Academic standards and challenges for accounting educators

Abstract

A recent paper on Transforming Australia's Higher Education System identifies a number of significant reforms for the sector including the establishment of a Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). The paper also foreshadows the development of competency based standards for universities for all degree awards in Australia. TEQSA will then be responsible for checking compliance with such standards in a similar fashion to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation panel. An article in The Australian Financial Review reported that accounting will be the first discipline to set minimum standards as required by the new Australian Qualifications Framework regime as 'Standards set for accounting' Accounting was chosen because we have a very strong level of engagement with both the profession and industry in relaion to the discipline.