The difference between Australian and international students in terms of perceived
attitude towards the work of accountants, may in part be explained by the difference in
year of entry to university studies. International students in the main enter university at
the second year level having gained exemption from first year university studies, having
completed their first year accounting studies within a Technical and Further Education
(TAFE) environment in Australia. The TAFE sector offers courses at vocational and
para-professional level (e.g. diploma, certificate, etc.) and has a focus on developing
defined levels of competency required by industry and employers[4]. The approaches to
teaching and assessment in TAFE differ substantially from the university environment
where the focus in university is on a much broader role of advancing knowledge and
promoting scholarship. First year programs in universities inAustralia havemoved away
from teaching procedural tasks to a more conceptual and analytical form of teaching and
assessment (Hall et al., 2004; English et al., 2004). Therefore, the differences in attitudes related to the work of accountants between Australian and international students may
reflect the formation and perhaps reinforcement of stereotypical attitudes towards the
profession by international students given that they mainly enter university study at the
second year level, having completed accounting studies atTAFE.Although studentswere
not requested to identify their entry pathway in the questionnaire, this would be an
important addition to future studies addressing differences in attitudes towards
accounting between Australian and international students.