November 19, 2008 at 4:55 am · Filed under Accounting Schools
Accounting schools are scrambling to stay ahead of the IFRS curve.
Last spring, Rama Ramamuthy, a professor of accounting at William & Mary’s Mason School of Business, devoted eight weeks of a graduate class to IFRS. Her students were “very receptive,” she said, and the classroom discussions over application of IFRS principles in accounting situations became “quite feisty.”
Some other accounting classes, including at the undergraduate level, also gave students a taste of IFRS, she said. Next year, Ramamurthy will be teaching a class devoted entirely to IFRS, perhaps one of the first such classes in the country.
Meanwhile, graduate students at the University of Denver’s accounting school have been getting a heavy dose of IFRS in a case study class, according to Ron Kucic, the school’s director. He said that the faculty has been feasting on IFRS resource materials developed by the Big Four accounting firms.
And a plan is in the works at the University of Southern California’s Leventhal School of Accounting to “completely redo our curriculum in the master’s program with special attention to what the world is going to look like after IFRS becomes the rules of the road,” says Randy Beatty, the school’s dean.
The impending embrace of IFRS “provides us with a unique opportunity to think about the new skill sets that people will need in a world in which there is less reliance on, ‘The rule said this’ and ‘We can do that,’” Beatty says.
With its expectation that accountants judge the substance of transactions, IFRS will demand more inquisitiveness, problem-solving and communication skills from accountants than were required in the GAAP world, Beatty said. “I think it’s going to change the way we look for students,” he predicts.
But he also expects accounting schools like USC to receive a lot more applications from students “who thought they were going to be finance majors working in investment banking, who will discover there aren’t very many investment banks left to work for.”
http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=29811
November 17, 2008 at 6:27 am · Filed under Accounting Schools
As the Gotham Gazette is reporting (and why wasn’t there anything in the press about his?), there seems to be little fiscal accountability in the DOE’s so-called Office of Accountabilty: “The Department of Education spent about $135 million on its cherished accountability initiative last year, according to an Independent Budget Office report released today. While such a number — most of it going for central office expenses, not teachers and classes — looms large in an era of cutbacks, at a press conference this morning Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, who requested the report, and her staff seemed more focused on what that figure does not include — and on the reaction from the department — than on the bottom line figure.”
Gotbaum has been doing a yeoman-like job at questioning the DOE’s efforts on all fronts-almost with a complete press blackout; and certainly without any adequate follow-up from the reporters who are assigned to examine how well our schools are functioning. What’s significant in regards to the accountability folks, is how hard it is to get any clear picture on what’s being done: “The spending, estimated to come in at around $105 million this year, includes progress reports, surveys and money paid as performance bonuses to school and principals. The largest chunk — $29 million last year — was for the schools’ controversial ARIS computer system.”
What is clear that the effort is management and technology based-and the further you get away from educational variables the less all of this makes any real sense; an exercise in baffling and bamboozling by bureaucrats: “According to Gotbaum and her staff, department officials have stalled on providing information since the IBO started work on the accountability initiative report last February. It seems apparent that the department, which has boasted of cutting costs in administration to spend more in classrooms, wanted as little attention paid to this as possible.”
All of which sets the stage for the big battle over mayoral governance that will certainly roil the legislature next year; with an emphasis, we hope, on a cost benefit analysis of not only all of the extra administrative spending, but the impact of all the additional outlays on performance in the classroom. Gertrude Stein’s comment about Oakland seems relevant to the accomplishments of our Tweed folks: “The trouble with Oakland is that when you get there, there isn’t any there there.”
http://momandpopnyc.blogspot.com/2008/11/school-accounting-miasma.html
November 10, 2008 at 7:23 am · Filed under Accounting Schools
Once-prestigious centre is warned it
may be stripped of its accreditation
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) is threatening to withdraw its accreditation of the University of the Witwatersrand School of Accounting in what would be a crippling blow to the university and lay low what is arguably the profession most fundamental to the economic success of SA.
Citing a deterioration of standards, Saica has written twice in recent weeks to Wits vice-chancellor Loyisa Nongxa to invite him and his deputy, Yunus Ballim, to meetings to discuss a looming catastrophe at the school, which was until recently regarded as the country’s premier accounting education facility.
Neither Nongxa nor Ballim attended a meeting where Saica first shared its findings. Saica is now trying to get them to a meeting in the next few days, in an effort to drive home the seriousness of the situation. Saica regulates the accounting profession and the quality of South African accounting is often cited as one of the main reasons foreigners invest here.
In a desperate note to Saica CEO Ignatius Sehoole last month, a senior member of the school’s staff, Gary Swartz, warned that some of its problems were “terminal”. “We are in a position where certain academic programmes we at this point are going to be unable to run next year due to lack of resources,” he wrote.
Saica conducted a lengthy study of the accounting programme at Wits this year and concluded after a monitoring visit to the university in August that the programmes did not comply with its standards and that steps would be taken to withdraw its accreditation. Wits has until March 31 next year to remedy the problems Saica identified.
Last night, the acting head of the school, Enos Barnard, said he viewed the report in a “positive light” and not as damning. “The school does not see any withdrawal of accreditation as a threat,” Barnard said. “There are a number of matters contained in the report that we determined and will get right,” he said.
The main findings of the report include:
* The school is inadequately staffed, particularly in the core disciplines of taxation, financial management and accounting;
* The school has an acting head (Barnard) who has little background in accounting matters;
* There has been a loss of a number of senior staff members over the last few years;
* There are problems attracting and retaining staff;
* A large number of staff appear to be demoralised; and
* The pass rates for black students are considerably lower than for white students, with the number decreasing significantly from the first to the fourth year.
Chantyl Mulder, Saica’s senior executive for transformation, said the monitoring visits were done by Saica’s education committee every three years to ensure that criteria for an accredited institution were met. Although Saica was pleased that Wits continued to have excellent Qualifying Examination 1 (QE1) pass rates and a good record, the education committee did find some difficulties, Mulder said.
Mulder said that Saica and the school of accounting were due to meet next week to discuss these. She said the loss of accreditation could have a devastating effect of on the chartered accounting profession. The school of accounting and the university had until January 31 next year to provide a detailed plan indicating how they would respond to the matters identified in the report.
Staffers at the school said deputy vice-chancellor Ballim was responsible for the state of the accounting school. They said he abolished the leadership team at the school last year and appointed unqualified people as head of the faculty of commerce and of the school. Barnard apparently has no accounting background. Last night he defended his capabilities, saying he had had more than 40 years “in business”.
* The school is currently inadequately staffed, particularly in the core disciplines of taxation, financial management and accounting. Recent attempts to recruit staff have largely been unsuccessful.
* The school has an acting head of school who has little background into accounting matters. In response, Barnard told Business Day: “I have 40 years business experience. It is a self evaluation report. I am not prepared to comment any further.”
* There has been a loss of a number of senior staff members over the last few years;
* Staff retention issues (including a large number of resignations in recent years);
* There are problems with attracting staff attraction issues (recent advertisements for staff have led to no full-time appointments);
* A large number of staff appear to be demoralised;
* The pass rates for black students are considerably lower than that for white students. This results in the proportion of black students in the programme decreasing significantly from the first to the fourth year. The school is reluctant to introduce support initiatives for a particular race group but is urged to reconsider this policy, says the report.
Chantyl Mulder, Saica’s senior executive for transformation, said that the monitoring visits were carried out by Saica’s education committee every three years at various universities to ensure that criteria for an accredited institution were met. Although Saica was pleased that Wits continued to have excellent Qualifying Examination 1 (QE1) pass rates and a good record of being one of the best schools of accounting in the country, the education committee did find some difficulties, Mulder said. “These were contained in the confidential report which was leaked to the media by an embittered individual,” she said.
Mulder said that Saica and the school of accounting were due to meet some next week to discuss these. She said that the loss of accreditation could have a devastating effect of on the chartered accounting profession.
There are currently 27047 chartered accountants in SA and the country is in a dire need of accountants in the light of the skills crisis. Barnard would not give any figures as to how many students were currently registered at the accountancy school. Mulder said that it was estimated that more than 110 students from Wits annually pass the QE1 examination.
The purpose of the monitoring visits was to establish that all the criteria for an accredited institution had been met, Mulder explained. By accrediting a programme Saica would certify that an institution, such as Wits, had put in place the appropriate resources that would enable it to deliver the courses at the required standard and level of quality.
The school of accounting and university had until January 31 next year to provide a detailed plan indicating how it would respond to the matters identified in the report.
For some very interesting further reading as to the mindset behind this shocking state of affairs, read the following two articles:
1. Maths should not be used as a ’measure of intelligence’
2. Anti-racist mathematics
I kid you not - an entire branch of politically correct mathematics exists, and it is called anti-racist mathematics. Read below for a synopsis, or click the link for the entire article:
Anti-racist mathematics is primarily concerned with the way in which mathematics is taught, although it also examines the contents of the curriculum in as much as this might reasonably differ from universally acceptable mathematical education. An anti-racist approach to mathematics education could include any or all of the following:
* Discussion of the mathematical knowledge of ancient civilisations outside of Europe, and non-European contributions to mathematical knowledge and discovery.
* The avoidance of racial stereotyping when forming and communicating expectations of pupils’ attainments in mathematics.
* The avoidance of racial stereotypes or cultural bias in classroom materials, textbooks, coursework topics and examination questions.
* Effective and unprejudiced methods of distinguishing between the merits of individuals. In particular, by ensuring equal exposure to examinable learning materials and opportunities as well as standardised examination methods. In this case, it would be highly prudent to ensure a method of examination that is public and open to cross-examination (certainly by ensuring that complaints and ambiguities in either examination methods or marks are dealt with openly [publicly] and in a non-secretive way). Clearly repeat examinations are less likely to misrepresent mathematical abilities.
Proponents of anti-racist mathematics believe that anti-racist education programs have the potential to correct imbalances and to have beneficial results on test scores and examination results in some minority groups.
http://zahell.blogspot.com/2008/11/transformation-wits-accounting-school.html
