Student Characteristics and Approaches to Learning: a Cross-cultural Study

The principal aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the cultural background of students and their learning approaches in a tertiary accounting program. While prior research in this area has more generally focused on the investigation of the learning approaches of accounting students, there appears to have been little investigation into the learning approaches of students from different cultures who are studying together at the same institution. The paper presents the results of a study of 550 students enrolled in an undergraduate accounting program at a multi-campus Victorian university where learning approaches and cultural background variables were investigated together with other background variables such as gender and age. The findings extend prior research on the impact cultural factors may have on the learning approaches of accounting students and also assists in clarifying the relationship between memorisation in the process of learning given the diverse ways that students from different cultures study accounting