The Quality of Accounting Education: A Malaysian Perspective

The aim of the paper is to present the findings of empirical research that addresses the perception, and motives regarding quality of accounting education from the perspective of Malaysian students. Prior to this research the lack of information regarding quality of accounting education from the students' perspective allowed the educational bodies to accept the quality attributes of other stakeholders on students’ behalf. This situation had always the potential to emerge the massive conflict among students and other stakeholders considering the role conflicting theory. Therefore, the research findings not only enhance the understanding of quality attributes from students’ perspective but also provides the informative input for the design and implementation of syllabus, quality assurance systems and policies. It probes the students' quality perception and their motivational factors, through survey methodology and further elaborates by using Pearson correlation and statistical regression to achieve the significance of research. The findings reveal that all the previously defined quality notions (exception, perfection, fitness for purpose, value for money and transformation) are almost equally important (with negligible difference) and preserve their significance in the field of accountancy. It also discloses that the career aspiration and economic factors are not the only influencing motivational factors but the intrinsic factors, such as self- interest and aptitude are also important to be considered. Therefore, the foremost implication is to view the quality as a holistic approach rather than individually i.e. equal proportion of all the quality notions from the perspective of students. Other implication of the research is at the policy level, i.e. to view the quality notion, 'fitness for purpose', in a broad sense at 'national-structural level', and when we move down to individual level via organizational level, it should be narrowed down accordingly to examine each quality notion separately so that to extensively identify each quality attribute.