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Alignment in Accounting Education and

Training
a
Richard M. S. Wilson
a
Loughborough University , UK
Published online: 22 Feb 2011.

To cite this article: Richard M. S. Wilson (2011) Alignment in Accounting Education and Training,
Accounting Education: An International Journal, 20:1, 3-16, DOI: 10.1080/09639284.2011.555940

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 Accounting Education: an international journal
Vol. 20, No. 1, 3 – 16, February 2011

EDITORIAL ESSAY

Alignment in Accounting Education

and Training
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RICHARD M. S. WILSON
Loughborough University, UK

Personal Background
In the early years of my career I worked as an accounting practitioner and, for most of my
career, I have worked as an accounting educator. Since 1974, I have been actively involved
in educational policy-making within the accounting profession and in academe (both
nationally and internationally). As the founding editor (1991) of Accounting Education:
an international journal (which, in 2005, became the official education journal of the
International Association for Accounting Education & Research) I have a reasonably
well-developed awareness of work undertaken in this field.
This essay expresses some concerns I have had throughout my career as an accounting
practitioner, consultant, educator, researcher and policy-maker.

Focus of the Essay

Eraut (1994, p. 101) has noted that the more powerful professions in the UK (e.g. Law)
favour a dual qualification system in which a degree is followed by a specified period
in professional practice, with separate assessment for licensing purposes. This is also
the case with Accounting.
The critical disadvantage of this system is the separation of ‘theory’ from ‘practice’ (or
‘knowing’ from ‘doing’). It means that the university component is based on propositional
knowledge and discipline-based methods of enquiry, both within a strictly academic frame
of reference, which largely overlooks the problems of developing and using such knowl-
edge in the professional arena.
This gives rise to three key questions which every profession must address:
(a) What is the profession’s knowledge base?
(b) What is best learned in a university on the one hand and in professional practice on the
other?
(c) What has to be learned before qualifying to practice and what is best learned after
qualifying?
Correspondence Address: Richard M. S. Wilson, Department of Information Science, Loughborough University,
Epinal Way, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU UK. Email: rms.wilson@tiscali.co.uk

0963-9284 Print/1468-4489 Online/11/010003–14 # 2011 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/09639284.2011.555940
 4 R. M. S. Wilson

As Dewey (1915) observed almost a century ago, the separation of academic education
and practical training risks being dysfunctional. If accounting education (i.e. within the
academy) is based wholly on teaching the techniques of accounting practice, this risks a
circular approach which can be characterized as ‘accounting is what accountants do’,
but this fails to allow for either an evaluative or a developmental dimension (reflecting
what accounting could be or should be), hence raises non-trivial questions about the
extent to which the practice of accounting can be viewed as a learned professional
occupation in which the greater public good is a central concern.
Schön (1987, p. 12) has queried whether a curriculum can ever be devised which is
adequate in dealing with the complex, unstable, uncertain and conflictual world of
practice, and argues for a reflective practicum which seeks to help students to acquire
‘the kinds of artistry essential to competence in the indeterminate zones of practice’ (loc.
cit., p. 18). However, this is not a once-and-for-all matter but a longitudinal matter. In
the acquisition of skills one can discern a hierarchy from novice to advanced beginner to
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competent to proficient and, finally, to expert. See Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986).
It has been frequently observed (e.g. Argyris and Schön 1974, p. 143) that universities
cannot produce competent practitioners since competence is gained in the workplace and
professional roles are undergoing constant change which is not reflected in the academic
curriculum. To cope with this Schein (1972) has stated that the foundation of future pro-
fessional competence stems from a capacity to learn how to learn. ‘It has become a cliché
to say that professionals must ‘relate knowledge to effective action’, or ‘integrate theory
and practice’,’ but how might this be achieved?
What are the links between the kinds of learning favoured in universities and the kinds
of competence required for professional practice? Schön (1991, p. vii) has suggested that
universities are committed to ‘. . . a view of knowledge that fosters selective inattention to
practical competence and professional artistry’, which explains why the term academic is
typically used in a pejorative sense, rather than as a guide to practitioners in gaining a
better grasp of the practical uses (and limitations) of research-based knowledge. (See
the themed issue of this journal on the interface between academic education and
professional training for accountants—Evans and Juchau, 2009.)
This discussion highlights the question of what are the respective roles of universities,
professional accounting bodies and other parties in providing appropriate education and
training (both pre-qualifying and post-qualifying) to produce/sustain effective accounting
practitioners? See Wilson, Allison, Hoogendoorn, Kral and Watty (2009).
In its Position Statement Number 1, the Accounting Education Change Commission
(Sundem, 1999) defined the role of the university as being to prepare students to
become accountants, whereas the role of professional training is to prepare trainees to
be accountants. There is a big difference in these complementary roles.
If the aim is to generate emergent properties from properly aligned university education in
accounting (A), pre-qualifying professional training in accounting (B), and continuing (i.e.
post-qualifying) professional development (C), we need to consider carefully how these
sequential phases might best be designed as parts of an integrated whole in order to produce
more effective accounting practitioners (EAP). We might see an aligned system as comprising:
A + B + C = Effective accounting practitioner (EAP)
This alignment is portrayed diagrammatically in Figure 1, and shows the sequential
phases of primary and secondary education (involving learning through knowing, and
the phase in which pupils might develop an awareness of accounting as both a field of pro-
fessional endeavour and a potential occupation); tertiary education (also involving learn-
ing through knowing, and the phase in which students prepare to become accountants);
 Alignment in Accounting Education and Training 5

pre-qualifying professional training (involving learning through doing, and the phase in
which trainees prepare to be accountants); and post-qualifying professional practice
(involving reflections on practice and continuing professional development linked to
life-long learning, and the phase in which one practices as an accountant).
However, to the extent that the possession of a degree in accounting (A) is allowed to give
exemptions from professional accounting examinations (B), or vice versa, the overall outcome
would appear to be devalued and diminished. If this is true, whose interests are being served?
(In writing this essay I am aware that it would be wholly incorrect to suppose that all entrants
into professional accounting training are graduates, or that those who are hold degrees in
accounting. The pattern varies enormously from one jurisdiction to another.)
Exhibit 1 characterizes the situation in the UK, which has given me profound—and
increasing—cause for concern for more than 45 years.
Some examples of the growing tendency of both universities and professional accounting
bodies (in the UK and a little beyond) in failing to see the distinctive and complementary roles
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of each type of institution in developing effective accounting practitioners by offering some

variation of two-for-the-price-of-one, or buy-one-and-get-one-free, is illustrated in Exhibit 2.
The minimizing aspects of some of these schemes are only too clear from an advertise-
ment on the back cover of CIMA’s monthly magazine Financial Management (August
2010). The London School of Business & Finance (which has no degree-awarding
powers) offers CIMA members opportunities to ‘. . . gain an MBA/MSc studying only
2/3 modules and in as little as 6 months’.
Another advertisement from LSBF in the ACCA’s monthly magazine AB (January,
2011, p. 18) offered a similar deal, described—rather improbably—as ‘. . . a truly life-
changing opportunity!’
Similarly, in an advertisement appearing on p 22 of a supplement to The Times (19
August 2010—‘Student Guide and Clearing Special’), a profit-seeking, private-sector
training organization (Emile Woolf International) promotes the ACCA/OBU BSc
scheme by emphasizing that successful candidates can obtain ‘BSc + ACCA in 30
months for £8000’, with tuition being provided by ‘. . . some of the best tutors in the
world’, but one wonders if any of them is familiar with the leading international account-
ing research journals.

Figure 1. Alignment in accounting education and training

 6 R. M. S. Wilson
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Exhibit 1. Lack of Alignment in Accounting E&T

Moreover, when CIMA set out to establish alliances with universities over top-up schemes
for undergraduate degrees, the publicly-stated aim was ‘. . . to help as many CIMA students as
possible to gain a UK university degree to enable CIMA to maximize the reciprocal arrange-
ments for its members with overseas professional accounting bodies’. The perceived need for
this (as seen by CIMA’s Council) was due to some countries refusing to accept CIMA
membership on a reciprocal basis unless it was coupled with a university degree.

Technical Training versus Liberal Education

The International Accounting Education Standards Board (IFAC, 2003) made a key dis-
tinction between capability and competence, with capability comprising the attributes
held by individuals, which enable them to perform their roles, whereas competence reflects
an individual’s ability to perform a work role to a defined standard—with reference to real
working environments rather than in the classroom. (See Exhibit 3.)
One might argue that the primary focus of university education in accounting should be
on capability, and the primary focus of professional training should be on competence,
with intended learning outcomes, curricula, and assessment strategies being designed
accordingly, in an aligned way. Any attempt to treat these two phases as being equivalent
would appear to be both invalid and ill-advised.
In Exhibits 4 and 6 I have sought to identify some of the main differences in the charac-
teristics of university education on the one hand, and professional training on the other
hand, to demonstrate that they are not equivalent. This is not a matter of better or
worse, but rather one of difference. An indicative profile for an accounting graduate
(HEA, 2006, p. 32) is shown in Exhibit 5. (A themed issue of this journal on generic
skills for accountants was recently published—see Jackling and Watty, 2010.)
The risk of too strong an emphasis on technical training in the preparation of accounting
practitioners to practice is starkly illustrated by the two issues raised in Exhibit 7. Boulding
 Alignment in Accounting Education and Training 7
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Exhibit 2. Academic/Professional Body Cooperation

(1956) was concerned that an emphasis on very detailed technical issues, which requires a
specialized language, would make it very difficult at best for those operating in different
fields of accounting (e.g. tax, audit, cost analysis) to converse in a meaningful way – their
specialized ears would be developed at the expense of a generalized deafness. In addition,
 8 R. M. S. Wilson
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Exhibit 3. Capability and Competence

Exhibit 4. Characteristics of University Education

 Alignment in Accounting Education and Training 9
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Exhibit 5. Profile of Graduates in Accounting. Adapted from The Higher Education Academy/
Council for Industry & Higher Education (2006): Student Employability Profiles (York: HEA, p. 32).

Exhibit 6. Characteristics of Professional Training

 10 R. M. S. Wilson

Exhibit 7. The Risks of Too Much Technical Training

a gulf might arise due to specialists in sub-branches of accounting being unable to com-
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municate effectively not only with each other but also with organizational stakeholders.
Similarly, Veblen (1918) recognized that concentrated technical training can render
the highly-trained individual incapable of functioning effectively beyond his/her narrow
field of expertise, without the broader perspective needed to adapt to changing circumstances.
Dewey (1916) emphasized the importance of liberal education as a necessary element
for any vocational preparation. (Sangster, 2010, offers a themed issue of this journal
devoted to liberalizing the accounting curriculum.) This was echoed in the USA in the Car-
negie Report (1986) which recommended that undergraduate degrees (in all disciplines)
should be designed around an ‘enriched major’ which would address larger questions,
such as, in the case of accounting:

1. What is the history and what are the traditions of accounting?

2. What are the social and economic implications of accounting?
3. What social and moral issues relating to accounting need to be confronted and
resolved?

See, Boyer (1987, p. 195, quoted in Merino (2006, p. 371).

In making a distinction between education for occupation and education through occu-
pation (see Exhibit 8), Dewey (1916) may have anticipated the findings of the Carnegie
Report, but Merino points out (2006) what she describes as an ironic oddity in comparing

Exhibit 8. Education for Occupation or Education through Occupation?

 Alignment in Accounting Education and Training 11

Exhibit 9. An Ironic Oddity

the aspirations of large accounting firms and accounting degree programmes in the USA
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with reference to the latter’s not meeting the expectations of the former. (See Exhibit 9.)
It is the received wisdom (e.g. see Big 8, 1989; and PwC, 2003) that a technical pre-
occupation in the preparation of future accounting practitioners to practice is inadequate
but—as pointed out by Merino (2006, p. 363): ‘. . . the accounting curriculum continues
to have a decidedly technical orientation’.
Given this, it may not be in the public interest for technically-focussed examinations to
continue to be central in preparing future accounting practitioners to practice. Yet there is
an ingrained fixation with pass rates and ‘teaching to the examination’, which has worry-
ing overtones of rote learning and which is conspicuously inconsistent with the oft-argued
need for more critical thinking and problem-solving skills on the part of competent
accounting practitioners. Better links between means (i.e. preparation for practice via
aligned education and training) and ends (i.e. effective accounting practice in its
various forms) need to be established, rather than risking future scandals such as those
characterized by Enron and the demise of Arthur Andersen.
In an advertisement in The Times (19 August 2010, p. 15), a privately-owned, profit-
seeking corporate provider of inter alia accounting training, which established a high
reputation for coaching accounting trainees to pass professional examinations, and
which (to the surprise of many) had been granted degree-awarding powers in 2010 by
the recently-installed UK government, trading as BPP University College, notified those
at the end of their secondary education who had just been notified of their failure to
achieve the necessary grades to take up places in established UK universities that
‘there’s a place for you at BPP’, and promised ‘practically-focused programmes’.
BPP’s lack of concern for theory (which, at its most basic, is concerned with knowing)
is evident in this wording, and its previous chief executive’s lack of regard for research
is highlighted in Exhibit 10 (in which a contrast is made with the views of a respected
former Dean in the U.S.A.). Should one be concerned about this illiberal and blinkered
stance on the part of a commercial enterprise which is engaged in preparing the next gen-
eration of accounting practitioners to practice?
From Exhibit 11 and 12 we can see two expressions of concern from authoritative
bodies which are neither education providers nor employers of accounting trainees. The
first, from the Accounting Education Change Commission, refers to the tendency
towards the end of academic degree programmes in the USA for an inappropriate concen-
tration on the technical preparation required to ensure candidates’ reasonable chances of
success in professional examinations (taken shortly after graduation from the degree
programme). This inevitably short-changes students by restricting their opportunities to
concentrate on advanced academic study in favour of a technical emphasis.
 12 R. M. S. Wilson
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Exhibit 10. Two Contrasting Views on the Relevance of Research

Exhibit 11. Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC)

Exhibit 12. Professional Oversight Board for Accountancy (POBA)

 Alignment in Accounting Education and Training 13

Exhibit 12 addresses a lack of alignment not only between academic education and
professional training, but also an inability on the part of newly-qualified accounting
practitioners in the UK to see any integration among the elements of that which they
are setting out to practice.
In their 1989 white paper the (then) managing partners of the Big 8 accounting firms in
the USA stated that ‘Piecemeal responses to educational reforms will not suffice’, but this
is what has subsequently occurred. The focus of major reports on accounting education
(such as Solomons with Berridge (1974); the Bedford Committee (Bedford 1986);
Williams et al. (1988); Schultz (1989); Flaherty (1998), Sundem (1999), Albrecht and
Sack (2000) has been on pre-qualifying education, with little coverage of professional
training or post-qualifying education.
It is encouraging that Solomons with Berridge (1974, p. 159) noted that ‘Qualification is
a continuing process, not a sudden attainment of a state of grace’, and the Big 8 (1989)
stated that ‘Any comprehensive effort to improve education for accounting must
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include continuing education and development’. Nevertheless, very little attention has
been paid to post-qualifying education in the research literature (but see the themed
issue of this journal on CPD—Paisey and Paisey, 2007.)
In the proceedings of a series of accounting education research conferences held in the
UK (see Wilson et al., 1996; 1998a; 1998b) there is no coverage of alignment in linking
developments/applications in the academy to those in the professional arena. Moreover, in
an editorial essay in the inaugural issue of Accounting Education: an international journal
I expressed a hope that there would be coverage of pre- and post-qualifying education, but
it was acknowledged 10 years later that this aspiration had not been achieved—largely due
to a failure to adequately engage practitioners and professional bodies in public debate on
matters of an educational nature. See, Wilson (1992) and (2002).

Why Does This Matter?

Whilst such broader texts as Avis et al. (1996), Hodgson and Spours (1997) and Flude and
Sieminski (1999) are all concerned with links between academic and vocational education
and training, apart from occasional references to the learning society and lifelong learning
they provide no coverage of alignment in the sense used in this essay.
Therefore, can one justify this theme of alignment as being worthy of investigation (i.e.
a non-trivial topic)?
Recent years have seen a very rapid expansion in the scale of accounting education
within UK higher education and elsewhere, as well as in the numbers of graduates entering
financially-oriented careers for which they need to be trained.
Accountants must function in a changing environment, hence their E&T (whether pre-or
post-qualifying) needs to be designed to enable practitioners to cope with both the present
and the future—and the changes which are likely to impact on their domain of practice.
Such models as have been proposed (e.g. Needles and Power, 1990; Needles and
Anderson, 1991; Sundem and Norgaard, 1991) have tended to focus on undergraduate
accounting education rather than on an aligned, longitudinal approach. An example
from the USA only a few years ago, shows how a short-sighted approach (in this case,
by practitioners in seeking to control the university accounting curriculum) can overlook
entirely the importance of effective alignment. Reckers (2006) gives a vivid report on this
matter (see Exhibit 13).
Two recent developments in the UK relating to the transition from secondary to tertiary
education on the one hand, and the attractiveness of studying accounting in secondary edu-
cation on the other hand are worthy of mention.
 14 R. M. S. Wilson
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Exhibit 13. A Lack of Alignment in the USA

The plans of the UK government to raise university tuition fees in England (with effect
from 2012) has led to some of the major accounting firms (including Deloittes, PwC and
KPMG) to increase the number of trainees recruited directly from secondary schools (i.e.
without having benefited from tertiary education). From the perspective of aligning higher
education in accounting with professional training in accounting as a route to developing
more effective accounting practitioners, this would appear to be a disappointing (and retro-
grade) step. (See The Times, 14 December, 2010, p. 35.)
There is little evidence to indicate (at least in the UK) that a significant proportion of
undergraduates studying for degrees in accounting, or engaged in professional training
to qualify as accounting practitioners, had previously studied accounting in secondary
schools. For some years it has been suspected that the more prestigious British universities
were refusing to accept passes in some subjects studied at secondary school (including
accounting) for entry to undergraduate degree programmes.
In January 2011 David Willetts, the government minister with responsibility for univer-
sities, announced that universities would be required to publish details of subjects taken
(and grades obtained) by successful applicants for every undergraduate course. This will
help in identifying those subjects which are seen by some universities as being ‘softer’
than traditional academic subjects, but which have been favoured by some schools (at the
expense of their pupils) in an attempt to improve those schools’ positions in league tables.
Very few UK universities at present openly warn intending applicants about specific
subjects which should be avoided. However, Trinity College (University of Cambridge)
 Alignment in Accounting Education and Training 15

blacklists, inter alia, Accounting and IT (as reported in The Sunday Times, 2 January 2011,
p. 6), and both the London School of Economics (University of London) and the Univer-
sity of Sheffield both issue similar warnings. Whilst accounting degrees have been offered
by the latter two institutions for many years, one cannot take an undergraduate degree in
accounting at either Cambridge or Oxford universities.

Conclusion
This essay seeks to offer some food for thought to stimulate debate among those who are
engaged in accounting E&T to help in developing an aligned approach to the phases
labelled A, B and C in order to produce more effective accounting practitioners. It has
special relevance to accounting educators (re: A) and trainers (re: B and C) in a profession
having considerable public significance which, in general, neither requires de jure nor
experiences de facto a rigorous academic preparation for practice.
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Acknowledgements
In drafting this essay the author has benefited from comments made at Keynote presenta-
tions of the ideas it contains at the EAA Congress (Dublin, Ireland, 2006), the BAA’s
Northern Accounting Group (Hull, UK, 2006), and the University of Tasmania (Hobart,
Australia, 2007); and at other presentations made at RMIT University (Melbourne, Aus-
tralia, 2007), University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand, 2008), EAA Congress (Rotter-
dam, The Netherlands, 2009), University of São Paulo (Brazil, 2009), and Hiroshima-
Shudo University (Japan, 2010).

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