A Brave New World: Australian Learning Outcomes in Accounting Education

Abstract

During 2010, minimum academic standards for Australian bachelor and master degree programmes in accounting were formulated. These were developed for a new higher education system predicated on expansion, including participation targets and demand-driven funding for public institutions, and a centralised regulatory and quality assurance system to support consumer protection covering all providers. In 2011 a pilot project involving 25% of Australian universities that provide accounting education, is underway to assess achievement of graduating student outcomes against nationally agreed academic standards. The benchmarking process involves double-blind external peer review. It will be expanded in 2012 to embrace other universities and non-university providers including emerging providers from both the private sector and the vocational education sector.

Keywords:

• Threshold
• learning outcomes
• academic standards
• benchmarking

Notes

By 2020, 20% of higher education enrolments at the undergraduate level will be of people from a low SES (socio-economic status) backgrounds. (Australian Government, 2009, pp. 12–13.)

The online portal, entitled MyUniversity when first announced, is intended to be ‘a robust, consolidated and transparent source of information about all of Australia's 39 universities … provided in an easily accessible form for students and parents’ (Australian Government, 2010). http://www.deewr.gov.au/Ministers/Evans/Media/Speeches/Pages/Article_110302_134902.aspx (accessed 1 May 2011). It reflects a similar structure to the MySchools website, launched in 2010, relating to school education.

Only two private universities are among the 39 universities registered as self-accrediting higher education providers in Australia. Two further self-accrediting institutions are not universities.

Some international initiatives have resulted in new qualification types (e.g. EuroBachelor of Chemistry).

Australian universities have no requirement or tradition of using an external examiner for quality assurance purposes.

http://www.voluntarysystem.org/ (accessed 1 May 2011) and http://www.oecd.org/edu/ahelo (accessed 1 May 2011).

The revised AQF will become operational on a voluntary basis from 1 July 2011 and become one of five component standards that TEQSA's will use for quality assurance from 1 January 2012.

As TEQSA had not been formed, they were delivered to a relevant government department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations.

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/statements/accounting.pdf (accessed 1 May 2011), http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/statements/finance.pdf (accessed 1 May 2011) http://tuning.unideusto.org/tuningeu/images/stories/template/Template_Business.pdf http://www.eua.be/fileadmin/user_upload/files/EUA1_documents/dublin_descriptors.pdf (accessed 1 May 2011).

ABDC also committed to lead the development of thresholds for the next business discipline.