e-journal

Professional accounting education programmes in South Africa and India

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a contextual analysis of the professional
accounting education programmes in South Africa and India by benchmarking both programmes
to the International Education Standards (IESs) of the International Federation of Accountants
(IFAC).
Design/methodology/approach – The research methodology is a qualitative archival approach
extracting information from secondary data (Statements of Membership Obligations’ compliance
questionnaires available on the IFAC web site and information from the web sites of the relevant
professional accountancy bodies).
Findings – With regards to the IESs, the study found that both countries comply with the standards,
although important differences occur. In South Africa, most of the education takes place during the
university phase; and while both countries cover the content requirements, India covers the acquisition
of professional skills more formally; ethics is taught and examined in both countries; both countries
require a three year training contract; both countries have a final examination but the content of the
examinations are different; and South Africa requires more continuous professional development than
India. These findings, when related to India’s and South Africa’s relative positions on certain of
the Global Competitiveness Indices may indicate that India could learn from the South African
accountancy education model in order to strengthen the Indian position with regards to auditing and
reporting standards.
Research limitations/implications – A limitation of the study is that it did not investigate
the quality of the relative education programmes and it benchmarks both programmes at a single
point in time.
Practical implications – India could strengthen its accounting profession by implementing
some of the South African aspects of its education model. South African could consider
adopting the flexibility in the entry requirements in the Indian education model in order to increase
the number of accountants in South Africa. These findings may also be useful to other
developing countries to identify practices which could be adopted if suitable in their respective
countries.
Originality/value – The study is original as accountancy education programmes in India and
South Africa have not been contrasted before. In view of their similar colonial background and the fact
that both countries are major economic and political forces in their respective regions, the value of this
study is that it provides useful and relevant information to India, South Africa and other countries
with similar economic and social backgrounds.

Keywords India, South Africa, Global accounting benchmarking

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Ketersediaan

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

: Emerald Group.,

Deskripsi Fisik

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies Vol. 4 No. 1, 2014 pp. 97-116

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

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Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

AKUNTANSI

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

Asmawati/Syahrial

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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