Today’s PhD students – Is there a future generation of accounting academics or are they a dying breed?

Research into conditions for PhD studies, satisfaction levels with supervisory processes and the consequences for accounting education in the UK, for academic and public accounting professions.

Today’s PhD students – Is there a future generation of accounting academics or are they a dying breed?

Read nowPDF (2532 KB)

One of the defining characteristics of a profession is the existence of a related academic discipline, which engages in teaching and research activities that support the profession.

The linkage of the profession with the university sector legitimises claims to professionalism. In the US, severe faculty shortages in accounting have been documented and attributed to inadequate renewal in terms of PhD graduates (AAA, 2008; AAA/AAPLG, 2005).

In the UK, too, there is a very thin academic labour market for both the accounting and finance disciplines, despite a large increase in PhD student numbers in these disciplines in recent years.

This rapid increase in numbers has created concern regarding the quality of doctoral education generally (THES, 2009)