Abstract
Through a select number of essays from leading accounting scholars, this special debating forum reflects on how the international academic accounting profession has responded in the aftermath of Enron and other recent corporate scandals. The presented combination of personal experiences and reflections of individuals working in North America, Australasia and Europe offers some intriguing insights of the nature of different educational arenas and the particular obligations that accounting educators must assume and respond to in the future. This introduction to the special debating forum explains its remit, summarises each individual contribution and analyses the main messages and implications to emerge from the forum.
Notes
1For example, see Revsine Citation(2002), Verrecchia Citation(2002), Arya et al.
Citation(2003), Demski Citation(2003), Entwistle Citation(2003), Herring Citation(2003), Kinney Citation(2003), Largay (2003), PricewaterhouseCoopers Citation(2003), Briloff Citation(2004), Oliverio Citation(2004), Williams Citation(2004) and Wyatt Citation(2004). The new millennium also triggered a number of reflective pieces pre-Enron on the future of accounting and auditing education (e.g. see Albrecht and Sack, Citation2000; The 2000–2001 Auditing Section Education Committee, American Accounting Association, Citation2003) or the nature of accounting scholarship (e.g. Demski, Citation2001; Kinney, Citation2001). Certain pieces (e.g. Mathews, Citation2001; Craig and Amernic, Citation2002; Wilson, Citation2002; Howieson, Citation2003) took a more international focus, although some of these spent considerable time assessing and responding to the work of Albrecht and Sack Citation(2000) in the USA.
2In the process of putting this special debating forum together, there have appeared in print Enron-dedicated special issues – for example, see editorials by O'Connell Citation(2004) in Critical Perspectives on Accounting and a special 2003 ‘Speaking out’ section of Organization (Volume 10, Number 3, pp. 549–594), although a significant proportion of this material was concerned with analysing the Enron case rather than explicitly addressing the role of accounting academics and accounting education. Guest editors have also completed special issues on professionalism and ethics in (US) accounting education (in Issues in Accounting Education – see Gaa and Thorne, Citation2004) and a critical response to managerialism in the Academy (Critical Perspectives on Accounting – see Saravanamuthu and Filling, Citation2004). Ravenscroft's powerful plenary address to the British Accounting Association's Special Interest Group on Accounting Education (Bournemouth, 2003) has also recently been published in a revised form (see Ravenscroft and Williams, Citation2004), while Amernic and Craig Citation(2004) have put forward their own post-Enron agenda for the reform of accounting education.
Revsine
,
L.
2002
.
Enron: sad but inevitable
.
Journal of Accounting and Public Policy
,
21
(
2
)
:
137
–
145
.
Verrecchia
,
R. E.
2002
.
Why all the hoopla about Enron
.
Journal of Accounting and Public Policy
,
21
(
2
)
:
99
–
105
.
Arya
,
A.
,
Fellingham
,
J. C.
and
Schroeder
,
D. A.
2003
.
An academic curriculum proposal
.
Issues in Accounting Education
,
18
(
1
)
:
29
–
35
.
Demski
,
J. S.
2003
.
Educators' forum: the curriculum challenge
.
Issues in Accounting Education
,
18
(
1
)
:
23
Entwistle
,
G. M.
2003
.
Do the right thing: the ‘research’ curriculum
.
Issues in Accounting Education
,
18
(
1
)
:
25
–
27
.
Herring
,
H. C.
2003
.
Conference address: the accounting education change movement in the United States
.
Accounting Education
,
12
(
2
)
:
87
–
95
.
Kinney
,
W. R.
Jr.
2003
.
New accounting scholars – does it matter what we teach them?
.
Issues in Accounting Education
,
18
(
1
)
:
37
–
47
.
PricewaterhouseCoopers
.
2003
.
Educating for the Public Trust: The PricewaterhouseCoopers Position on Accounting Education
,
New York
:
PricewaterhouseCoopers
.
Briloff
,
A.
2004
.
Accounting scholars in the groves of academe In Pari Delicto
.
Critical Perspectives on Accounting
,
15
(
6/7
)
:
787
–
796
.
Oliverio
,
M. E.
2004
.
What societal responsibility should accounting faculty assume?
.
Critical Perspectives on Accounting
,
15
(
4/5
)
:
453
–
460
.
Williams
,
P. F.
2004
.
Recovering accounting as a worthy endeavor
.
Critical Perspectives on Accounting
,
15
(
4/5
)
:
513
–
517
.
Wyatt
,
A. R.
2004
.
Accounting professionalism – they just don't get it
.
Accounting Horizons
,
18
(
1
)
:
45
–
53
.
Albrecht
,
W. S.
and
Sack
,
R. J.
2000
.
Accounting Education: Charting the Course through a Perilous Future
,
Sarasota, FL
:
American Accounting Association
.
The 2000–2001 Auditing Section Education Committee, American Accounting Association
.
2003
.
Challenges to auditing education for the 21st century: a survey of curricula, course content and delivery methods
.
Issues in Accounting Education
,
18
(
3
)
:
241
–
263
.
Demski
,
J. S.
Some thoughts on accounting scholarship, Presidential Address to the 2001 AAA meeting
.
August
22
2001
,
Georgia.
Accounting Education News
,
Fall
.
published in
Kinney
,
W. R. Jr.
2001
.
Accounting scholarship: what is uniquely ours?
.
The Accounting Review
,
76
(
2
)
:
275
–
284
.
Mathews
,
M. R.
2001
.
Whither (or wither) accounting education in the new millennium
.
Accounting Forum
,
25
(
4
)
:
380
–
394
.
Craig
,
R. J.
and
Amernic
,
J. H.
2002
.
Accountability of accounting educators and the rhythm of the university: resistance strategies for postmodern blues
.
Accounting Education: An International Journal
,
11
(
2
)
:
121
–
171
.
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
)
:
295
–
310
.
Howieson
,
B.
2003
.
Accounting practice in the new millennium: is accounting education ready to meet the challenge?
.
The British Accounting Review
,
35
(
2
)
:
69
–
104
.
Albrecht
,
W. S.
and
Sack
,
R. J.
2000
.
Accounting Education: Charting the Course through a Perilous Future
,
Sarasota, FL
:
American Accounting Association
.
O'Connell
,
B. T.
2004
.
Enron.con: ‘He that filches from me my good name … makes me poor indeed’
.
Critical Perspectives on Accounting
,
15
(
6/7
)
:
733
–
749
.
Gaa
,
J. C.
and
Thorne
,
L.
2004
.
An introduction to the special issue on professionalism and ethics in accounting education
.
Issues in Accounting Education
,
19
(
1
)
:
1
–
6
.
Saravanamuthu
,
K.
and
Filling
,
S.
2004
.
A critical response to managerialism in the Academy
.
Critical Perspectives on Accounting
,
15
(
4/5
)
:
437
–
452
.
Ravenscroft
,
S.
and
Williams
,
P. F.
2004
.
Considering accounting education in the USA post-Enron
.
Accounting Education
,
13
(
Suppl. 1
)
:
7
–
23
.
Amernic
,
J.
and
Craig
,
R.
2004
.
Reform of accounting education in the post-Enron era: moving accounting ‘out of the shadows’
.
Abacus
,
40
(
3
)
:
342
–
378
.