An examination of Ohio State's undergraduate accounting education approaches (traditional vs. nontraditional) and the impacts of each on students

Abstract

Instead of the technical (traditional) focus present today in accounting education, practitioners want educators to place more emphasis on developing communication, interpersonal and intellectual skills of students (nontraditional). This study's purpose was to evaluate Ohio State's regular (traditional) and honors (nontraditional) undergraduate accounting programs through its alumni's reactions to specific questions about their undergraduate and professional experiences, all in an effort to determine which program is more effective in preparing students for accounting careers. After analyzing the 163 survey respondents' answers, statistical support was found for the four hypotheses of the study. Thus, (1) honors students were more satisfied with their undergraduate curriculum, (2) honors students felt their undergraduate education prepared them for an accounting career to a greater extent than regular students did, (3) honors students were more likely to pursue graduate degrees at top business schools and obtain professional certifications, and (4) honors students felt that they were more successful in their careers.