CONCLUSION
The study compared the accounting students’ attitude towards accounting profession
between first year and fourth year students as well as between genders. The first year accounting
students have a reasonably positive attitude towards the accounting programme, supporting the findings of Saudagaran (1996) that students begin with positive perceptions of accounting. There
is a decline in attitude score when compared to the fourth year students but the scores remain
positive. Both first year and fourth year students perceive the accounting profession to be wellrespected.
Fourth year students find accountants to have little satisfaction in their work and the
accounting field less interesting as compared to the first year students. Senior students however
have a more positive attitude towards accounting as a profession. They also regard accountants
as having a lot of prestige, the accounting profession well-respected and at par with medicine and
law.
There is no considerable difference in the attitudes of first year and fourth year male
students. However, a large difference in attitude towards the accounting career is found between
commencing females and completing females.
The results in this study also align with the findings of McMurtrie (2010) except that in
the present study the difference in attitudes is not statistically significant. However, it is apparent
from the current study that more knowledge about accounting acquired as a result of pursuing
undergraduate programme negatively affects the attitudes of students towards accounting
profession. In-depth study need to be conducted to investigate whether the gap in attitudes
towards the profession between junior and senior accounting students is simply due to the
difference in understanding of what accountants do or there are other underlying factors that can
explain the phenomenon.
The demand of accountants and their services in Botswana is still growing and therefore
the attitudes of entrants into the profession should be kept positive to ensure their future job
satisfaction and sustainable supply of accountants. This paper therefore, recommends that
accounting educators and other stakeholders of accounting education should identify ways of
keeping attitudes of students towards the profession more favorable. Things like more focused
accounting internship programmes, effective career counseling and visitations of prominent
accountants from industry and public practice to training institutions to give motivational
speeches may contribute to boosting attitudes of completing students.