Accounting Goes Beyond Number-Crunching! An Alternative Teaching Method to Stimulate Student’s Interest in Accounting

Abstract

Studies have documented evidence of misperceptions by high school and entry level college students of accounting as a field of study and career path, as it is often regarded as an objective discipline with no room for subjective and creative thinking. We aim to open students’ eyes to a different side of accounting that has not received much attention, namely the area of internal controls, fraud detection and fraud prevention. We present examples of how to stimulate students’ interest in the field. Exposing students’ to this aspect of accounting may present the discipline in a different light beyond simply number-crunching.