Competency Requirements of Accounting Graduates: Perception of the Indonesian Stakeholders in Nusa Tenggara Barat and Bali Provinces

There is an urgent need for studies to support the quality of higher accounting education in Indonesia. The higher education institutions should respond to the change of the business world as well as technology that requires high competency to satisfy the stakeholders. There is also the competency gap between the job market demand and the availability of man power in the accounting profession. The main objective of this research is to determine level and type of competencies required by the accounting graduates, while the specific objectives are to evaluate the existing curriculum of accounting tertiary education, determine factors that contribute to the rate of unemployment among accounting graduates, and determine the correlation between the combination level of practical work experience and the proficiencies of accounting graduates with proficiency requirements in accounting jobs. The significance of the study is revealing the level and type of proficiencies needed by the job market and determining the necessary skill courses in the accounting curriculum that would improve the quality of accounting graduates, perhaps it may be of great important for the policy of curriculum development. The study population comprises of several categories of respondent. They were heads of accounting tertiary institutions, accounting lecturers, unemployed accounting graduates, accounting employees, managers of companies, and key person of professional organization. To decide samples of each respondent, the cluster, stratified and proportionate techniques were employed. The credit load of some skill courses has not been adequately provided; the practical skills provided are inadequate; and the most of computer skills classed provided have not been oriented to the application of accounting. In total credit load of overall courses, the education institutions comply with the national curriculum. It has also found that, the common factors leading to unemployment of accounting graduates have not just been related to the skill factors but also to the external factors such as too many job seekers and low vacancy. The greates number of the use of computer in accounting job as well as accounting graduates fulfilling accounting jobs have also been attested in the study. The study discovered that that higher institution failed to fulfill the needs as highlighted by the stakeholder theory. Also importantly, the study reinforced the stakeholder theory that there is a significant relationship between the education institutions and the end users. Furthermore, the study divulges not only the correlation between the level of proficiency which the accounting employees obtained from formal education and that required by job market, but also the comparison of skill qualifications between state and private tertiary institutions, college and university, and large and small/medium companies. The levels of several skills demanded by job market and those obtained in tertiary educations have also been revealed