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This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

Professional scepticism forms an integral part of a professional accountant's skill set and is fundamental to their training. Recent revisions to IESs 2, 3, 4 and 8 reflect changes in the market expectation in relation to professional scepticism. In this paper, we answer calls for additional research into professional scepticism by investigating its role and training beyond audit. We also consider the important role that education can play in developing the trait professional scepticism. Through semi-structured interviews of academics, employers and the professional bodies, we find that professional scepticism is not considered a specific learning outcome nor is its development specifically evaluated. Despite being relevant across different accounting roles, educators do not consciously embed professional scepticism within accounting units other than auditing. We provide examples of how professional scepticism is addressed in the accounting curriculum and consider whether employers' expectations are being met.

This paper examines the 'state of play' with regard to accounting education reform, which has been advocated for decades but is notable for having failed to produce significant change. We build on prior calls to 'liberalise' accounting education, recommending a move to a more relevant curriculum that considers accounting in its social context. Based on an analysis of the accounting curriculum in 31 Australian and 8 New Zealand universities, we find that, despite widespread and continuing calls for a broader educational approach, there are very few examples of systemic curricular-wide change to the traditional technical and vocational focus of accounting education. As a way forward, a sociologically-informed accounting curriculum is proposed to overcome the widely-recognised limitations of current approaches and the apparent failure of efforts to liberalise the curriculum. We argue that our approach would facilitate the broadening of the curriculum, and the development of better-educated, well-rounded, and socially-aware graduates.

This paper provides an assessment framework for shared collaboration among accounting educators. Key developments in higher education more broadly and challenges specific to accounting education are synthesised to identify their combined effects on the accounting curriculum and on accounting academics in fulfilling the teaching component of their academic role. The issue of assessment validity for complex graduate attributes that invariably encompass skills, disposition and values--beyond technical knowledge--is highlighted. This paper draws on multi-disciplinary research and principles of best practice to provide a framework to design innovative assessments. The framework is then used to illustrate the support and design of a set of assessment learning activities targeting graduate attributes. The authors also intend to share the framework with peers and to promote debate and further development to counter some of the challenges presently confronting accounting education in the already resource-scarce and high-demand higher education sector.

This paper is presented as a tribute to Raymond J. Chambers. As its title suggests, it is a personal reflection through the eyes of someone who worked closely with him over a period of 10 years during a latter part of his career, and who completed a doctoral thesis with aspects of the work of Chambers as its subject. During this time, author Michael Gaffikin was fortunate to have many discussions, debates, and academic arguments with Chambers again over a wide range of topics. Despite the author's obvious admiration for Chambers, he believes that Chambers' achievements and contributions to accounting knowledge qualify him as a scholar fully worthy of a tribute as a significant figure in the history of the discipline.

The changing nature of higher education and the structure of graduate labour markets have increased emphasis on employability and graduate outcomes. Universities have responded to this changed environment by embedding generic skills in the curriculum. This paper examines the generic skills that students perceived they acquired in their accounting studies in preparation for graduate employment. Given the changed background profiles of students studying accounting degree in Australia, and the employment difficulties they encounter on graduation, the study specifically addresses the perceptions of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. The findings demonstrate that, overall, students believed that their accounting course assisted in developing generic skills, while differences in perceptions were identified between different cultural cohorts. The research highlights the need to develop educational practices which embed generic skills development in the curriculum in a way that maximises the opportunities for culturally-diverse student cohorts to enhance their employment outcomes on graduation.

This paper summarizes the history and effects of the Australian Government's higher education 'reform' agenda on the accounting discipline. After providing a brief historical perspective, the paper summarizes the contents of the Task Force for Accounting Education in Australia, a Report commissioned by the two major Australian professional accounting bodies. An overview of the Government's higher education Green and White Papers and their implications for the accounting discipline in higher education, is then provided. We then survey some of the key recommendations of the Report of the Review of the Accounting Discipline in Higher Education (The Mathews Report), an enquiry commissioned by the Australian Government after an intensive lobbying campaign by the accounting profession. The paper concludes with summary contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A proposal to extend existing three year accounting degrees at universities in Australia to four years, proposed and supported by the accounting profession of Australia, is controversial. The Australian government will not pay for a fourth year and there is public criticism of the training of accountants. This study investigates the attitudes, feelings and behaviour intentions of 583 practitioner accountants in Perth, Western Australia, and their views about three important aspects of the proposed change. It shows that practitioner accountants belonging to the profession are split about the value of implementing the change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]