The advantages and difficulties of accounting students in the process of achieving professional certification icaew cfab

That's why this study will explore about the advantages that make the university TDTU students, especially students from the accounting faculty achieve these metrics or what are the diff

The Advantages and Difficulties of Accounting Students in The Process of Achieving Professional Certification —

ICAEW CFAB

Nguyen Ngoc Bich Uyen Doan Nguyen Phuong Vy Hong Mai Tram

Le Nguyen Phuc Tuan Truong Ai Nhu Advisor: Irene Wei Kiong Ting, Ph D

201041 Quantitative Research Methods in Accounting

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Abstract

Due to the increasingly competitive market, accounting students must obtain another highly regarded certificate, especially the ICAEW CFAB certificate, in addition to a university degree to enhance their competitiveness and meet the needs of the world future employers This article not only examines the difficulties in obtaining the ICAEW CFAB certification that TDTU accounting students need to solve, but also provides the key advantages of studying the well-designed curriculum of ICAEW, an organization specializing in Global career for accountants The data of this study was conducted on a total of 100 accounting students from TDTU and some other schools studying for ICAEW certification through a questionnaire survey Not much research has been done on this and this examination will attempt to address many questions that have not been addressed in previous studies

1 Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

A brief introduction to Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU):

TDTU is a self-financed public university in Viet Nam that listed in the world’s top ranking table and also achieved 500 in the world (THE World University Rankings) The World University Rankings system 2022 ranks TDTU in the Top 500 best universities globally TDTU is a well-known university that produces highly qualified accountants of international standards The ultimate goal of TDTU is to ensure that students get jobs after graduation According to data in recent years, the university's accounting faculty has achieved excellent results with 100% of students having jobs within 1 year after graduation

High-quality systems are all employees of TOP10 companies present in Vietnam such as VACO, AASC, GRANT THORNTON, And especially with high-quality systems, the output standard is TOP4 large companies (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, KPMG)

1.2 Research Issues

In fact, most TDTU students have been exposed to these companies since their last year through the university's internship requirements First, to get a job at good companies, the experience factor is often important things that recruitment managers pay attention If you have a good CV, it will be one plus point compared to other competitors, because every company prioritizes experience Therefore, the internship is a prerequisite for TDTU students, each student is required to have a 3 short-periods of internship and 1 long-period

of internship to complete graduation With enthusiastic support and specialized knowledge that students learned from the university, the students have excellently passed the internships and become full-time employees right after graduation That's why this study will explore about the advantages that make the university TDTU students, especially students from the accounting faculty achieve these metrics or what are the difficulties and how to solve the problem to get better

1.3 Research Questions

This research is being conceived to inspect the advantages and difficulties of TDTU accounting students in getting the ICAEW CFAB certificate Thus, the research question

of this study will be:

What are the difficulties for TDTU accounting students in studying for the ICAEW CFAB

certificate?

What are the advantages of TDTU accounting students when studying for the ICAEW CFAB certificate?

1.4 Research Objectives

During the internship in a non-academic environment, we will realize that there are many things to go through in reality, practice a lot to become proficient Accounting firms often use a lot of specialized software and technology which students have little opportunity to interact and practice at university just know only in theory.This paper will investigate what are the difficulties At first, it will be a bit difficult to get used to but through the guidance and hard learning - the traditional spirit of TDTU students, students will surely gradually grasp the crux of the problem and improve their professional skills Not only that, the pressure of office work is an important issue because not everyone has good communication skills and the ability to integrate into the environment When students learn, it is the process of trying on their own, trying to gather knowledge and complete the task in each individual exam Not as a work task, which is often assigned by superiors with group work When you work, you have to associate with many other individuals, other departments The fact that you may not be able to socialize with your colleagues can also become a difficult factor Knowledge is always infinite, there are many things which without a guide you cannot know And the way to overcome these things ,which the major

of TDTU students believe, is there are many influences from teachers and universitys helped them This study examines the roles of university lectures in term of helping accounting students As mentioned above, TDTU students have excellent graduation, internship and employment results right from the moment they graduate because they have been equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills since they in TDTU The curriculum of the standard qualified program follows the knowledge and deepens research according to the standards of VAS (Vietnam Accounting Standard) As for the high-quality program, 100% of the curriculum is taught according to the international standard system

IAS (international Accounting Standard) Particularly, in the special case that the accounting faculty is affiliated with UWE (University West of England), students study the program under ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) This

is a famous organization ,which produces good chartered accountants, widely recognized around the world Not only that but the university also creates great support for students This can be reflected in the letters of recommendation to the companies students choose to interview University usually gives this opportunity to students with high academic results The university also has a lot of subjects and clubs to develop soft skills such as teamwork skills, time management skills, etc Not only that, the university also organizes teach and requests students have MOS certificate 100% (a type of certificate of office skills including

3 parts that is Excel, PowerPoint, Word) and English certificate equivalent to IELTS 5.0 Teachers also always update new trends to have the most suitable curriculum for the continuous development of the accounting industry, they apply many new technologies in teaching so that students will be less surprised when having internship period Students who participate in the above things will become active, easy to integrate into the new environment, specifically here is the later practice and work environment With that, this study aims to achieve the following specific goals

e To examine the difficulties for TDTU accounting students in studying for the ICAEW CPAB certificate

e To examine the advantages of TDTU accounting students when studying for the

ICAEW CFAB certificate

1.5 Contributions of the study

Understanding the motivations and obstacles that accounting students face when pursuing professional certification, we have a few ideas to contribute not only to Ton Duc Thang University students, but to students from other schools throughout the community, while

also enabling students to pursue professional certifications in order to bridge the gap between accounting education and accounting practice

1.6 Structure of the research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Purpose of the research: Investigated whether student-centered pedagogy as recommended

by prior literature is ideal for professional accounting education from the lens of professional accounting lecturers, in an emerging country where the learning and political environment differs from the western countries This association began with 49 Glasgow accountants claiming a distinct respectable profession, thereby seeking a seal of professionalism leading to the award of a royal charter (Alexander, 2002) Henceforth, through regular trips of British accountants to the United States, they trained American accountants, thus integrating the British professional accountancy organization into the American system (King and Case, 2016) Soon, the system was extended globally including to Malaysia by the British accountants through the exporting of professional accounting examinations, such as the qualifications of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), etc

The significance of the research problem investigated: The findings offer important implications for regulators, policymakers and education educators in devising the accounting education system in emerging countries like Malaysia and Asia-Pacific region, where the learning environment is more passive In addition, part II of First schedule of the 6

Accountants Act 1967 recognizes members of professional bodies such as the ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA, Malaysian Institute of Proceedings of the 3rd UUM International Qualitative Research Conference (QRC) 2018 10-12 July 2018, Melaka, Malaysia 169 Certified Accountants (MICPA) and many others are also admitted as Chartered Accountants (CA) of Malaysia (MIA, 2017)

Research methods used in the study: Data were collected from semi-structured interviews

of professional accounting lecturers in the only public university in Malaysia that conducts professional accounting programs Following the CSAP report, the Malaysian government has allocated scholarships to attract Bumiputeral youths to enroll in the professional courses such as the ACCA and ICAEW programmes the through establishment of Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputra Further, the professional bodies from the UK such as ICAEW, ACCA and CIMA allow the route to professional accounting education from the post-secondary school level by providing foundation programs such as the Certificate in

Finance, Accounting and Business (CFAB), Certified Accounting Technician (CAT),

Certificate of Business Accounting (CBA) respectively

Results:

Firstly, given the emphasis by the regulators in the country, it is undeniable that it

is very important for accountants in Malaysia to possess professional accounting qualifications Our findings in this paper offer insight and additional guidance for regulators, policymakers, and education designers or institutions in devising the accounting education system in emerging countries like Malaysia, where the learning environment is more passive The current professional accounting education must be thoroughly understood before redesigning the system (Cotzee and Schmulian, 2012)

° Secondly, our findings of this paper give guidance to accounting educators, parents, and students to choose which path that it beneficial for students to become successful accountants in the future With the findings, they may want to choose to do an internship

while studying, choose the programs that offer soft skills accumulation, or consider having

a degree in accounting before embarking gaining on professional accounting qualifications

Conclusions made in the study: The way forward is, improvements must be done in the delivery of professional accounting education not only to ensure that graduates are equipped with technical knowledge but are also equipped with holistic values which can contribute to long-term success in their careers and life

Article 2: Student Academic Performance in Undergraduate Managerial-Accounting Courses

Purpose of the research: Identify potential factors possibly affecting student performance

in three sequential management-accounting courses: Managerial Accounting (MA), Cost Accounting (CA), and Advanced Managerial Accounting (AMA) within the Saudi Arabian context

The significance of the research problem investigated: The outcomes of this study have field implications and applications to help enhance student performance generally and for these courses specifically

Research methods: Techniques of mean comparison and correlation

Theoretical framework/theory used in the study:

° The performance of Saudi Arabian students with a preuniversity accounting acquaintance would be significantly higher in the university management accounting courses than those without such experience

° The performance of Saudi Arabian students with a higher secondary school GPA would be significantly better in the university management accounting courses than those

with a lower GPA

° The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate business students with a higher secondary school GPA would be significantly better than those with a lower GPA

° The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate business students who graduated from scientific high schools would be significantly higher than those who graduated from nonscientific high schools

° The Saudi Arabian undergraduate students who perform better in the financial accounting course would also perform significantly better in the management accounting courses

° The performance of Saudi Arabian business students entering the University after the year 2000 would be significantly higher than those who entered before the year 2000

° The Saudi Arabian undergraduate students who perform better in a managerial accounting course would also significantly perform better in the other managerial accounting courses

° The Saudi Arabian undergraduate students achieving better in preuniversity mathematics would perform significantly better in the university management accounting courses than those whose achievement in mathematics is poorer

° The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate business students who have done well in preuniversity mathematics would be significantly higher than those whose achievement in preuniversity mathematics is poor

° Saudi Arabian undergraduate students with a small load would perform significantly better in the university management accounting courses as compared to those with a large

load

° The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate business students with a small load would be significantly higher as compared to those with a large load

Results: Student performance in management accounting courses was very weak The failing percentage goes up to 50%, and the great majority of students (up to 80%) who passed the course(s), got low marks (D to C) In terms of general performance (term and overall GPA), over 60% of the sampled students had a GPA lower than 2.50 Pre-university accounting background was only found to have a significant impact on the AMA course, whereas the pre-university mathematics ability was found to significantly affect student performance in the MA course No effects related to the type of high school were detected

on the student’s undergraduate performance The number of weekly registered hours was expected to have a negative impact on student performance, but, in fact, it did not

Conclusions made in the study: High school student selection criteria should concentrate more on high school performance, and more attention should be placed on the undergraduate new students and introductory courses Relaxing the restriction on the number of weekly hours for which students with lower GPAs can register might enhance term performance The accounting curriculum and course prerequisites in particular and undergraduate accounting program, in general, need more meditation There is a strong need for qualitative and quantitative research to determine the major problems encountered

by accounting students, problems impeding their better academic achievement in general and in management accounting courses in particular Future researchers should investigate the possible effect of other variables on academic performance For example, the effects of teaching styles, course content, evaluation and examination structure, scheduling system, the absenteeism problem, and student capability are factors that should be investigated

undergraduate students on accounting modules

Purpose of Research investigates the extent to which background factors affect the performance of students studying the nonspecialist Level 1 and Level 2 modules 10

The significance of the research problem investigated: The findings of this study are that the explanatory power of such models is limited and that perhaps a more qualitative approach to assessing factors influencing student performance would be more worthwhile Research methods: Principal component analysis and Multiple regression analysis

Theoretical framework/theory used in the study: Based on recent accounting education research focused on factors that affect student performance, including academic aptitude, prior exposure to accounting, a previous study of mathematics, age, and gender

Results: The study indicates that performance at the GCSE level is a significant factor in explaining performance on Level | introductory accounting modules for non-specialist students at this institution This result supports the findings of other studies investigating the influence of prior general academic performance — particularly in relation to nonspecialist students Age was also found to have an impact, with older students performing better Differences in the three models suggest that whilst initial (Level 1) performance can partially be explained by reference to factors in the students’ pre- university background (specifically Age and GCSE performance), these factors are not significant when the student progresses onto Level 2 In addition, the explanatory power

of all three models is weak, indicating the existence of other (more pertinent) explanatory variables In conclusion, the determinants of student success cannot be explained entirely

by the background characteristics of students entering the undergraduate program Experience would suggest that other important factors may include student motivation, particularly where the student has not actually chosen to study accounting, but rather has

to take the course as part of a wider business program

Conclusions made in the study: Without answers to these types of questions, any conclusions about factors affecting performance will obviously be of only limited significance However, in providing evidence to support earlier findings on the importance

of previous educational achievement the study may have value in terms of informing the

process of setting entry requirements for programs where there is a compulsory accounting element that must be successfully completed in order to progress

Article 4: Student performance in tertiary-level accounting: an international student focus

Purpose of the research: Investigate the relationship between student origin and performance in accounting by analyzing the relative performance of international and resident students

Research methods: Bivariate analysis techniques and Multivariate techniques

Theoretical framework/theory used in the study:

There is no difference between the academic performance of international and resident accounting students

No acculturation effect is observed regarding international student performance

Results: The study found no support for the contention that international students’ academic performance in accounting is inferior to resident students The study also confirmed a positive association between accounting student performance and student ability, a study in accounting prior to university (but for the first year of university only), part-time enrolment status, and employment experience in accounting International students reported higher anxiety and lower ability measures than those residents

Conclusions made in the study: Gaining a better understanding of student performance drivers is likely to be a priority for academics and administrators alike Where the strategic plans of universities and colleges are reliant upon the development of a strong international student base, achieving a clearer picture of these students’ academic performance would seem imperative The present study has provided contemporary insights into these issues

in the context of students studying accounting

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Article 5: The quality of learning in accounting education: the impact of approaches to learning on academic performance

Purpose of the research: Investigated the learning approaches of accounting students from two Australian universities as compared to previously reported data for Australian arts, education, and science students and the impact of accounting students’ approaches to learning on their academic performance

The significance of the research problem investigated: Provide further support for the need for learning environments that encourage deeper learning approaches

Research methods: Approaches to Learning paradigm Study Process Questionnaire, various attitudinal, performance variables

Theoretical framework/theory used in the study:

The Approaches to Learning paradigm argues that to improve the quality of learning systematically it is necessary to first understand the process of student learning

Examination of the ways students approach their study can provide insights into how students learn and thus provide a guide to the teaching strategies needed to improve their learning

Results: The three analyses consistently show higher surface motive, strategy, and approach scores for both female and male accounting students They also indicate a tendency for lower deep motive, deep strategy, and deep overall approach scores for male accounting students, but less clearly so for female accounting students The results for the impact of the learning approach on the academic performance of accounting students suggest no relationship between a deep approach and a negative relationship for a surface approach

Conclusions made in the study: This paper has provided some evidence pertinent to the growing concerns about the quality of accounting education, particularly the belief that

accounting students focus more on rote learning than on learning to learn (Accounting Education Change Commission, 1990; Bauer et al., 1994) By using the Approaches to Learning framework, it has been possible to gain some insights into the way in which accounting students approach their learning environment and experiences, which in turn can inform educators when designing accounting courses

Development in China

Purpose of the research in the paper: The economic reform that changed the planned economy to a market-oriented economy created a demand for accounting information by capital providers (investors and creditors) and by business managers Chinese accountants quickly looked to international accounting practice as the basis for re-engineering the accounting system Recently issued accounting standards closely resemble those developed

in many market economies, although with some compromises that this paper will address

later

Theoretical framework/theory used in the study:

Driving force of internationalization

° Choose a radical approach

° Issue 1: Difficult in accounting standards Setting

Issue 2: Acceptance of International accounting practice

° Issue 3: The Accounting Profession 1s not ready

° Issue 4: Academics could contribute more to Accounting Development

Results: The Chinese accounting profession is rather young The education background of the majority of practitioners is insufficient and is difficult to change in a short time period 14

Professional ethics is a serious issue waiting to be dealt with Real professionalism takes

time to form

Conclusions made in the study: Accounting practice, research, and education in China are

in a period of rapid change The general trend is from a planned economy oriented, self- contained tradition toward an outward, open attitude Internationalization is recognized as

an appropriate route through which the level of accounting can be upgraded

Article 7: Sustainability + accounting education: The elephant in the classroom

Purpose of the research in the paper: Despite the growing importance of sustainability and the sustainable development agenda, and despite the growing presence of papers recognizing the critical interaction between sustainability and accounting and finance (and, indeed, with all social science), there has been a relatively muted response apparent within the accounting education literature itself This relative lack of literature may well be unexpected but what is not unexpected is the difficulty that accounting, and finance teachers have in developing such demanding new ideas with accounting and finance students in the classroom Without in any sense gainsaying, the considerable impediments

to innovation, this explicitly polemical essay seeks to address a more fundamental difficulty: that of the way in which sustainability is approached and represented in both the literature and the classroom itself The contention is that, unless sustainability is “keeping you awake at night, you do not understand it” The paper seeks to support this contention and then offers an example of one undergraduate course that is explicitly designed to stop students from sleeping peacefully

The significance of the research problem investigated: Assume here that accounting profit represents the market-based goal of the corporation, especially those for which shares are traded in financial markets It is fully recognized that this oversimplifies the assumed motivation and goals of the organization, and that the ubiquity of the business case is a

very much more complex issue This, however, is a matter beyond the scope of the present paper

Theoretical framework/theory used in the study: At least the quotation is widely attributed

to Burke, although a range of scholars suggest that the exact quotation cannot be found

implementation of environmental accounting

Purpose of the research in the paper: For purposes of exposition, one can simplify and point

to two contrasting positions in the literature

The significance of the research problem investigated: The first suggests that organizations can and do change in substantive ways when they respond to the environmental agenda and that environmental accounting is part of the process of enabling these organizational changes In contrast, the second position posits that organizations will not change in response to environmental demands Rather, they will change the environmental agenda itself in order to ensure that organizational activities can carry on as before These two positions are characterized as “organizational change” and “institutional appropriation”

Research methods used in the study: In this paper, these competing perspectives are explored by drawing from a case study of a Spanish electricity utility

Results: This paper is an attempt to contribute to the debate within the accounting literature

as to the likely efficacy of environmental accounting

Article 9: Accounting and sustainable development: An exploration

Purpose of the research in the paper: First, morally infused problems that need to be addressed have become more intractable, requiring innovation in our modes of thinking 16

Second, new spaces have emerged where the academy might explore how knowledge is created, validated, and translated (or not) alongside policy and practice settings

Theoretical framework/theory used in the study: O’Riordan (2004) notes that sustainable development work is “energized by the failure to overcome complex and policy-linked problem areas such as climate change, biodiversity management, social justice, and entitlement to all people to steward essential planetary resources for permanent and workable livelihoods.” These outcomes are not presently realized in practice and hence continue to motivate researchers and practitioners Indeed, the failure to achieve sustainable development has prompted

Results: To explore what possibilities emerge for accounting in light of a sustainability science approach To achieve this end the paper starts with an exploration of the frustrations expressed in the literature over the perceived lack of progress made by social and environmental accounting toward addressing sustainable development

Article 10: Why not allow FASB and IASB standards to compete in the US?

Purpose of the research in the paper: This paper discusses arguments for and against introducing competition into the accounting standard-setting process in the U.S by allowing individual corporations to issue financial reports prepared in accordance with

either FASB or IASB rules

The significance of the research problem investigated: The paper examines several arguments supporting the status quo, including (1) the FASB's experience and world leadership in making accounting rules; (2) the increased risk of a “race to the bottom” under regulatory competition; (3) the inability of most users of financial reports to understand the complex technical issues underlying accounting standards; (4) the possibility that IASB's standards will be diluted to gain international acceptance, allowing additional opportunities for earnings management; (5) the risks of the IASB being deadlocked or captured by

interests hostile to business; (6) the costs of experimentation in standard setting; and (7)

economies from network externalities

Theoretical framework/theory used in the study: Arguments examined on the other side include how the competition will (1) help meet the needs of globalized businesses; (2) increase the likelihood that the accounting standards will be efficient; (3) help protect standard setters from undue pressure from interest groups; (4) allow different standards to develop for different corporate clienteles; (5) allow corporations to send more informative signals by their choice of accounting standards; (6) protect corporations against the capture

of regulatory body by narrow interests; and (7) not affect network externalities at national

or global scales

Gaps in the literature

This study makes the first attempt to conduct a survey in Ton Duc Thang University The study focuses on the accounting students from year 1 to year 4 The study identifies The Advantages and Difficulties of Accounting Students in The Process of Achieving Professional Certification - ICAEW CFAB based on the perception of TDTU

Summary of the chapter

The chapter discusses past and current information about the general picture of ICAEW CFAD qualification Next, the chapter identifies the gaps in the literature

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.Reserach methodology

3.1 Research Design

A quantitative-based cross-sectional design is utilized to study the difficulties and advantages on internship program of accounting students at Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU) There are four different types of quantitative design which are descriptive research, correlation research, causal-comparative or quasi-experimental research, and experimental research Two types of quantitative research designs may be used to solve the research questions, which are descriptive design and correlational design Using statistical data, the purpose of the correlational study is to assess, interpreted, and test the relationship between two or more variables which are independent and dependent variables that are found in this study Descriptive statistics is often a precursor or basic to correlational research design It can generate new concepts and deliver new information or knowledge where the hypotheses of interest are still little understood

3.1.1 Question Development

The question in this study research is obtained from the articles and journals In this research, the questionnaire is conducted to collect primary data The survey question type

used in this research is the Likert scale In this research, the items are measured with a 5-

point Likert scale, in which (1) = Strongly Disagree, (2) = Disagree, (3) = Neutral, (4) = Agree, (5) Strongly Agree The questions are adapted and adopted from online journals and some sample of questionnaires, as shown in Table 1 Hence, the questions had been modified and designed to ensure validity and reliability of the data analysis The questionnaire is created by Google Form and randomly distribute the questionnaire online

via social media such as email and Facebook to the respondents who are Ton Duc Thang’s accounting students

Table 1: Summary of the Part of the Questionnaire

Knowledge about ICAEW CFAB

Know ICAEW CFAB through 5

Subjects study in ICAEW CFAB 8

Minimum score to pass the ICAEW CFAB test 1 Self-developed Exam time for each subject 1

Number of times to take the test 1

The ICAEW CFAB curriculum 1

20

Based on Table 1, the questionnaire is consisting of four sections There are include a total

of 58 items in the questionnaire, section A consists of 4 items, sections B consists of 20 items, section C consists of 15 items and section D consists of 19 items

3.1.2 Respondents Selection Criteria

This study focuses on TDTU accounting students to identify the advantages and difficulties

on the ICAEW CFAB programe The respondents are year | to year 4 accounting students

of TDTU

3.2 Data Sources

3.2.1 Sampling Selection Procedure

The respondents are active students of TDTU All respondents in study research consist of various gender, age Snowball sampling is conducted in this survey since every respondent from TDTU has connections The respondents will introduce the survey questions to his or