The perceptions of accountants and accounting students on the accounting profession in Indonesia

Abstract

Rapid growth of the Indonesian economy has created a need for many more educated employees, including accountants. Unfortunately, there are problems with efforts to increase the supply of accountants. There is a lack of sufficient funds for training new accountants. There is also a shortage of competent teaching staff and an insufficiency in the number of institutions that offer courses of instruction in accounting. At present there is no comprehensive plan for allocating resources to accounting education according to current and projected future demands for accountants. Finally, there is a lack of coordination between educational institutions which do offer courses of instruction in accounting and business and governmental agencies which have specialized needs for accountants. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of accountants and graduate students who are majoring in accounting with regard to the quality of accounting education and the state of the accounting profession in Indonesia. Data for the study was obtained from responses to a questionnaire. A total of 983 practicing accountants and 1234 graduate students completed and returned questionnaires. The responses of the accountants and the students were initially tabulated separately. Chi-square analyses were conducted to test the following hypothesis: there are no statistically significant differences in the perceptions of accountants and accounting graduate students due to variations in their backgrounds and characteristics. The general findings of the study indicated the following: (1) There is a shortage of accountants in Indonesia. (2) The accountants felt that the instruction they received was adequate, while the students said it was not adequate. (3) Teaching accountants need more improvements than other fields of accounting, while internal accountants need the least improvements. (4) Salary is the factor that influenced both the accountants and the students to become accountants. (5) Taking harsh measures against ethical code violators is the best method to improve the image of accountant in the society. Hopefully, utilizing the information obtained in this study will enhance the development of accounting education, the accounting profession, and accountancy in general in Indonesia.