4.1. Sample Selection and Data Collection
A survey questionnaire was used to investigate the competencies of Thai accounting students and their readiness for the AEC. This study also tests for the relationships between the competencies of Thai accounting students and their level of readiness for the AEC. The respondents were the accounting students in the School of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences (FMS), Prince of Songkla University, Thailand in January 2012. The accounting students from the FMS were selected as the respondents to investigate their readiness towards the AEC because it is one of the institutions in Thailand providing the IES in its curriculum of accounting programme since 2009. Therefore, the students who participated in this study have been exposed to the curriculum that was developed following the IES. This study aimed to use the whole population of 377 FMS accounting students as the sample.