A framework for the integration of information technology in the education of professional accountants at South African universities

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The accountancy profession operates within an environment that is changing at arapid pace. It is the responsibility of the profession to ensure that all its members(including future members) meet the expectations placed on them by the users oftheir services. Professional accountants need to stay relevant in this changingenvironment that may require them to change or adapt the services they offer to theirclients. It is the responsibility of professional accountancy bodies to strategically planfor these changes to ensure that members that join the profession posses therequired knowledge and skills to be relevant and to stay relevant within theenvironment they operate in.One of the key drivers of change in the environment has been identified as theadvances in information and communication technologies. Information andcommunication technologies have an impact on the role that accountants play in theenvironment (i.e. what they do) as well as on how they perform their role (i.e. howthey do it). The main aim of this research was to determine if, and to what extent,students, that have completed their formal education and enter the profession astrainee accountants, possess the knowledge and skills to enable them to interact withand use information technology to be regarded as competent accountants within theSouth African business environment. Accountants are educated in South Africa atuniversities that offer programmes that have been accredited by a professionalaccountancy body as well as through practical training offered by trainingorganisations. During this education process, accountants are imparted with theknowledge and skills as prescribed by the professional accountancy body so thatthey can join the profession as competent accountants.This research showed that there are serious shortcomings in the formal education ofstudents regarding information technology that results in students entering theprofession as trainee accountants not being competent in using informationtechnology. The reasons for students not being competent in information technologyare: • the lack of clear guidance on the IT skills required of students completing theirformal education because of professional accountancy bodies setting IT syllabithat are too vague and/or concise;• ignorance of the demands on trainee accountants as to the IT skills they requireto be competent in the South African business environment; and• the lack of proper IT training offered by South African universities that delivertrainee accountants that possess a limited range of IT skills that may not berelevant to the environment students will function in.Through a survey the perceptions of role-players at South African universities on thestrategies that universities would have to employ to ensure that the students theydeliver to profession, acquire the relevant IT skills to be competent in the use ofinformation technology, were determined.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University