Demand for accountants has never been higher. Indeed, there's a shortage which is driving up beancounter salaries. But there's a problem.
How are we going to fix the shortage if there are no accounting professors?
A study has found that there is a dire situation in the US where there's been a sharp drop in the number of accounting academics. The study, An empirical assessment of the rise and fall of accounting as an academic discipline, was based on the data from a directory and 378 schools. The researchers found that that the numbers of tenured accounting professors fell by 10.5 percent between 1992 and 2002, after rising the previous decade.
It was even worse with assistant professors. They were down 33.7 per cent. Looking at the changes in faculty distribution, accounting had slipped 2.8 per cent, but the number of overall business academics was up 3.3 per cent.
The researchers suggest the trend might reflect the changing focus of business schools.
One might also speculate that it might also have something to do with the changing priorities of accountants.
Frankly, anyone who knows anything about beancounting would realise that these days, there's more money to be made practising it instead of teaching.
As I have said before, Sarbanes-Oxley has been a licence to print money for accountants. Why become an academic when there's big money to be made?
I’m a 3rd year student and casual tutor/seminar leader for introductory accounting at University, but as much as I like teaching and influencing the next generation of accounting and business leaders, I want to be one myself so I don’t think becoming a Professor is for me. I guess it goes without saying that having a healthy supply of academics is critical in ensuring the discipline remains first rate and relevant in the future.