FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The respondents to this study comprised of 38 (36.9%) male students and 65 (63.1%)
female students from first year, and 16 (26.7%) male students and 44 (73.3%) female students in
fourth year.
Table 1 presents the responses of all students about their attitudes towards accounting
profession. The table shows that at the beginning of their studies, first year students had a fairly
more favorable overall average attitude towards accounting scoring 7.51compared to fourth year
students who had an average score of 7.17. The scores obtained by Marriott and Marriott (2003)
varied from 7.52when the students were in their first year to 7.00when students were in their
fourth year; and scores attained by McMurtrie (2010) in Australia ranged between 7.51 for first
year students to 7.27 for fourth year students. All three studies indicate a decline in attitudes
towards accounting profession among students as they move from commencement of the
programme towards the end, that is, students like accounting more at the beginning than they do
at the end. In these investigations the fall in attitude is not big in magnitude and the students’
attitude towards accounting is still positive. In this study the decrease is 0.34 while it is 0.52 in
Marriot and Marriott (2003) study and 0.24 in McMurtrie (2010). A point worthy noting here is
that while Marriot and Marriott (2003) employed longitudinal approach the current study and
McMurtrie (2010) study applied cross-sectional approach something that needs consideration
when interpreting these results.
While the difference in attitudes towards accounting between the commencing students
and completing students were found to be statistically significant in Marriot and Marriott (2003)
and in McMurtrie (2010) studies, the current study did not reveal the statistically significant
difference (t = -0.0932, P= 0.286). Therefore, the hypothesis that there is no significant
difference in attitudes towards accounting as a career between first year and fourth year
accounting students is not rejected. Contrary to the findings in the three above mentioned studies,
the scores reported by earlier longitudinal study of Nelson and Vendrzyk (1996) indicated a rise
in attitudes moving from 7.27when the students were in their first year to 7.56 when students
were in their fourth year but dropped to 7.48 in the fifth year. It is interesting also to note that
studies including the current research that reveal more favorable attitude scores for students at
entry level of accounting programmes are in contrast with studies like those of Jackling (2002)
and Christensen (2004) which discovered a negative attitude among the first year students of the
accounting programme.
First year students obtained a score of more than 8 in 5 statements: “The accounting
profession is well respected”; “My peers would think I made a good career decision if I became
an accountant”; “Accounting is interesting”; “I would enjoy being an accountant”; “I like
accounting”. On the other hand, fourth year students obtained a score of greater than 8 in 4
statements: “The accounting profession is well respected”; “Being an accountant has a lot of
prestige”; “I would enjoy being an accountant”; and “I like accounting”. Both cohorts scored
above 8 out of 10 on “Accountants are boring people” implying that students do find the
accounting profession to be exciting. The Independent sample T-Test produced the results that
showed that the statistically significant difference in attitude between first year and fourth year
students was only on two statements “ Accounting is interesting” (t =2.485, P=0.014) and “I will
enjoy being an accountant” (t = 2.742, P = 0.007).
For most items (12 out of 15) the scores were less favorable for fourth year students as
compared to the first year students, reflecting an overall decline in attitude. However, for three
statements: “The accounting profession is well respected”, “Being an accountant has a lot of
prestige” and “Accounting is a profession on par with medicine and law” the results revealed the
opposite. The fourth year students had more favorable scores than first year students on these
statements which fall under accounting as a profession. No apparent factors could be attributed
to the increase in attitude on these statements. Perhaps, it could be the result of the industrial
attachment experience which is gained by third year students during the university’s long winter
vacation for 10 weeks.