The Reasons Why Students Choose the Accounting as Their Major

Why study accounting and finance?

Here are just some of the reasons why students choose to study an accounting and finance degree:

Stimulating: The world of finance and investment banking attracts many top graduates. Household names such as J P Morgan, Merrill Lynch, CSFB and Morgan Stanley are synonymous with exciting assignments and glamorous lifestyles. Meanwhile, financial scandals such as Enron and Global Crossing have placed accounting at the top of the business agenda.

Rewarding: Careers in accounting and finance are associated with very high salaries. A recent National Institute study identified accounting as the most lucrative of all degree courses in terms of graduates’ lifetime earning capacity (The Times 28th July 2005).

Variety: International accounting firms offer a bewildering array of career opportunities to suit all interests including traditional auditing and assurance work, management consulting, corporate finance, IT consulting, tax planning, human resources (HR) and insolvency. The same is true for the large investment banks and financial institutions.

Leadership: After gaining their professional qualifications, many accountants move into senior management positions in large firms. The Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in many of the UK’s leading companies are qualified accountants. All Finance Directors (the step down from the CEO in the corporate hierarchy) are accountants.

INTRODUCTION

most people view accountants as being male, introvert, cautious, methodical, systematic, anti-social

and above all boring. Not to mention, the accounting profession is facing a serious personnel issue

since 1990’s (Parker, 2000) and in 2000s as well. The situation becomes even worst with the

Arthur Anderson scandal. Therefore, it is becoming more difficult to attract the best and brightest business students

into the profession and retain them (Wolk and Nikolai, 1997). Since we are in the 21

st

century, the business

environment has changed...