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Accountants have become increasingly concerned about the quality and quantity of entrants into the accounting profession [Inman et al., 1989; AAA, 1986]. Nelson [1889, p. 46] captures the sentiment of many in stating that "accounting enrollments are declining and fewer of the top students are choosing accounting as a major." Consequently, other disciplines may be attracting the type of high-aptitude baccalaureate students who previously might have majored in accounting. Informal conversations with accounting faculty reveal that many are of the opinion that this trend toward lower-aptitude students is confirmed by first-hand observations in the classroom.
Accounting programs are reporting a decline in enrollments. The Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits [Walsh and McInnes, 1989] reports a downward trend in the absolute number of accounting graduates (both undergraduate and graduate), as well as a decline in the ratio of the supply of accounting graduates to the public accounting demand for accounting graduates. A combination of the aptitude and quantity problems is resulting in "a decreasing ability to be selective in the recruiting process, which adversely affects the quality of new hires brought into the profession" [Perspectives, 1989, p. 2].
One explanation advanced for these trends is that the evolution of a rule-based accounting curriculum has attracted fewer students, as well as a different type of student, than was true 20 years ago. Based on focus groups consisting of college students, Inman et al. [1989, p. 40] summarize many students' views of accounting courses as "a 'mass production' and 'rote-memorization' type of educational experience." Zeff [1989, p. 204] characterizes financial accounting courses "as a collection of rules that are to be memorized in an uncritical, almost unthinking, way." He attributes this current state of accounting education to the influence of the increasingly rule-based CPA examination, the influence of increasingly rule-based pronouncements, and the increasing tendency of educators to present accounting rules as absolute truths rather than subjective decisions.
In contrast to this trend in education, analytical reasoning ability blended with effective interpersonal skills now is viewed as predictive of success in the profession [Perspectives, 1989]. Increasingly complex transactions, global competition, and unprecedented corporate debt levels are just a few of the developments requiring that accountants' skills should tend more toward judgment and...