5. Accounting education system overviews: Australia, Japan and Sri
Lanka
To canvass the accounting education systems in each of the three countries, it was
necessary to develop comprehensive case studies for each national context. The
development of these case studies was a lengthy and iterative process. Each case study
was reviewed by the project team and then sent to an external expert for validation.
Each of the case studies is summarised below as context for the development of the
Global Model of Accounting Education.
5.1 Case study 1 – Australia
5.1.1 Overview. The Australian Higher Education system is made up of 39 universities
of which 37 are public institutions and 2 are private. In addition, it includes more than
150 non-self accrediting higher education providers. In 2011, a Tertiary Education
Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) was created as the national regulator for quality
and standards in Australia.
Australia has three professional accounting bodies who are IFAC members. They are
the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), Certified Public Accountant
Australia (CPAA) and the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA).
5.1.2 Australia-specific accounting education standards. TEQSA is the national
regulator responsible for assuring quality and standards in higher education in
Australia. In Accounting, five threshold learning standards have been developed to
benchmark quality and standards in undergraduate and graduate accounting programs
(www.olt.gov.au/resources?text_ALTC_standards_accounting). These standards
refer to: judgement; knowledge; application skills; communications and teamwork; and
self-management.