Accounting Chairs’ Perceptions of Current Challenges

Based on interviews of 20 accounting chairs, we examine chairs’ perceptions of current challenges facing accounting academia and the chairs individually. Overall, the most significant issue facing accounting programs today is declining enrollments and students’ negative perceptions of accounting, with low pay in accounting as a major element. Key challenges facing chairs individually relate to enrollment declines and students’ negative perceptions of accounting, heavy workload, faculty hiring, department culture, and motivating faculty. We further examine enrollment and research issues, including how programs are attempting to address enrollment declines, emerging impacts of enrollment declines, often somewhat nebulous research standards (including recognition of practitioner publications), and a growing collection of research impact measures. We hope that the discussion of how to address key challenges will be useful to chairs and that our findings will spur additional research.