Teamwork benefits in tertiary education: student perceptions that lead to best practice assessment design

Higher education practitioners (Kotey, 2007; Olson-Buchanan et al., 2007; Tempone and Martin, 1999), and accounting and finance practitioners (Cappelletto, 2010), along with the accounting and finance disciplines' governing bodies (CPA, 2012; Jackling and De Lange, 2009), have heeded the call to incorporate team learning activities into the curricula taught at the university undergraduate level. The tertiary education system and practitioners have grappled with the question of what skills should be provided to students to create effective lifelong learners and to enable them to compete effectively in the workforce (Crebert et al., 2004; Jackling and De Lange, 2009; McLarty, 2000). As evidenced by various studies, this issue has become a priority for universities with the disparity between the skills and competencies of graduates and the requirements of prospective employers growing more divergent (CPA, 2012; Crebert et al., 2004; Deckinger et al., 1990; Evans et al., 2002; Jackling and De Lange, 2009; McLarty, 2000)