I believe in full disclosure here, so it is appropriate to note that I am a director of this new company, which was incorporated yesterday:
My co-director for now (because there are likely to be others), is Professor Susan Smith of University College, London.
Next week, I will be submitting an application for Accounting Streams Limited to be registered as an educational charity. It is already a company limited by guarantee with charitable style articles of association.
Accounting Streams has been created in response to concerns that accounting academics at many UK universities have about the syllabus that is taught to undergraduate students who wish to gain an exemption from the exams of the various accounting institutes in the UK.
There has been an undercurrent of concern for a long time about the constraints that these exemption requirements impose upon the teaching of accounting undergraduates. It is thought by many that they:
- Reduce the quality of the undergraduate accountant student experience,
- Reduce the amount of time dedicated to critical thinking on those courses.
- Creates a focus too orientated towards shareholder concerns at cost to stakeholder-related reporting.
- Insufficiently focus upon sustainability as yet, and,
- Allow too little time for ethical issues to be considered, particularly within the context of the experience that an accountant is likely to face in their usual working experience as well as in the more extreme cases where fraud and negligence has been exposed in recent years.
The inspiration for the work that Susan and I are leading a present but which will, we hope, spread to many other universities, comes from the CORE Econ course created by Prof Wendy Carlin and others at UCL. The focus of that activity has been to create an alternative economics syllabus for undergraduate students that tackles many of the deficiencies that are known to exist within neoclassical economic thinking and which have also led to student disenchantment with the courses that they have been taught.
Our approach in Accounting Streams will be to reimagine the way in which accounting can be taught. Our immediate focus will be on the first-year undergraduate course, with the intention that the materials should bring a student's lived experience of business and the economy with them into the lecture theatre and classroom so that they can proactively engage with accounting concepts through the development of a significant case study that will develop throughout the course.
That case study – which will focus on the development of a business from a small entity to being a multinational corporation - will provide a continuing source of material to explore the financial accounting, management accounting, financial planning, ethics, risk and reporting issues that students at this stage in their learning experience should be aware of.
I am, at present, tasked with preparing the outline of that case study, which will provide a continuing narrative for learning that others, including some from our current 14-person advisory group, will develop into the individual self-learning modules that will accompany the course, and provide its academic content, as well as its basis for appraisal.
It is our intention that the resulting courses should still provide the exemptions required for professional exam purposes.
This project developed earlier this year when I considered the role of the ICAEW in undergraduate education. I spoke about my ideas at a conference at UCL in September. Things have moved very quickly since then. They will have to do so again since we hope to have a draft course available by the autumn of 2024, including a textbook, student materials, question banks and an appraisal methodology. If suitable funding can be found, it is our intention that all of these should be available free of charge to the institution using them and, most importantly, to students and absolutely anyone else who is interested.
In due course, and I stress that this is not yet, I see spin-offs into economics, taxation, marketing and corporate finance, meaning that this could also be the basis for business studies and even MBA teaching.
I am excited about this. At the time that I am bringing my own forty-year career as a practising accountant to a close, I see this as an opportunity to bring the experience that I have gained into academia so that young people might share the excitement that I have about the role of accounting in society. I could not have achieved what I have without being an accountant. I want others to understand just how important our role can be.
More than that, my aim and the aim of all those that Susan and I have discussed this with, is to deliver a much more interesting undergraduate accounting experience for those who take this subject. The idea that accountancy is boring has to be consigned to the bin forever. This will, of course, require the active cooperation of the professional institutes that accredit undergraduate degrees. It is our hope they will share our vision that seeks to inject new energy into this area in a way that meets the needs of society as a whole.
And for those who are concerned that this means that other projects I work on will fall by the wayside – I am sincerely hoping that will not be the case.
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That sounds brilliant Richard. You are an inspiration.
Let’s see what happens
A lot of this is still in my head as yet
What was the reason for setting up a further identity for yourself on Companies House data?
The reason I ask is that it seems more natural to use one of the identities you already, so anyone looking in can see that it’s the same person as for the other companies you have an interest in/
This is going to be a charity with many ore people involved than me
You are asking a trolling quyestiin that ignores the reality of what I am doing – which is explained in the post
I think this question was more aimed at you now personally having 3 profiles on Companies House that are not linked together. However I think that might be done automatically by Companies House, rather than you doing it deliberately.
I would much prefer they were linked
I see that you have chosen to limit your personal financial exposure in the new Limited Liability company to a guarantee of just £1.
Weren’t you complaining that the protection of limited liability was being abused and that it should come with a greater financial risk? I guess such things which you call for for others, don’t apply to you.
We used what Companies Hosue recommended
Our hope is that bthere will be quite a number of members
As a charioty we will also not be trading as such
But you miss all those points, of course.
Sounds brilliant Richard. Almost makes me want to be an accountant!
Never too late….
Good for you and Prof Smith, Richard. Having led the development, and authored, a wide range of materials for courses while at the OU and elsewhere I know how much effort and commitment is involved in such enterprises. I’m sure this new approach is much needed, as you say, and certainly if accounting has followed the same dead-end road as the teaching of economics has in most institutions an alternative approach is long overdue. Wishing you every success.
Thanks Ivan
I susoect hat right now I am understimnating the effort involved
That is because if one is genuinely excited and interested in what was is doing, thinking about the effort required usually comes last! You are attracted it seems to me about what you will learn. Good for you.
If only our effing polticians and few more economics professors took the same approach.
Very much seconded Ivan. Showing how accountancy can be positively used as part of a non neoliberal pro the real world economy is a great idea .
Incidentally Ivan, as an ou graduate myself (maths, though no Gauss, Euler or Riemann!), what was your involvement in the OU?
Apologies for the delay in replying, sickoftaxdodgers. I worked at the OU for 18 years until 2019, finishing as a senior lecturer in technology and innovation management (having also been various course directors and at one point associate dean). My academic background is actually politics and public administration so how I got involved in TM is a long story. During my time at the OU I contributed to the design and delivery (in OU terms mainly authoring various course materials) for 30 credit postgraduate course (as an OU graduate you’ll understand if I refer to them by their course code 🙂 : T840, T842, T846, T848, T849 and the capstone masters research course, T847). The best university I ever worked at and glad to hear you’re a graduate. I hope you enjoyed it.
About the time I started reading this blog I remember some economics students in Manchester challenging their curriculum content- I think about 2011. I did wonder how far they got.
I found the attached of 2014.
https://www.economicswebinstitute.org/essays/crashcourse.pdf
Noted a comment by Andy Haldane and a think tank set up George Soros. He wrote a very good piece in the Atlantic circa 1997 pointing our the dangers of poorly regulated finance. Probably why he is so hated by the American Right Wing,
What we need is a paradigm shift in thinking -not a tinkering with details. These shifts can build up, often barely recognised, until they reach a tipping point when they become unstoppable. The collapse of Communism in eastern Europe, perhaps being an example.
CORE Econ is one of the outcomes
Another is the Real World Economic Review
Prompted by the reference to the Real World Economics Review, I note that the Cowboy Economist whose great video you posted is a contributor. I’ve since watched lots of his videos which are head and shoulders above other attempts by economists to explain themselves. He is of course a fan of the likes of Kelton and Keen.
Have now moved onto his book Contending Perspectives in Economics in which he goes through the different schools of economics, as part of making the case for a heterodox approach. More detailed than his videos but still way more readable than the usual texts. Recommended if you want to understand a bit more about the different schools, and why the world of economics is so academic and apparently detached from reality.
A revealing quote when he is writing about culture of the economics ‘profession’ – ‘ publishing for the general public is practically worthless and may even harm one’s reputation’. They really do regard themselves as ‘high priests’.
Thank you
But not another book….the stack is high
I noted Debunking economics in the back of one video
Great idea. I hope the fictional business case also gets investigated by fictional HMRC at some point as well. That would be an excellent scenario that would bring up many ethical questions.
That will be some way down the line…
Bravo!
During my MBA education, one of my professors called himself a ‘Prac- ademic’.
He used this term to enunciate that there was ‘nothing as good as a good theory’ and that the aim of education was to actually enable students to go out into the world and try new theoretical approaches to solving problems and improving the theories themselves.
He also said that he used this term to counter the too often heard snide use of the term ‘academic’ to discourage debate and enquiry into our problems.
We know that a lot of the contemporary ‘theory’ behind capitalism, economics and public sector policy is rubbish and does not work. You cannot polish a turd. If the theory has had enough time to run ( for example like trickle down and public choice theory) and the results are still bad then no amount of tinkering will put it right.
And we can see that currently in the performance of our economy and public services.
So I welcome this ‘real world’ initiative of yours and your colleague in the hope that we get more ‘prac-ademia’ in the future about economics, resource accounting etc., that will puncture the wall of crappy orthodoxy that drives us all insane.
I hope that you do not mind me saying Richard that you too are a ‘Prac-ademic’ as far as I can see.
I have spent around 10 years of my life in and around university libraries and amongst all that accumulated knowledge of human life, it is simply atrocious that even now we are driven by such reductive, limited, unrigorous and narrowly defined ‘theories’.
Good luck to you.
I like the term
Thanks
Good luck. I know from experience that university courses which provide professional credits (whether direct entry to a profession or exemption from some of the requirements) find the organisations accrediting them to be far too insistent on a crowded and utilitarian curriculum. The result is that the course ceases to be an education and becomes mere training.
While you are certainly someone who could contribute to a curriculum that appropriately involves university-level analysis and critique…. don’t spread yourself too thin.
If I want to do things they happen
I want to do this
Getting charitable status can take a long time – the West Norfolk Autism Group, of which I am secretary, took over a year of existence to jump through all the necessary hoops to gain charitable status.
I gather it isxquicker these days
But I will find out
It took six month months the last time I did it
Richard – hello
Are you familiar with the Future Guardian Governance model for companies that Hugo Spowers and Riversimple are modelling?
https://www.riversimple.com/governance/
Very likely Accounting Streams is too small – but it does seem to me that if every company (or CIC or CBC or whatever) on the planet were to take it on – and fully implement it – tomorrow – we’d be in a very different – and much healthier, more hopeful place by the day after…
I hope AS achieves its aims – with your dynamism, I have no doubt you will.
This a new to me
Accounting Streams is an education programme – seeking to change the way accountants think in the future
It will be complementary to many other ideas.
I have noted this one.
That looks like a welcome development.
Many have criticised the university economics syllabus as being too narrow a focus, and often based on wishful thinking, rather than evidence. Arguably that is no accident. Rethinking Economics recalls that “In 2011, economics students at Harvard University walked out of their class with Professor Mankiw in protest of how biased and manipulative it was.”
Rod Hill et al write: “The typical introductory economics textbook teaches that economics is a value-free science; [..] and economists know which models are best to apply to any given problem. [..] all this is a myth” – The Microeconomics Anti-Textbook (2021) https://amzn.eu/d/bw717yX
Harvard professor Dani Rodrik writes that: “much of what goes on in an introductory course in economics is a paean to markets. It gives little sense of the diversity of conclusions in economics, to which the student is unlikely to be exposed unless she goes on to take many more economics courses… Instead of presenting a taste of the full panoply of perspectives that their discipline offers, they focus on benchmark models that stress one set of conclusions.” Economics Rules (2015) https://amzn.eu/d/aF1IGUp
The result: “Rethinking Economics is a global network of students and organisers fighting for a new way of teaching and practising economics so that it truly helps us deal with the real-world challenges we all face today like climate collapse and inequality.” https://www.rethinkeconomics.org/
If we can do the same thing for accounting that would be good
Congratulations Richard on this new organisation. Back in a different century I got a degree in accounting and financial management which was fulfilling and interesting and was taught by a wide range of staff from many disciplines. I got no exemptions from my professional body when I went on to become a qualified accountant. My degree did however lead me to question many things over the last 30+ years and I hope I have benefited many businesses and organisations over this time. It’s certainly been a benefit to me.
We hope to teach accountants who question things. We need them.
Sounds like something worth doing. I wish you and your collaborators every success.
Who knows……..? It could prove to be a game changer.
We hope so…..
Richard, this is incredibly exciting. Urgently needed. Good luck!
Just wondered are you in touch with Trevor Hopper who has long been interested in similar issues though perhaps from a slightly different starting point? I haven’t touched base for ages but just did a search and notice he published this only last month ‘What is accounting? What should it be? What should we profess and teach? ‘
‘ https://accountingmanagementreview.occ.pt/index.php/AMR-RCG/article/view/39
Also I am sure you are aware of the Future Learn platform, but others might not be. I started doing courses during lockdown and went to it recently when investigating the use of generative AI in HE. Found a 2 week module by Kings, which is a great example. You can access most content for a short time free but need to pay for accreditation and long term access. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/generative-ai-in-higher-education
Trevor is supporting what we’re doing and spoke at the event that this comes out of.
I like the Future Learn platform – bit we must walk first….