The survey questionnaire contained two sections. Section A asked for demographic
information and section B comprised of 15 statements on the attitudes of students towards
accounting profession adopted from Accounting Attitude Scale (AAS) developed by Nelson
(1991) in the USA. The AAS measures the overall, global attitude of college students towards
the accounting profession. The statements are assessed on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 represent
the most negative attitude and 10 the most positive attitude. Items 2, 3 7, 9, 11, 13 are each
inversely related to score, that is, the higher the score, the less the respondents agree with the
statement and thus the more positive their attitudes. Therefore, in calculating the average of the
attitudes, the named items were reverse coded. The AAS has been used extensively in the USA
and employed in one study in the UK by Marriott and Marriott (2003) and in two studies in
Australia by McDowall and Jackling (2010) and McMurtrie (2010).There is no evidence of this
tool being used in developing countries before.
The Marriot and Marriot (2003) used AAS to examine the attitudes of the same group of
accounting majors over time at two business schools. McMurtrie (2010) applied AAS to
investigate the attitudes of accounting students at two groups of universities and compared the
attitudes of two different cohorts of students at the beginning and at the end of the accounting
undergraduate programme. McDowall and Jackling (2010) employed AAS to study attitudes of
accounting students in one year at one university while focusing on what influences the decision
to major in accounting. The current study follows the method by McMurtries (2010) in the sense
that it is a cross-sectional survey focusing on the attitudes of two groups of accounting students,
those at entry stage and those at exiting stage.
Questionnaires were administered during the fourth week of the second semester in the
2010/11 academic year. The timing allowed students time to settle down for the semester after
the December holidays. Questionnaires were issued during accounting lectures’ sessions to make
sure that only accounting students complete the questionnaires in controlled conditions. For first
year students, the questionnaires were administered during their Introduction to Accounting
course lecture and for fourth year students during Accounting Theory course lecture. Students
were asked to identify their major programme on the questionnaires because some nonaccounting
students took core accounting courses as elective courses; and Introduction to
Accounting is a general course for all business students.