Some previous studies also focused on the generic skills necessary for accounting students. This is
because accounting students need to build their critical thinking and to act as a professional (Hilton & Johnstone,
2013; Lawson et al., 2014). For example, Crawford, Helliar and Monk (2011) investigated the importance of 16
generic audit and education skills in UK universities. In particular, the authors examined the perceptions of
academics and practitioners toward the importance of working on these generic skills at undergraduate level and
how these skills help students in gaining professional certificates. The results of the study indicated that
practitioners emphasized all the 16 skills with analytical skills as the most important, followed by presentation
skills and written communication skills respectively. On the other hand, the authors asked academics to select the
main generic skills that students should learn at undergraduate level, and which skills that business market
emphasized. In both cases, the academics emphasized the same three skills (i.e. analytical, presentation and
written communication) as the most important, whereas analytical skills were ranked first during the
undergraduate level and oral communication skills during the market business stage. Aldhizer (2013) urges
accounting departments to include a new course entitled accounting negotiation. The author justifies the
importance of such course based on the necessity of negotiation skills for accounting students who used to
decide the fees for several accounting services such as audit fees. A study by Chaker and Abdullah (2011)
identified the necessary skills that were obtained by the accounting students of Kazakhstan Institute of
Management Economics and Strategic Research during their study in undergraduate stage. The authors focused
on three categories of skills. These include: technical and functional skills, interpersonal and communication
skills, and organisational and management skills. In general, the results of the study indicated that accounting
graduates were good in professional ethics, communication skills, auditing skills and information and
distribution skills.