Students’ attitudes towards accounting – what are they and how do they change?

The role of an accountant has experienced disruption in recent years, adapting to constant developments in technology. While the accounting profession has embraced these changes over the years, it continues to be subject to persistent negative stereotypes. This has implications for the profession at an educational level, recognised by the current decline in the number of students deciding to major in accounting at university and pursue it as a career. Students' attitudes and beliefs on accounting and the profession influence a student's decision to become an accountant. In New Zealand, students choose to study accounting as early as their third year of high school; therefore, educators at both a high school and university level need to be aware of their influence on students' attitudes towards accounting and the profession. Current literature identifies that while numerous studies have been conducted on students' perceptions of accounting and the profession, there have been limited studies on attitude, with none in a New Zealand context. Applying Fishbein's attitudinal theory, this cross-sectional study examines the attitudes that a group of 300-level accounting students have towards accounting and the accounting profession, before starting university and after the completion of a 300-level accounting course. It also examines whether these students' attitudes have changed over their time at university and the possible drivers of any change. As Fishbein theorises, an attitude is a mediating evaluative response that is characterised as either favourable or unfavourable when associated with beliefs about the attitude object. In this study, the attitude object being examined is accounting and the accounting profession. To examine the formation, change and drivers of attitude the Accounting Attitude Scale (AAS) survey used in prior accounting attitudinal studies, has been utilised. The findings identified that before starting university, students' attitudes were highly representative of a number of prominent negative stereotypes that described accounting as a traditional role that was just a lot of rule memorising and was a number-driven profession that seldom worked with people. This attitude was dominantly reflected by students who studied accounting at high school. However, after the completion of a 300-level accounting course, students' attitudes became significantly more positive and no longer associated accounting and the profession with negative stereotypes. At both points in time, students maintained that the profession was well respected, and accounting provided broad exposure to business; however, students held neutral attitudes on their enjoyment or like for accounting. Furthermore, job fundamentals such as job security and financial reward remained the top influence on a student's attitude. Accounting education and the role of accounting educators at high school and undergraduate level have a significant influence on students' attitudes. All students' attitudes becoming more positive after the completion of a 300-level accounting course, demonstrates the positive influence that undergraduate accounting education has had in enhancing student attitudes towards accounting and the profession. However, the negative stereotypes that students identified before starting university (particularly those that studied accounting at high school), emphasise the attention required by accounting educators to address the curriculum and the delivery of teaching of accounting at high school. As the first study of its kind to be executed in New Zealand, it has gathered information that will be valuable to New Zealand accounting educators in raising awareness of the influence and role they have in informing students' attitudes and expectations of the profession. Furthermore, it will also be of assistance to the accounting profession by informing them of the negative stereotypes that are prominent in students' attitudes towards accounting and the impact this may have on the recruitment of students into the profession. The development of this study reflects my journey into studying accounting at university and the career I have had so far. I only hope that the findings and conclusions this study offers will provide insight to educators and the profession. As well as inform future students that also decide to study and pursue a career in accounting.