educators who are also
high quality researchers and he calls for ‘universities benefiting from surpluses generated by
5
 [Link] 08/11/23

accounting courses in high demand need to divert more funding to addressing the supply
problems, i.e. suitable teachers. […He further suggests that] entrants into teaching need
opportunities to improve their research skills and knowledge’ (p.135).

As Barnett (1994) points out, the promotion of critical thinking is a central part of the
academic identity of university teachers. Henkel (2000) conducted research to investigate
how the massive increase in undergraduate numbers had affected the roles of university
educators. One finding from her interviews was that educators had to concentrate less on
trying to produce critical thinkers and more on knowledge transfer in order to produce
technicians.

It can be questioned whether university educators and CIMA and practitioner employers
should have identical expectations with regard to the essential knowledge and skill sets that
graduates have. Critical theorists such as Dillard (2002) argue that the reason why university
educators are expected to meet the demands of CIMA and employers is because university
business schools have been partly colonised by the accounting profession and the business
community. This process of colonisation inhibits and to some extent prevents educators from
carrying out their social responsibility and acting in the best interests of society as a whole.
Critical management and accounting theorists call on accounting educators to resist
colonisation and teach in a social responsible manner and develop students’ critical skills,
irrespective of the wishes of employers and the accounting profession:

Accounting education and critique informed by ideological awareness and healthy helpings of
scepticism would seem to warrant inclusion in curricula, whether mandated by professional accounting
bodies or not. … There must be a return to a scholarly environment in which freedom to be sceptical
and critical of conventional wisdom is not only tolerated, but actively encouraged. We would fail in our
accountability to society if we were to become unthinking, uncaring automatons who permit
conformism to crowd out critical action. (Craig and Amernic, 2002, p.160)

Boyce (2004) asserts that universities are increasingly being run as businesses and laments
that university educators’ efforts are ‘increasingly centred on the narrow goals of preparing
students for work and meeting the needs of business for trained workers’ (p.566). Accounting
educators need to encourage students to consider not just the technical aspects of accounting,
but also the wider context of accounting and the ‘social, environmental, ideological, and
political dimensions of accounting’ (ibid. p.581). He urges accounting educators not to be
driven by the accounting professional bodies’ wishes and that university accounting

6
 [Link] 08/11/23

education should therefore resist the adoption and maintenance of a solely a narrow
vocational approach to teaching.

2.2 Should the development of vocational skills be an explicit goal of university education?
The role of universities in supplying graduates that meet the requirements of employers
appears to be becoming increasingly important as the percentage of school-leavers educated
at university continues to rise. Participation of 17 – 30 year olds in UK HE has increased
from 42% in 2006/07 to 47% by 2013/2014,2,3,4,5 close to reaching the government target of
increasing the level of participation to 50%. In the context of CIMA, the expectations of UK
and Irish accounting educators are important because universities supply approximately 54%
of CIMA professional trainee accountants (PTAs), and 47% of CIMA PTAs have a relevant
degree6.

At first sight it does not appear that there should be any incompatibility between what is
taught in UK business schools and the demands of employers. Since the 1960s, UK
government reports (Robbins Report, 1963; Dearing Report, 1997) maintain that one of the
main objectives of HE should be to promote vocational skills for employment so that
graduates can contribute effectively to the economy and society. Joyce et al. (2006) note that
employers are demanding vocational skills, which are also referred to as: ‘key’,
‘employability’, ‘transferable’, ‘generic’, ‘personal’ or ‘core’ and relate to an individual’s
ability to operate in the work place alone or with others. It has been argued by some
accounting educators that there is a need to focus on the development of vocational skills to
meet the demands of employers and the government (Morgan, 1997; Albrecht and Sack,
2000; De Lange; 2006; Wells et al., 2009; Watty, 2014). However, this is not as
straightforward as it might seem, as employers’ demands for vocational skills have been
likened to mere ‘wish lists’ that are constantly changing: ‘core skills is but one of several
related terms, each of which has been used to label sets, or lists, of skills or attributes deemed
important by employers and government … these skill labels seem prone to rapid and
unpredictable change’ (Bennett et al., 2000, pp.15).

However, it needs to be established whether there is agreement amongst accounting educators

on the list of vocational skills for undergraduates that should be developed or even whether
there is agreement that the development of vocational skills must be an explicit goal of
university education. It can be questioned whether there is a theoretical or empirical

7
 [Link] 08/11/23

justification to compel academics to promote a range of vocational skills in order to satisfy

employers’ expectations: ‘What the lists have in common is that they are theoretically and
empirically threadbare and have rarely, if ever, contained the perceptions of those who are
expected to deliver these skills in Higher Education’ (ibid.). This study seeks to address this
lack of empirical work on the expectations of those delivering vocational skills in HE by
asking the opinions of university accounting educators in UK business schools about a
possible list of vocational skills of undergraduates that should be developed.

2.3 The range of skills that CIMA graduate trainee accountants require
Much more than technical knowledge is required from graduates wishing to become members
of CIMA, the management accounting professional body. CIMA requires graduate trainees,
who wish to become qualified management accountants, to acquire technical expertise and
business knowledge, and develop competency in a wide range of cognitive and behavioural
skills, as specified by International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), as shown in Figure
2.1.

Individual Attributes

Cognitive Behavioural
skills skills

Technical Personal Interpersonal Organisational &

Intellectual
& functional business
skills skills skills skills management skills

Figure 2.1 IFAC Skills Taxonomy

(IFAC IES 3, 2014, p.46)

CIMA (2007) claims to be the best-in-class, in terms of meeting the needs of business and
that its education and training programme produces professionally qualified accountants who
have unique skills that differentiate its members from those of other accounting bodies. These
unique skills enable CIMA management accountants to operate as ‘hybrid’ accountants in
business. Hybrid accountants, as Burns and Scapens (2000) explain, not only have financial
and accounting knowledge but also an in-depth understanding of the business in which they
are working. They need to have the required level of communication and problem solving
8
 [Link] 08/11/23

skills to enable them to be more than ‘number crunchers’ or accounting technicians and to be
able to operate as internal consultants. In this way, CIMA recognises the importance of a
range of behavioural skills for a successful management accountancy career. However, the
bulk of CIMA’s effort in assessing the skills of trainee management accountants is devoted to
ensuring that would-be members have the required cognitive skills and the technical,
functional and intellectual skills, as shown in Figure 2.1. This assessment is by
examinations.7

However, CIMA does not insist on its own assessments as graduates with relevant degrees
gain exemptions and graduates with accounting degrees can be exempt from the majority of
CIMA examinations. By studying at a university that tailors its accounting and business
courses so as to obtain the maximum possible exemptions from professional accounting
bodies, it is possible for accounting graduates to be exempted from 11 out of CIMA’s total of
17 examination papers. For example, this can be achieved by graduating from Manchester
Metropolitan University with a BA (Hons.) degree in Accounting and Finance (CIMA, 2015).

This research study examines the expectations of CIMA, a growing international

management accountancy body. However, at present CIMA’s membership is mainly
concentrated in the UK and Ireland. While there has been research regarding what UK
practitioners, who are members of the CIMA, believe to be the top ten skills for management
accountants (Burns and Yazdifar, 2001) and what CIMA employers deem to be the essential
knowledge and skill sets required by competent management accountants and the levels
exhibited by graduate trainee accountants (Arquero Montano et al., 2001; Hassall et al.,
2005), there has been a lack of research investigating the views of UK accounting educators,
particularly management accounting academics. The next section explains the methods used
by this study to address this lack of research.

3. Research Design

3.1 Stakeholder qualitative interviews

Access to all interviewees, except the CIMA official, was based on opportunistic (also known
as emergent) sampling. Cohen and Crabtree (2016, p.1) note this sampling technique is
useful:

9
 [Link] 08/11/23

When flexible research and sampling design is an important feature of qualitative research,
particularly when the research being conducted is exploratory in nature. When little is known
about a phenomenon or setting, a priori sampling decisions can be difficult.

The educators selected for interviewing had at least five years’ experience of teaching
accounting. All the practitioners selected for interviewing employed graduate management
accountants. Most of the interviews were conducted at the interviewees’ place of work, but
some were interviewed when they were visiting the university where the author is employed.
The interviews were semi-structured. Some themes emerged spontaneously and were
discussed because they were regarded as interesting and relevant to the research topic by both
interviewee and interviewer. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The
interviews lasted for about an hour and half and were about nine thousand words long. QSR
NVivo8 was used to analyse the interviews.

3.2 Survey of university accounting educators in UK and Ireland

The survey was web-based and was designed after the accounting educators had been
interviewed. Ethical approval was sought and obtained from the university where the author
is employed. The questionnaire was discussed and advice sought from an expert, a professor
of social science methods who is the director of the Social Sciences Methods and Data
Institute and was piloted in a business school. After the author had ascertained that the web-
based survey functioned as planned and there were no problems, the survey was then sent to
colleagues at other business schools. Both the accounting educators who were interviewed
and those who were surveyed were told that the research topic was about the education and
training of accounting undergraduates and trainee management accountants and asked about
the skills that accounting undergraduate students and trainee accountants need to master. In
addition, both the interviewees and the respondents were asked about the development of
vocational skills and whether university educators could and should respond to the needs of
business and the accounting profession.

In 2008 the questionnaire was sent to all UK and Irish academics who teach management
accounting and/or had a research interest in accounting education, as indicated in the British
Accounting Review Research Register (Helliar and Monk, 2006). A total of 417 academics
were identified who met the selection criteria. One hundred and twenty two valid responses
were received, a response rate of 29.3%. This response rate compares favourably with recent

10
 [Link] 08/11/23

accounting practitioner surveys in the UK. Arquero Montano et al. (2001) and Burns and
Yazdifar (2001) achieved response rates of 22.5% and 28%, resulting in 214 and 279 valid
responses respectively.

The purpose of the survey was to establish educators’ views on the important vocational
skills for accounting graduates and other relevant degrees which have accounting as core
modules. The survey instrument used gathered the opinions of the sample on an inventory of
specific vocational skills and the accounting educators were asked to rate the skills in terms
of importance in their curriculum. The accounting educators’ survey was designed to be
comparable with the Arquero Montano et al.’s (2001) survey of 950 CIMA practitioner
employers, listing an inventory of skills for management accountants, so that the two surveys
could be compared to explore further and identify specific ‘importance expectation gaps’
between employers and educators.

Arquero Montano et al.’s (2001) survey of CIMA practitioner employers lists 22 skills and
characteristics (Arquero Montano et al.’s characteristics are ‘other skills, values and
knowledge’, see skills numbers18–22, in Table 4.1) for management accountants. Employers
were asked to rate the skills in terms of their importance for adequate performance by a
competent management accountant (importance ranking), and to rate the level of skill
exhibited by a typical graduate trainee (competence ranking). The educator ranking and
assessment of skill importance was generated from the current author’s survey in 2008 of UK
and Irish academics. The accounting educators were asked to rate 21 skills, values and
knowledge in terms of importance in their curriculum; and secondly to indicate the extent to
which, from their perspective, the typical graduate with an upper second class 2:1 degree
qualification from one of their courses would be competent in each one of the specified skills.
It can be argued that one particular skill, ‘Have a comprehensive and global vision of the
organisation’ (skill number 22 in Arquero Montano et al.’s (2001) survey) would not be
relevant to a survey of accounting educators because undergraduates are yet to join a work
place organisation and become full time graduate trainees. Therefore this skill was not
included in the overall list of skills.

The survey data was analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). SPSS
was used to organise the data and help conduct descriptive analysis, for example, of means,
and to describe and display differences in rankings of items by respondents.
11
 [Link] 08/11/23

In the next sub-section, the analytical framework that was used to explore the university
accounting expectation-performance gap and the influence of CIMA on university accounting
educators is explained.

3.3 Exploring the accounting education expectation-performance gap

CIMA, a member of the IFAC, expresses its view of the necessary skills and competencies
expected of practitioners by adopting IFAC’s guidelines on competence development.
Practitioner employers, who are members of CIMA, are governed by CIMA’s specification of
the expected competencies of newly qualified management accountants.

CIMA also has influence on university accounting educators, as depicted in Figure 3.1.
Accounting and relevant degree courses can be granted CIMA accreditation, so that graduates
can gain exemptions and universities can use accreditation as a powerful marketing tool to
attract students wishing to become qualified management accountants. Thus CIMA’s
competence development guidelines are important to both employers’ and educators’
assessment of vocational skills importance.

The current author has developed a framework, adapted from Bui and Porter (2010), in order
to explain the contributing factors that create expectation gaps between the three
stakeholders: CIMA, practitioner employers and university accounting educators. This
framework is shown in Figure 3.1 below.9 By using the interview and survey data, as
discussed in sections 4.1 and 4.2, employers’ and educators’ assessment of vocational skills
importance are established and the two stakeholders’ different sets of desired competencies
are compared. The difference between these two stakeholders’ desired competencies reveal
any ‘importance expectation gap (a)’, as Figure 3.1 shows. Then graduates’ vocational skill
competencies, as perceived by educators and employers, were discovered and compared. The
difference between the assessment of graduates’ competencies as perceived by educators and
employers reveal any ‘graduate competence assessment gap (b)’, as shown in Figure 3.1. The
difference between the assessment of graduates’ competencies as perceived by educators, and
educators’ desired competencies reveal any ‘education constraint gap (c)’. The difference
between the assessment of graduates’ competencies as perceived by employers and
educators’ desired competencies reveal any ‘performance gap (d)’and is the sum of (c) and
(b). Finally the framework, Figure 3.1, shows the difference between the assessment of
12
 [Link] 08/11/23

graduates’ competencies as perceived by employers, and employers’ desired competencies

reveal any ‘expectation-performance gap (e)’, the sum of (a) and (d).

Influence of professional accounting

bodies (IFAC & CIMA) in specifying
the expected competencies of newly
qualified management accountants

accreditation of
accounting &
relevant degrees

Employers’ Educators’ Graduates’ Graduates’

assessment of assessment of competencies competencies
vocational skills vocational skills as perceived as perceived
importance importance by educators by employers
(desired (desired
competencies) competencies)

education graduate
importance
constraints competence
expectation
gap (c) assessment
gap (a)
gap (b)

performance
gap (d)

expectation-performance gap (e)

Figure 3.1
Hypothesised structure of university accounting education’s expectation-performance
gap (adapted from Bui and Porter (2010), p.31)

This paper identifies and explains any differences between the assessment of graduates’
competencies as perceived by educators and employers, and these two stakeholders’ desired
competencies by use of the gaps identified in Figure 3.1. First, an ‘importance expectation
gap’ reveals differences between educators’ and employers’ desired competences. Secondly a
‘performance gap’ reveals differences between educators’ desired competences and
employers’ assessment of graduates’ competencies. The performance gap can be further

13
 [Link] 08/11/23

analysed into two components, an ‘education constraints’ gap and a ‘graduate competence
assessment’ gap, as explained above.

Having explained the analytical framework used to explore the university accounting
education’s expectation-performance gap, the next section discusses the findings from the
interviews of a CIMA official, practitioner employers and university accounting educators in
order to identify, explore, analyse and explain any expectation-performance gaps. This next
section draws together the findings of the qualitative and quantitative research carried out to
identify and explain expectation gaps between the three stakeholders. Empirical data are
assessed from the interviews and the questionnaire conducted for this research which
establishes expectation gaps in relation to an IFAC taxonomy of skills (Figure 2.1) which
encompasses cognitive and behavioural skill sets. These data explore the different
stakeholders’ perceptions about the two sets of skills and comprises the following: a survey
and interviews of educators; interviews of employers and a CIMA official; and an existing
published survey of employers.

4. Research Results
4.1 The CIMA official, practitioner employers’ and university educators’ interview findings
This section compares and summarises the three stakeholders’ views on the role of university
education in the development of graduates’ vocational skills and knowledge for the role of
trainee management accountants in order to discover reasons for any possible ‘expectation
gaps’ between CIMA employers and educators. All the practitioner employers interviewed
believe that university accounting educators can, and should, provide degree programmes that
respond to the needs of business and the accounting profession. For example, one employer
warned that, if university educators do not aim to supply graduates who meet the expectations
of employers in business and the accounting profession, then the demand from these
employers for university graduates would fall. All of the practitioner employers saw
university accounting education as vocational training. However, the senior CIMA official
interviewed, Lee10, who was recommended and put forward for interviewing by CIMA’s
Head of Education and Training, believes that the accounting profession and academia should
not have the same expectations of their respective students: ‘there is a clear distinction
between what you are doing academically, and what you are doing professionally’. This is
because he does not believe that degrees, even accounting degrees, should be viewed as just
‘the preparatory years for professional [accounting] qualifications’. The university educators
14
 [Link] 08/11/23

agreed with the CIMA official. None of the accounting educators interviewed saw the role of
university education as preparation for accounting professional examinations. For example,
two typical responses were:

I do not think the role of an accounting degree is to prepare [undergraduates] to become

professional accountants, for a university that’s not our role.

I am very strongly against the idea of running accounting degrees that are streamlined to the
needs of profession, in the way the American systems and Australians systems are, because I
don’t think that is the point of university education.

Educators want to be independent of the accounting profession, despite it being impossible to

be so completely. This is because gaining and maintaining accreditation is important for
university business schools in terms of attracting students, and gaining exemptions from
professional accounting examinations is an important factor for many students when they are
deciding to study for a degree.

However, academics have traditionally seen their role and professional identity as promoting
critical thinking. The interview findings show that, despite variations, accounting academics
wish to protect their academic autonomy and identity by being educators of critical thinkers
and by providing a well-rounded education, as opposed to training technicians. The findings
from the interviews indicate that in this respect some accounting educators are dissatisfied.
For example, one interviewee expressed his dissatisfaction with the worsening staff–student
ratio (SSR), comparing teaching undergraduates to a mass production process, like factory
farming:

I don’t particularly enjoy teaching first year undergrads, not because I have any problems in the lecture
hall; they listen to me, they are quiet and they seem to be concentrating. But it’s just you know as far as
I can see is the academic equivalent of factory farming of hens as far as I can see.

The following educator observation exemplifies the financial pressures universities are under
to reduce entry requirements and recruit as many students as possible:

We can crudely call it the bums on seats approach, which means we encourage great numbers of
students into lecture theatres, where ability is not necessarily the driving force, where the financial

15
 [Link] 08/11/23

environment causes numbers to be the important factor, and therefore standards have to drop for
incoming students to get the numbers in.

The educator concerned had become so dissatisfied and to a large extent demoralised that he
had resigned from his post. His HE institution had, by adopting ‘the bums on seats approach’,
created a vicious circle that put more and more pressure on university accounting educators.

In the interviews, all the nine educators, from four pre–92 universities and two post –92
universities, raised the issue of the deteriorating SSR being a barrier preventing the
development of vocational skills. They thought that there was a danger that university
accounting educators might concentrate on teaching technical knowledge only because it was
becoming more difficult to try to develop vocational skills, particularly critical thinking,
because of the increase in student numbers and the consequent deterioration in SSRs.
However,all of the practitioner employer interviewees considered that it was essential for
graduate trainee accountants not only to have technical and business knowledge, but also to
have good communication and interpersonal skills.

The practitioner employers interviewed were concerned that graduates with relevant degrees
who had been granted exemptions from exams that cover the basics of financial accounting
did not have the required level of bookkeeping skills. For example, one employer stated that
in his experience graduates did not have the bookkeeping skills which are the accounting
‘tools of the trade’ because, he conjectured, academics spend insufficient time teaching
bookkeeping, as they consider the subject as too simple or as not exciting enough to teach
undergraduates. Employers expressed the view that, if degree courses are granted exemptions
from exams such as CIMA’s the ‘Fundamentals of Financial Accounting’, then university
accounting educators should spend more time teaching the basic knowledge and skills
required for double entry bookkeeping. However, some employers took a different line,
expressing the belief that it might be better and safer for CIMA to assume that graduates have
no prior knowledge and therefore for no exemptions to be granted and so graduates would
have to take all the CIMA examinations, or at least the take the CIMA examinations that test
basic financial accounting knowledge.

Thus employers think that graduates do not have the skills and knowledge that, based on the
exemptions awarded by professional accounting bodies such as CIMA, practitioner

16
 [Link] 08/11/23

employers expect and graduates need to become fully qualified management accountants.
While this view about graduates’ basic accounting skills is held by employers, Lee, the
CIMA official, expressed the view that university accounting educators and CIMA had been
too successful in producing professional accountants with higher-order skills. In his view,
these graduate accountants are over-educated for the limited accounting roles employers
expect. If accountants do not have the chance to use the creative problem-solving skills that
they have acquired, then these accountants will, he thinks, be dissatisfied at work. Thus while
employers think that graduate trainee accountants lack basic technical skills, the CIMA
official considers that his institute, with the help of universities, is producing over-qualified
professional management accountants who are frustrated by the lack of opportunities to use
higher-order skills at work.

In summary, the employers interviewed see university accounting education as vocational

training. However, academics, such as Atkins (1999), note that the needs of employers vary
greatly. The skills and knowledge required by a small family business are not likely to be the
same as those required by a large multinational organisation. Hence there is no real likelihood
of an employability expectation consensus between all employer organisational types and
sizes. Therefore it is not possible for university accounting educators to produce graduates
with the skills and knowledge that will satisfy the needs of all employers. However, the
CIMA official and the university educators interviewed did not believe that degrees, even
accounting degrees, should be viewed as training for employers and preparation for
professional accounting exams.

4.2 Surveys to identify expectation gaps between employers and accounting educators
This sub-section compares the survey of university accounting educators, conducted as part
of this study in 2008, with Arquero Montano et al.’s (2001) survey of practitioner employers
to explore further and identify specific ‘importance expectation gaps’ and ‘graduate
competence gaps’ between employers and educators. To determine whether expectations
differ with regard to the essential skill sets required by graduate trainee management
accountants, an examination was made of what the different stakeholder groups (university
educators and CIMA practitioner employers) believe are the important vocational skills.
Table 4.1 contains a comparison of these two groups to illustrate and identify ranking and
assessment differences between educators and employers among the skills listed. This
comparison allows conclusions to be drawn about whether any expectation gaps exist
17
 [Link] 08/11/23

between the aims of university educators and the requirements of employers. This assessment
begins with an examination and comparison of employers’ and educators’ opinions on what
are the important vocational skills.

4.2.1 The assessment of skill importance – the importance expectation gap

Both surveys are compared in Table 4.1. Table 4.1 shows each of the 21 skills, values and
knowledge ranked in order of importance, first by employers and secondly by educators.
Column III in the table shows the difference in the ranking of importance between employers
and educators (the importance expectation gap, discussed in section 3.3). University
educators’ views on developing each of the vocational skills and knowledge areas were
assessed using a 4 point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (this skill is most centrally important) to
2 (this skill is important), to 3 (this skill is of little importance) and to 4 (not deemed
important). The employers’ views are compared with the educators’ using the same two 4
point Likert scales.11 Column IV shows employers’ and column V shows educators’
assessment of importance each of the 21 skills and characteristics showing the respondents’
average score, using the 4 point Likert scale. Column VI in the table shows the difference in
assessment of skill importance between employers and educators (the skill importance
expectation gap). The educators’ and employers’ assessed average scores for each of the
vocational skills and knowledge areas, which is shown in in columns IV and V, are used to
produce the ranking of importance which is shown in columns I and II.

Table 4.1
Arquero Montano et al. (2001) Survey v Author’s survey in (2008)
21 vocational skills inventory – ranking of importance and assessment of importance
ranking of importance assessment of importance
I II III IV V VI
N.B. Arquero Montano Arquero Current Difference Arquero Current Difference
Skill no.

re-ranked after skill 22 was Montano Study in Montano Study in

removed ranking, mean
Employers Educators I-II (gap) Employers Educators
score,
IV-V
Communication skills Rank Rank Mean Mean (gap)
1 Present & defend points of view
& outcomes of their own work, in 2 9 -7 1.37 1.94 -0.57
writing, to colleagues, clients and
superiors (com1)
2 Present & defend points of view
& outcomes of their own work, 1 17 -16 1.33 2.16 -0.83
verbally, to colleagues, clients
and superiors (com2)

18
 [Link] 08/11/23

3 Use of visual aids in presentations 21 20 +1 1.84 2.30 -0.46

(com3)
4 Listen effectively to gain 5 6 -1 1.38 1.82 -0.44
information & to understand
opposing points of view (com4)
5 Critically read written works, 15 1 +14 1.62 1.53 -0.09
making judgements on their
relevance &value (com5)
Group working skills
6 Work with others in teams (gws1) 6 5 +1 1.40 1. 80 -0.40
7 Organize & delegate tasks (gws2) 10 19= -9 1.50 2.25 -0.75
8 Assume leadership positions 12 21 -9 1.56 2.43 -0.87
when necessary (gws3)
Problem-solving skills
9 Identify & solve unstructured 9 3= +6 1.46 1.59 -0.13
problems (psk1)
10 Find creative solutions (psk2) 14 13= +1 1.58 1.98 -0.40
11 Integrate multidisciplinary 11 16= -5 1.52 2.02 -0.50
knowledge to solve problems
(psk3)
12 Perform critical analysis (psk4) 13 3= +10 1.56 1.59 -0.03
Pressure & time management
13 Organize workloads to meet 7 11= -4 1.44 1.95 -0.51
conflicting demands &
unexpected requirements (ptm1)
14 Organize workloads to recognize 4 7 -3 1.37 1.83 -0.46
& meet tight, strict, & coinciding
deadlines (ptm2)
15 Select & assign priorities within 3 8 -5 1.37 1.89 -0.52
workloads (ptm3)
Information technology
16 Use relevant software (IT1) 8 16= -8 1.45 2.02 -0.57
17 Knowledge of information 19 4 +15 1.70 1.75 -0.05
sources (IT2)
Other skills, values & knowledge
18 Have a commitment to life-long 16 19= -3 1.64 2.25 -0.61
learning (osv1)
19 Ability to develop methods of 20 14 +6 1.74 2.00 -0.26
effective learning (osv2)
20 Awareness of social & ethical 17 13= +4 1.69 1.98 -0.29
responsibilities (osv3)
21 Have knowledge of the 18 11= +7 1.70 1.95 -0.25
accounting profession (osv4)
Overall mean of the 21 1.53 1.95 -0.42
Vocational skills

Scale for importance of skill:

1 = most centrally important; 2 = important; 3 = little importance; and 4 = not important.

As illustrated in Table 4.1, with regard to the ranking of skill importance, there is a marked
difference of opinion between the two groups. The educators consider critical reading (com5)

19
 [Link] 08/11/23

to be the most centrally important skill in their curriculum. This finding is not unexpected,
since as explained earlier in section 4.1, academics stress that one of their main aims is to
encourage undergraduates to develop critical thinking skills. However employers rate critical
reading as only fifteenth out of the 21 skills. While this is a very large ranking ‘importance
expectation gap’ between employers and educators, their difference in assessment of
importance of critical reading is much closer, as Table 4.1 shows. Educators’ average score
for critical reading (com5) is 1.53 and employers’ average score is 1.62. Thus employers do
believe that critical reading skill is important, but it is much lower in their ranking list. The
employers’ range12 of average scores for the 21 skills is much smaller than the educators’,
and the employers’ overall average for the 21 vocational skills is 1.53, while educators’
overall average is 1.95, showing that employers believe that generally the 21 vocational skills
are more important than educators consider them to be. The next most important skills for
academics are problem solving and critical analysis skills: ‘identify and solve unstructured
problems’ and ‘perform critical analysis’ are skills that are common aims for university
educators and are in many module specifications. However, employers rate problem solving
and critical analysis skills as significantly less important and they are rated ninth and
thirteenth respectively.

Employers and educators also have quite different views on the importance of
communication skills. Employers rate verbal communication (com2) first and written
communication skills (com1) second as the most important skills for adequate performance
by a competent management accountant. Employers are aware that management accountants
need not only technical skills but also the ability to communicate productively with staff and
managers at all levels. Yet educators rate verbal and written communication skills low, as the
seventeenth and ninth most important skills. The third most important skill for employers is a
fairly low level, practical skill: ‘Select and assign priorities within workloads (ptm3)’.
Meeting deadlines is very much a critical skill for accountants, although educators rate the
prioritising of workloads, as only the eighth most important skill.

The ‘importance expectation gap’ analysis shows that employers believe that most of the 21
vocational skills are more important than educators believe. In general educators believe that
most of the 21 skills are important. Educators believe that more attention should be given to
each of the 21 vocational skills and knowledge areas. However, as a consequence of the

20
 [Link] 08/11/23

deteriorating SSR, it is very difficult for educators to devote more time to develop vocational
skills.

4.2.2 The assessment of graduate competence – the graduate competence assessment gap
Table 4.2 shows each of the 21 skills, values and knowledge ranked in order of assessed
graduate competence in that skill, first by employers and secondly by educators. Column VI
in the table shows the difference in employers’ and educators’ ranking of the competence of
graduates (the graduate competence expectation gap).

The educators’ assessment of the competency of graduates uses a 4 point Likert scale,
ranging from 1 (graduates have great competency in this skill) to 2 (some competency), to 3
(little competency), to 4 (no competency in this skill). The employers’ views are compared
with the educators’ using the same two 4 point Likert scales.13

Table 4.2
Arquero Montano et al. (2001) Survey v Author’s (2008) survey
21 vocational skills inventory – ranking and assessment of graduate competence
ranking of graduate assessment of graduate
competence competence

I II III IV V VI
N.B. Arquero Montano re- Arquero Current Difference Arquero Current Difference
Skill no.

ranked after skill 22 was Montano Study in Montano Study in

removed ranking, mean
Employers Educators I-II Employers Educators
score,
(gap) IV-V
Communication skills Rank Rank Mean Mean (gap)
1 Present & defend points of view
& outcomes of their own work, 12= 5 +7 2.39 1.86 +0.53
in writing, to colleagues, clients
and superiors (com1)
2 Present & defend points of view
& outcomes of their own work, 12= 13 -1 2.39 1.98 +0.41
verbally, to colleagues, clients
and superiors (com2)
3 Use of visual aids in 14 12= +2 2.41 1.97 +0.44
presentations (com3)
4 Listen effectively to gain 8 12= -4 2.31 1.97 +0.34
information & to understand
opposing points of view (com4)
5 Critically read written works, 6 4= +2 2.22 1.84 +0.38
making judgements on their
relevance &value (com5)
Group working skills
6 Work with others in teams 5 1 +4 2.21 1.80 +0.41
(gws1)

21
 [Link] 08/11/23

7 Organize & delegate tasks 20 17 +3 2.52 2.10 +0.42

(gws2)
8 Assume leadership positions 15 20 -5 2.45 2.28 +0.17
when necessary (gws3)
Problem-solving skills
9 Identify & solve unstructured 9 4= +5 2.31 1.84 +0.47
problems (psk1)
10 Find creative solutions (psk2) 10 18 -8 2.34 2.13 +0.21
11 Integrate multidisciplinary 16 19 -3 2.46 2.15 +0.31
knowledge to solve problems
(psk3)
12 Perform critical analysis (psk4) 11 7 +4 2.38 1.92 +0.46
Pressure & time management
13 Organize workloads to meet 19 9= +10 2.52 1.94 +0.58
conflicting demands &
unexpected requirements (ptm1)
14 Organize workloads to 18 6 +12 2.48 1.89 +0.59
recognize & meet tight, strict, &
coinciding deadlines (ptm2)
15 Select & assign priorities within 17 10 +7 2.47 1.95 +0.52
workloads (ptm3)
Information technology
16 Use relevant software (IT1) 1 4= -3 1.94 1.84 +0.10
17 Knowledge of information 2 9= -7 1.95 1.94 +0.01
sources (IT2)
Other skills, values &
knowledge
18 Have a commitment to life-long 3 21 -18 2.08 2.30 -0.22
learning (osv1)
19 Ability to develop methods of 4 15 -11 2.09 2.04 +0.05
effective learning (osv2)
20 Awareness of social & ethical 7 16 -9 2.28 2.07 +0.21
responsibilities (osv3)
21 Have knowledge of the 21 14 -7 2.55 2.01 +0.54
accounting profession (osv4)
Overall mean of the 21 2.32 1.99 +0.33
Vocational skills

Scale for competence in skill:

1 = great competency; 2 = some competency; 3 = little competency; and 4 = no competency.

The difference between educators’ and employers’ perceptions of the competencies of

graduates is defined as the ‘graduate competence assessment gap’ (b) (see Figure 3.1).
Educators consider that in general graduates have some vocational skill competency and have
more competence than employers believe they have. Table 4.2 shows the educators’ and
employers’ overall average scores for their perceived competencies of graduates’ 21
vocational skills as 1.99 and 2.32 respectively. There are five skills identified in Table 4.2
with major graduate competence assessment gaps, larger than 0.5, ranging from 0.59 to 0.52.

22
 [Link] 08/11/23

All three pressure and time management skills (skills 13, 14 and 15) are identified as major
‘graduate competence assessment gaps’. Educators believe that graduates are much better at
managing workloads than employers do. As commented on above, meeting accounting
deadlines is critically important for employers, and so graduates’ pressure and time
management skills will be a concern for them. Employers and educators also disagree on
graduates’ level of knowledge of the accounting profession and this is identified as a major
graduate competence assessment gap. However as this is employers’ eighteenth most
important skill, employers are less likely to be concerned about this lack of graduate
knowledge of the accounting profession. Written communication skills are also identified as a
major graduate competence assessment gap. As explained above, this is employers’ second
most important skill. Hence employers may be concerned about educators’ beliefs that
graduates’ writing skills are much better than employers believe, because if this is case,
educators may put in less effort in trying to improve the writing skills of undergraduates.

With regard to the evaluation of the ranking of graduate competence, the difference of
opinion between the two groups is striking. The results of the employers’ and educators’
ranking of graduate competence in each of the 21 skills are shown in Table 4.2. The
educators consider that the skill in which graduates have the greatest competency is, ‘work
with others in teams (gws1)’. Employers rated team working as the graduates’ fifth best skill.
Educators place three skills in joint fourth place in terms of graduate competence: ‘critically
read written works… (com5)’; ‘identify and solve unstructured problems (psk1)’; and ‘use
relevant software (IT1)’. As critical reading is the educators’ most important skill and
problem solving is their third equal important skill, educators must believe that they are
successful to some extent in prioritising the development of graduates’ competence in these
two vocational skills. However, the corresponding assessment of graduate competence by
employers of each of these three skills is sixth for critical reading (com5) and ninth for
unstructured problem solving (psk1), while employers regard using software (IT1) as the
graduates’ best skill. Employers think IT skills are graduates’ best skill set and consider
‘knowledge of information sources (IT2)’ as the graduates’ second highest skill. Educators
rated graduate competence in this IT skill (IT2) as ninth equal. Employers rate the third best
skill in terms of graduate competence as ‘have a commitment to life-long learning (osv1)’.
Educators rated graduates’ commitment to life-long learning as twenty-first, their lowest skill
exhibited. It is interesting to find that employers believe that graduates are much more
committed to life-long learning than educators believe. Because students now pay fees for
23
 [Link] 08/11/23

their university education, Willmott (1995) and Tinker and Koutsoumadi (1997) lament that
students consider a degree to be a commodity, a passport to a job, not as a liberal education
preparing students for life. As educators rank graduates’ commitment to life-long learning as
the lowest of the 21 skills, it is quite likely that accounting educators think that students view
university education as a job passport and are so are less interested in education for its own
sake.

4.2.3 The education constraint gap

It is interesting to compare the educators’ assessment of skill importance (column V in Table
4.1) and their perceived graduate competence in that skill (column V) in Table 4.2 above, to
explore the size of the ‘education constraint gaps’ (see Figure 3.1 (c)). Educators’ average
score for importance of skill and graduate competence in that skill are very similar, and are
1.95 and 1.99 respectively. Hence in general educators believe that most of the 21 skills are
important and that graduates have some competency in these skills: – there is congruence
between what they think are the important skills for students to master and the skills that they
believe that graduates have acquired. There are three skills that educators think are
particularly important and where the gap between perceived graduate competence and
importance are highest (the difference between columns V in Tables 4.1 and 4.2). These
skills are also ranked as educators’ top three skills (see Table 4.2) and are critical reading
(com5), problem solving (psk1) and critical analysis (psk4); the gaps being 0.31, 0.25 and
0.33 respectively.

4.2.4 The expectation-performance gap

In a similar fashion to how the educators’ assessment of skill importance and graduate
competence has been compared, the employers’ assessment of skill importance (column IV in
Table 4.1) and employers’ perceived graduate competence in that skill (column IV in Table
4.2) in that skill can be compared to reveal any ‘expectation-performance gaps’ (see Figure
3.1 (e)). Employers’ average score for importance of skill and graduate competence in that
skill are dissimilar – 1.53 and 2.32 respectively. In general, employers believe that most of
the 21 vocational skills are more important than educators believe and employers also believe
that graduates are less competent in these skills than educators think. As educators believe in
general that vocational skills are less important than employers do, and that graduates are
more competent than employers do, it is quite likely that educators will put less effort into
developing graduates’ vocational skills than employers would wish for and possibly expect.
24
 [Link] 08/11/23

5. Conclusions
5.1 Limitations and areas for potential research
There are limitations to this research. First this study focuses on the views of just three
stakeholders in university accounting education, namely CIMA, practitioner employers and
university educators. Although most of the practitioner employers interviewed are graduates
themselves, this research study did not specifically examine the extent to which graduates in
general are satisfied with their accounting education. Investigating the extent to which
accounting graduates believe that their university education prepared them for professional
accounting examinations and for their roles in employers’ organisations would therefore
represent a topic for future research. However, in doing such research, care would need to be
taken to prevent bias or errors occurring in the data, especially if students were aggrieved
about some issues within their university education. Therefore as this is potentially a research
topic, it may well be necessary to envisage a suitable time period in the career span of
graduates when such a study might take place.

Second, as noted, this paper focuses on one professional accountancy body, namely CIMA,
one of the six chartered accountancy bodies in the UK and Ireland. In addition, while CIMA
is an international management accounting body, this research focuses on the UK and Ireland
where the majority of its membership and students are located. Another limitation is that only
one CIMA official was interviewed to discover and explore the views of CIMA. It can be
argued, however, that it is acceptable to consider the perspective of the CIMA official
interviewed at the London headquarters as valid and reliable because he is a highly
experienced and influential member of CIMA. In addition the CIMA Head of Training and
Education held out Lee as a suitable interviewee. Lee was responsible for developing
education and training for CIMA and had been employed by CIMA for many years; he was a
former council member and is an accounting academic. Lee had been involved in the
development of the four preceding CIMA examination structures and syllabuses. While
gaining access to prominent individuals in a professional accountancy organisation such as
CIMA can be very difficult, another possibility to consider is interviewing officials at the
local CIMA branch level to investigate any extent to which the perspectives of local and
national officials differ.

25
 [Link] 08/11/23

Third, as explained in section 3.2, the survey of university accounting educators that the
author carried out in 2008 is designed to be comparable with Arquero Montano et al.’s (2001)
survey. As there was seven year time period difference, practitioner employers’ opinions on
the essential knowledge and skill sets required by management accountants may have
changed in this time. While six interviews of practitioner employers were conducted as part
of this study in 2010–11, providing in depth up-to-date data, it would be useful to conduct
another survey of practitioner employers to investigate whether their views had changed since
Arquero Montano et al.’s (2001) survey.

Therefore, although this study has limitations, this is a complex, extensive and evolving
research area and there is still much research that can and should be done.

5.2 Findings and implications

Despite the above limitations, this paper has established that there are expectation gaps
between three stakeholder groups in university accounting education: educators, practitioner
employers and CIMA. In addition to important disagreements about the role of university
education, educators and employers also do not agree on the assessed level of competencies
of graduates.

University accounting educators see themselves not just as technical trainers for the
accounting profession and practitioner employers, but rather as promoters of critical thinking.
Yet, while they emphasise the vocational aspect of accounting education, the accounting
profession and employers also greatly value critical thinking and other high level skills.
Therefore employers want educators to promote undergraduates’ critical thinking and
problem solving skills as well as promoting technical skills.

It can be argued that business schools are victims of their own success. Business schools have
grown to become the ‘cash cows’ of HE by attracting large numbers of students. This growth
has been achieved partly by business schools successfully gaining and maintaining
accreditation of degree programmes in order to attract accounting students who want to
become professional accountants. Thus university educators are to some extent dependent on
the accounting profession because gaining exemptions is an important factor when
accounting students are deciding which university degree programmes to apply for. Although
educators wish to develop the whole range of knowledge areas and vocational skills,
26
 [Link] 08/11/23

including the highly valued critical thinking and problem solving skills, they struggle to do so
because of the deteriorating SSR in business schools. Worse still, as a consequence of the
increasing undergraduate numbers, educators are less able to concentrate on research related
teaching and trying to produce critical thinkers, and have to concentrate more on knowledge
transfer and the production of technicians. However, the employers interviewed were not
satisfied with technical training provided by universities, or with the basic accounting
knowledge that graduates with relevant degrees have. Hence it seems that the expansion of
business schools has resulted in the diminution of educators’ professional identity and their
role as promoters of critical thinking.

The existence of expectation gaps between educators and practitioner employers and the
accounting profession shows that the process of colonisation of university business schools
has only been partly successful. If colonisation had been a total success, there would be no
disagreement in terms of the importance ranking of vocational skills. University accounting
educators still wish to pursue and protect their traditional liberal education agenda and to
encourage the development of critical thinkers. However, the educational constraint caused
by the deteriorating SSR makes it increasingly difficult for educators to achieve their own
objectives or, even if educators wish to, to meet those of practitioner employers.

27
1
Notes
For reasons of brevity, the research instruments, namely the interview questionnaires and the accounting educators’ survey
are not shown here. However a summary document describing these documents is available from the author.
2
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (2015, p.1) provides HE initial participation rates (HEIPRs) for ‘17–30 year
old English domiciled first time participants to UK HE institutions and English, Welsh and Scottish FE colleges who remain
in HE for at least 6 months’. ‘The provisional HEIPR estimate for the 2013/14 academic year was 47%, up by four
percentage points compared with the estimate for 2012/13 of 43%’ (ibid.).
3
The Scottish Government (2015, p.1) notes that the Scottish HEIPR has increased from 53.1% when it was first calculated
in 2006/7 to 54.7% in 2012/13.
4
The Northern Ireland (NI) Department for Employment and Learning (2016, p.1) reports that the NI Higher Education
Participation Index for 2014/15 was 49.2%, down from its peak of 50.7% in 2009/10.
5
No HEIPR data for Welsh students is at present available for 2010/11 to 2012/13 (HEFCW , 2015, p.2)
6
Estimated using data from Financial Reporting Council (2016, p. 22, Figure 11).
7
CIMA has its own examinations: the CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting and then three CIMA Professional levels.
Hewever students can gain exemptions by passing the AAT Technician/Diploma level or by having a relevant degree.
8
QSR NVivo is a computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). NVivo was used to code the interviews,
to attach a label to section on text. Nodes are used in the author’s research study to store coding about topics, concepts and
themes. In the study there are 19 top level parent codes, covering topics, 12 of which were abbreviated labels referring to
the main 12 questions that the accounting educators were asked.
9
The major differences between the approach taken in this studyand that of Bui’s and Porter’s were:
(i) the expectations of CIMA, the professional management accounting body are included;
(ii) the educators’ graduates competencies as perceived by educators are considered, instead of Bui’s and Porter’s
competencies that educators can reasonably expect graduates to acquire, given university accounting education
constraints;
(iii) the current author’s framework has a competence assessment gap, not Bui’s and Porter’s educators’ performance
gap;
(iv) and the current study has a performance gap, but this gap, unlike Bui’s and Porter’s, consists of two sub-gaps: a
constraints gap and a competence assessment gap.
10
A pseudonym used to protect the interviewee’s identity.
11
Arquero Montano et al’s (2001) survey of CIMA practitioner employers used an 11 point Likert scale. As explained in
section 3.2.1, the survey of university educators used a 4 point scale and the Arquero Montano survey is recoded into the
same 4 point Likert scale as used in the survey of educators to enable a clear comparison between the two surveys to be
made.
12
The employers’ range of average scores for the 21 vocational skills is 1.33 – 1.84 = 0.51;
while the educators’ range of average scores for the 21 skills is 1.53 – 2.43 = 0.90.
13
Arquero Montano et al’s (2001) survey of CIMA practitioner employers used an 11 point Likert scale. As explained in
section 4.2.1, this vocational skills survey used a 4 point scale and the Arquero Montano survey is recoded into the same 4
point Likert scale as used in this survey of educators to enable a clear comparison between the two surveys to be made.

References
Albrecht, W.S. and Sack, R.J. (2000) Accounting Education: Charting the course through a perilous
future, Accounting Education Series, Vol. No.16 (Sarasota: American Accounting Association).

Arquero Montano, J. L., Anes, J. A. D., Hassall, T. and Joyce, J. (2001) Vocational skills in the
accounting profile: the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) employer’s opinion,
Accounting Education: an international journal, 10(3), pp. 299–313.

Atkins, M.J. (1999) Oven-ready and Self-basting: taking stock of employability skills, Teaching in
Higher Education, 4(2), pp. 267–280.

Barnett, R. (1990) The Idea of Higher Education (Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher
Education and Open University Press).

Barnett, R. (1994) The Limits of Competence – Knowledge, Higher Education and Society
(Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press).

Barnett, R. (2012) Learning for an unknown future, Higher Education Research & Development, 21(1),
pp. 65–77.

Behn, B.K., Ezzell, W.F., Murphy, L.A., Rayburn, J.D., Stith, M.T., Strawser, J.R., (2012)
The Pathways Commission on Accounting Higher Education: Charting a national strategy for the next
generation of accountants Available at:
[Link]
[Link] (accessed 24th February 2016)

Bennett, N., Dunne, E. and Carre, C. (2000) Skills Development in Higher Education and Employment
(Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press).

Boyce, G. (2004) Critical accounting education: teaching and learning outside the circle, Critical
Perspectives on Accounting, 15, pp. 565–586.

Burns, J. And Scapens, R. (2000) The Changing Nature of Management Accounting and the
Emergence of ‘Hybrid’ Accountants (New York: IFAC).
Burns, J. and Yazdifar, H. (2001) Tricks or Treats, Financial Management, March,
pp. 33–35.

Bui, B. and Porter, B (2010) The Expectation-Performance Gap in Accounting Education, Accounting
Education: an international journal, 10(1), pp. 23–50.

Cappelletto, G. (2010) Challenges Facing Accounting Education in Australia: A Joint Accounting

Bodies and AFAANZ Commissioned Report (Melbourne: Accounting and Finance Association of
Australia and New Zealand [AFAANZ]). Available at:
[Link]
%20report%20-%[Link] (accessed: 24th February 2016).

CIMA (2007) Independent research confirms CIMA is best for business.

Available at: [Link]
19592_21476.htm (accessed: 20/3/2009).

CIMA (2015) Study with us, Exemptions search.

[Link]
University/?qualification=1-1IBEYL6 (accessed: 07/8/2015).

Cohen, D. and Crabtree, B. (2016) Qualitative Research Guidelines Project. Available at:
[Link] (accessed 17/03/2016).

Craig, R. and Amernic, J. (2002) Accountability of accounting educators and the rhythm of the
university: resistance strategies for postmodern blues, Accounting Education: an international journal,
11(2), pp. 121–171.

Dearing, R. (1997) Higher Education in the Learning Society, Report of the National Committee of
Inquiry into Higher Education. London: HMSO. Available at:
[Link] (accessed 23/08/2006).

De Lange, P., Jackling, B. and Gut, A. (2006) Accounting graduates’ perceptions of skills emphasis in
undergraduate courses: an investigation from two Victorian universities, Accounting and Finance, 46,
pp. 365–386.

Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (2015) Participation Rates in Higher Education:
Academic Years 2006/2007 - 2013/2014 (Provisional). London: National Statistics. Available at:
[Link]
HEIPR_PUBLICATION_2013-[Link] (accessed: 11/01/2017).

Dillard, J. F. (2002) Dialectical possibilities of thwarted responsibilities,

Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 13, pp. 621–641.

Evans, E. (2014) The interface between academic education, in: Wilson, R.M.S. (Ed.) The Routledge
Companion to Accounting Education, pp. 632–651 (Abingdon: Routledge).

Financial Reporting Council, Professional Oversight Board (2015) Key Facts and Trends in the
Accountancy Profession, London: FRC. Available at:
[Link]
Accountancy-Profes-(1).pdf (accessed: 25th February 2016).

Flood, B. (2014) The case for change in accounting education, in: Wilson, R.M.S. (Ed.) The Routledge
Companion to Accounting Education, pp. 81–101 (Abingdon: Routledge).

Gray, R. and Collison, D. (2002) Can’t see the wood for the trees, can’t see the trees for the numbers?
Accounting education, sustainability and the public interest, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 13,
pp. 797–836.

Hassall, T., Joyce, J., Montano, J. L.A. and Anes, J. A. D. (2005) Priorities for the development of
vocational skills in management accountants: a European perspective, Accounting Forum, 29, pp. 379–
394.

HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council for Wales) (2015) Participation rates for Welsh students
in higher education within the UK Available at:
[Link]
(accessed: 15/6/2015).
Helliar, C.V. and Monk, E.A. (eds.) (2006) The British Accounting Review Research Register, 12th edn.
(Elsevier: Oxford).

Henkel, M. (2000) Academic Identities and Policy Change in Higher Education, Higher Education
Policy Series 46 (London: Jessica Kingsley).

Hopper, T. (2013) Making accounting degrees fit for a university, Critical Perspectives on Accounting,
24, pp. 127–135.

IFAC International Accounting Education Standards Board (2014) Handbook of International

Education Pronouncements, International Education Standard 3. New York: IFAC. Available at:
[Link]
[Link] (accessed: 15/6/2015).

Joyce, J., Hassall T., Montano J. L.A. and Anes J. A. D. (2006) Communication apprehension and
maths anxiety as barriers to communication and numeracy skills development in accounting and
business education, Education & Training, 48:6, pp. 454–464.

May, G.S., Windal, F.W. and Sylvestre, J. (1995) The need for change in accounting education: an
education survey, Journal of Accounting Education,13(1), pp. 21–43.

McLean, M. (2006) Pedagogy and the University (London: Continuum).

Milner, M. M., and Hill, W. Y. (2007) Examining the skills in Scotland, Social Science Research
Network, Working Paper, pp.1–22. Available at: [Link] (accessed:
07/7/2008).

Morgan, G.J. (1997) Communication skills required by accounting graduates: practitioner and
academic perceptions, Accounting Education: an international journal, 6(2),
pp. 93–107.

Novin, A. M., Pearson M.A. and Senge, S. V. (1990) Improving the curriculum for aspiring
management accountants: the practitioner’s point of view, Journal of Accounting Education, 8, pp.
207–224.
Northern Ireland Department for Employment and Learning (2016) Statistical Fact Sheet 1,
Higher Education Age Participation Index for Northern Ireland – 1991/92 to 2014/15
Available at:
[Link]
Education-Age-Participation-Index-for-Northern%[Link] (accessed:
11/1/2017).

Parker, L.D. (2001) Back to the Future: the Broadening Accounting Trajectory’, British Accounting
Review, 33:4, pp. 421–453.

Parker, J. (2002) A New Disciplinarity: communities of knowledge, learning and practice, Teaching in
Higher Education, 7(4), pp. 373–386.

Scapens, R., Ezzamel, M., Burns, J. and Baldvinsdottir, G. (2003) The Future Direction of UK
Management Accounting Practice (Oxford:Elsevier).

Robbins, Lord (1963) Higher Education: Report of the Committee, Cm2154 (London: HMSO).

Scottish Government (2015) High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: October 2014,
Higher Education Initial Participation Rate (HEIPR) Available at:
[Link]
(accessed: 15/6/2015)

Starkey, K. and Tempest, S. (2008) A clear sense of purpose? The evolving role of the business school,
Journal of Management Development, 27(4), pp. 379 – 390.

Tinker, T. and Koutsoumadi, A. (1997) A mind is a wonderful thing to waste: “think like a
commodity”, become a CPA, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 10(3), pp. 454–467.

Watty, K. (2014) Generic skills within the accounting curriculum, in: Wilson, R.M.S. (Ed.) The
Routledge Companion to Accounting Education, pp. 276–293 (Abingdon: Routledge).

Wells, P., Gerbic, P., Kraneberg, I. and Bygrave, J. (2009) Professional Skills and Capabilities of
Accounting Graduates: The New Zealand Expectation Gap? Journal of Accounting Education, 18 (4-
5), pp. 403–420.
Wilson, R.M.S. (2002) Accounting education research: a retrospective over ten years with some
pointers to the future, Accounting Education: an international journal, 11(4), pp. 295–310.

Willmott, H. (1995) Managing the academics: Commodification and control in the development of
university education in the U.K., Human Relations, 48(9), pp. 993-1027.
13