Accounting Education at a Crossroads: Rethinking Purpose, Practice, and Pedagogy
Internationally, accounting educators face persistent calls for reform. Across Europe, the UK, the US, and Australasia, scholars have argued that current programmes over emphasis technical accounting education which no longer meet the evolving needs of the accountancy profession (e.g., Bolt-Lee & Foster, 2003; Boyce et al., 2019; Carmona, 2013; Carnegie, 2022; Carnegie et al., 2024a; Chabrak & Craig, 2013; Diamond, 2005; Hopper, 2013; Pincus et al., 2017; Powell & McGuigan, 2023; Sorola & Drujon d’Astros, 2025).
Building on international critiques and in the context of wider forces of digital transformation, sustainability imperatives, global risks, and eroding public trust, this symposium invites accounting educators to consider how our teaching and scholarship can better reflect accounting’s holistic purpose. We will consider how to embed technical competence, social responsiveness, and moral purpose into accounting education to meet the profession’s future needs. The symposium will also explore how accounting education can help renew the profession’s social contract by developing graduates who see accounting not only as reporting value but also as creating and protecting value for society and the natural environment, cultivating ethically grounded, socially responsive accountants for the future.
Aim of the Symposium
To provide a reflective and forward-looking platform for accounting educators, scholars, and professional accountancy bodies to discuss how the discipline can reclaim its foundational purpose in serving the public good.
The symposium will:
Moderator
Susan Smith | University College London
Panellists
Garry Carnegie | RMIT University
Ericka Costa | University of Trento
Adriana Tiron | Tudor Babes-Bolyai University
Clive Webb | Head of Business Management, Policy and Insights, ACCA
Schedule
Date | Time: Thursday 28 May 2026 09:00 – 10:30
Location: RB 101 (Rajská Building)
