Management Accounting Education in Nigeria - An Analysis of its Relevance to the Work Place Situation
28 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2012
Date Written: July 6, 2012
Abstract
This study looked at Management Accounting Education in Nigeria - An analysis of its relevance to the Work Place Situation. Exploratory and Survey research designs were adopted for the study. Course contents of 11 Universities in Nigeria were analysed to discover the scope of coverage of the identified Management Accounting techniques in the Work Place. At the same time, questionnaire was administered on 20 Accounting Consultants acting as surrogates for employers of Accounting Graduates coming to the Work Place in the role of Management Accountants. Findings include the fact that generally the course outlines of Nigerian Universities cover the Management Accounting techniques in use in the Work Place. However, it was discovered that there was poor coverage of modern Management Accounting techniques. Employers of labour agreed that Accounting Graduates coming to the Work Place as Management Accountants were technically defficient. The implication is that Nigerian Accounting Graduates coming to the Work Place as Management Accountants were not versed in modern Management Accounting techniques. We reccommend update of Management Accounting course outlines in Nigerian Universities to accomodate the recent advances in Management Accounting techniques. We also recommend one year compulsory internship in the Work Place for Accounting students as this will increase their practical competence level. Finally we recommend the creation of an enabling environment for Accounting Lecturers in Nigerian Universities to engage more actively in Management Accounting Research.
Keywords: Management Accounting, Education, Work place, Course outline, Universities, Nigeria
JEL Classification: M4 ,M49
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation