4. Methodology
This study is a survey study of the readiness of Thai accounting students for the IES. The
population was all Thai accounting students who are studying in bachelor’s degree of the department
of accountancy from all universities located in the South of Thailand consisting of Prince of Songkla
University (Hatyai campus), Prince of Songkla University (Trang campus), Taksin University,
Warailuk University, Hatyai University, Songkhla Rajabhat University, and Rajamangala University
of Technology. By simple random sampling, 480 accounting students in the southern area are selected
and used in this study. The data are collected between December 2013 and February 2014 using a mail
questionnaire. The questionnaire used is adapted from previous studies (See Virunjanya, 2011;
Suttipun, 2014) and questionnaires are sent to all the participating universities by mail. Closed-ended
questions are used in the questionnaire because they are more convenient for the participants to
answer. The questionnaire is separated into three parts. The first part relates to general information
about of the participants, their gender, age, study year, educational institution, GPA (education result),
training experience, and their awareness of the IES. The second part relates to the competencies of the
participating Thai accountancy students based on the five competencies defined in the IES: skill,
knowledge, values, attitudes, and ethics. In the last part, the accounting student is asked about their
readiness for the IES. The level of competency of the Thai accounting students, and their readiness for
the IES is scored based on a five-point Likert scale (See Wilmshurst and Frost, 2000) from 1 (lowest
readiness/competency) to 5 (highest readiness/competency). The results are classified as follows