Introduction to Special Issue: Challenges for Academics Educating Accounting Professionals in South Africa

Abstract

The recent challenges for the accounting profession, relating to accountability, stewardship, ethical conduct and corporate governance, highlight the need for quality education and training of accounting professionals. Businesses today require adaptable and broadlyskilled accountants who can cope with challenges such as globalisation, responsible leadership and rapid advancements in financial technology. In South Africa, the urgent need for effective and relevant accounting education is highlighted by the shortage of high-level skills, graduate unemployment (which points to mismatches between the outcomes of higher education and the needs of the economy) and persistent social and economic inequalities. Recent studies relating to education for the profession and professionalism have highlighted the importance of collaboration between academics and practitioners in conducting accounting education research (Jones, 2017); skills and competencies of trainee accountants (Chaffer & Webb, 2017) and the desirable skills and attributes of graduate trainees (Howcroft, 2017). Accounting education research is currently dominated by research emerging from developed, Westernised countries (Marriott, Stoner, Fogarty & Sangster, 2014) with scant attention paid to the particular challenges associated with the diversity of students present in the South African environment. Some topics that have recently been explored in South Africa include challenges associated with teaching and learning (Coetzee & Schmulian, 2013; Coetzee, Schmulian & Kotze, 2014; Janse van Rensburg, Coetzee & Schmulian, 2014); student performance (Jansen & De Villiers, 2016); personality differences (Papageorgiou & Callaghan, 2018) and personal attributes (Merino & Aucock, 2017); challenges for curriculum design (Lubbe, 2017); the structure of knowledge, and how students construct knowledge in accounting (Myers, 2016, 2017) and assessment to stimulate collaborative learning (Malan & Stegmann, 2018).