The integration of information and information technology in accounting education: Effects on student performance

Abstract

The role of chartered accountants in commerce has radically changed over the last decade. Regrettably, tertiary accounting education has not been able to keep up with these changes, resulting in a gap between the skills taught by universities and the skills required by commerce. To reduce this gap, SAICA issued the Competency Framework in 2010 which requires, in addition to the technical knowledge that chartered accountants are best known for, pervasive skills that all chartered accountants should possess upon entering the profession. However, the integration of these pervasive skills with the technical core subjects taught to accountancy students is limited. This article investigated whether one of the listed pervasive skills (namely competency in information and information technology) can successfully be integrated with a technical core subject (namely financial accounting) in such a way that the technical knowledge of the student is improved due to the integration. A Microsoft Excel consolidation model was created and presented to students to complete. Formal assessments and a questionnaire were used to determine whether the completion of the Microsoft Excel consolidation model, affected students’ performance. The results showed that the completion of the consolidation model improved students’ understanding of financial accounting.