Undergraduate student research programs: Are they as viable for accounting as they are in science and humanities?

Critical

Perspectives

on Accounting

(1992) 3,337-357

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH PROGRAMS: ARE THEY AS VIABLE FOR ACCOUNTING AS THEY ARE IN SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES? PETER

A.

FRENCH,

E.

ROBERT Trinity

JENSEN AND KIM

University,

R.

ROBERTSON

Texas

This paper reviews a recent thrust in academia to stimulate more undergraduate research in the USA, including a rapidly growing annual conference. The paper also describes programs in which significant foundation grants have been received to fund undergraduate research projects in the sciences and humanities. In particular, selected humanities students working in teams in a new “Philosophy Lab” are allowed to embark on long-term research projects of their own choosing. Several completed projects are briefly reviewed in this paper. In April 1989, Trinity University hosted the Third National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and purposely expanded the scope of the conference to include a broad range of disciplines. At this conference, 632 papers and posters were presented representing the research activities of 873 undergraduate students from 163 institutions. About 40% of the papers were outside the natural sciences and included research in music and literature. Only 13 of those papers were in the area of business administration; none were even submitted by accounting students. In 1990 at Union College, 791 papers were presented; none were submitted by accountants. In 1991 at Cal Tech, the first accounting paper appeared as one of 853 papers presented. This paper suggests a number of obstacles to stimulating and encouraging accounting undergraduates to embark on research endeavours. These impediments are somewhat unique to accounting, and it appears that accounting education programs are lagging in what is being done to break down obstacles in science, pre-med, engineering, humanities, etc. This paper proposes how to overcome these obstacles in accounting. One of the anticipated benefits of accounting student research, apart from the educational and creative value, is the attraction of more and better students seeking creativity opportunities in addition to rote learning of CPA exam requirements. This, in part, might help to counter industry complaints that top students are being turned away from accounting careers nationwide.

Using Team Research to Attract The major externally Address

Accounting, Received 24 March

purpose of funded effort for

this paper to involve

Better

Students and Stimulate

is to report undergraduate

the

progress to date of students in humanities

Professor Robert Jensen, Trinity Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78212, USA.

correspondence:

715 Stadium 7 November 1992.

1045-2354/92/040337+21

1990;

revised

28 April

1997,

21 November

Creativity

1991,

University, 21 March

an in

Department of 1992;

accepted

337 $08.00/O

0 1992 Academic

Press Limited

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et al.

research that they propose themselves and conduct in teams. The research is carried out at the Center for Undergraduate Philosophical Analysis at Trinity University. Although these team projects have external funding, student teams largely run their own research. One result of this program has been the attraction of creative students into concentrations in humanities studies, particularly philosophy. Our paper will report on when and how the “Philosophy Lab Center” for this research commenced and how it has progressed through the summer of 1991. Additionally, in the Appendix some nationwide efforts of universities to involve undergraduates in research are also discussed in terms of The National Conference on Undergraduate Research. This paper reports lesser interest among accounting majors in engaging in similar undergraduate research projects. Both known and speculated reasons for the differences in interest for undergraduate research among humanities versus accounting majors are discussed in the paper. Accounting curricula, accounting educators and accounting students are led into a quagmire of technical reporting rules, auditing processes and tax details that become trees blocking views of societal forests. Undergraduate students are frequently drawn into accounting because jobs are available rather than its challenges for academic creativity and research. They know the intricacies of calculating fully-diluted earnings per share formulas but have little curiosity about, say, conducting interdisciplinary research on making auditors more effective in preventing and detecting white-collar crime in society. Major concerns heard repeatedly from firms that hire accounting majors are that college accounting programs are not attracting enough top talent, and that too many accounting graduates have inadequate communication and interpersonal skills. The well known “white paper” by executives of the (then) Big Eight CPA firms (announcing significant funding to stimulate change in accounting education) leaves little doubt about the seriousness of their distress: “Many accounting programs have experienced declines in enrollments, and questions are being raised regarding the quality of accounting graduates. While the number of freshmen enrolling in business schools has grown substantially, the proportion of students planning to major in accounting has decreased. This decline in attractiveness of accounting as a major may not be a significant issue if the resulting pool of graduates exhibits exceptional quality. However, there is some evidence that this may not be the situation, based on indicators such as scores on college entrance examinations” (Big Eight Accounting Firms, 1989, p. 1, emphasis added).

Complaints about declines in student critical thinking, writing and other skills are widespread in nearly all disciplines, including accounting. Concerted efforts and millions of dollars are being devoted to correcting poor general education in this regard. There are a number of important literature citations for programs directed at improving undergraduate thinking and communication skills (e.g. see Meyers, 1986; Kurfiss, 1988; McLeod, 1988; Griffin, 1982). Although writing skills are very important, this paper focuses on team research where writing is of less concern than stimulating creative ideas, forcing team cooperation, attempting to generate new knowledge, handling unstructured research tasks, and developing data bases and computer software.

Undergraduate

Four related communication

student

research

programs

areas into which undergraduate student critical skills might be directed are noted below:

339

thinking

and

1. Term papers, conferences and student essay competitions. For example, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) is discussed in the Appendix of this paper. More specifically in the accounting area, Beta Alpha Psi sponsors regional and national conferences, seminars, and essay competitions. Top papers appear in chapter newsletters such as The Sun published by the Omicron Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi at Ohio State University. 2. Research assistance for professors. This type of activity is more common among graduate students than undergraduates, but undergraduates occasionally get involved with faculty in designing a project, collecting and analysing data, and writing up results. Seldom, however, is the conceptual effort significant enough for undergraduate students to achieve joint author status in published research papers. 3. Internship papers, practice applications and problem solving. Many programs allow students (often in teams) to investigate problems out in the field. For example, one of the most successful programs of the Small Business Administration (SBA) has been to fund student efforts to solve problems of small business owners and managers in all areas of accounting, finance, marketing, management, etc. 4. Long-term student team research aimed at creating new databases and knowledge. Although it is difficult to draw a distinct line between a scholarly student essay that collects and reviews existing knowledge versus bona fide research that creates something that is significantly new and original. This paper reports a unique effort at one university that pushes student teams a quantum leap beyond the usual scholarly term paper effort. This paper focuses upon student research in the context of Area 4 above. Although Areas 1, 2 and 3 are extremely important in improving student scholarship, critical thinking, communication skills and interpersonal behaviour (e.g. in team SBA projects mentioned in Area 3 above), Area 4 may better serve the problem of attracting more creative students into the accounting area. Attracting creative students into sciences and humanities has been the main intent of most humanities and science undergraduate research programs. It is also a major reason why the National Science Foundation funds undergraduate research programs at various colleges and universities. Funding for a Philosophy Lab Center was provided for student fellow compensation, materials, facilities, etc. Relatively large start-up grants for undergraduate research projects were provided by the Exxon, Hearst and Arthur Vining Davis foundations. The funded research projects in question extended over a number of years; they involved research teams of part-time and summer full-time students; undergraduate researchers received hourly compensation; the undergraudate teams virtually “ran their own projects” rather than serving as research assistants on a professor’s project; and a project continued long after particular students who contributed to it gra-

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duated. As Tim Smith of Hofstra University noted, John Dewey “set philosophic principles essentially in accord with those” in this paper:

forth

“Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he is studying at the time. Collateral learning is the way of formation of enduring attitudes of likes and dislikes, may be and often is much more important than the spelling lesson or lesson in geography that is learned. For these attitudes are fundamentally what count in the future. The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on /earning” (Dewey, 1938, p. 49, emphasis added).

Purposes of this Paper Accounting students are generally not allowed the time and resources to undertake serious accounting research at the undergraduate level. Curriculum content and popular texts tend to be primarily driven by what students need to memorize and understand for the CPA examination (e.g. see Zeff, 1979, 1980; Jensen, 1982). General education and business courses tend to focus upon tools, fundamentals and introductions to marketing, organization behaviour, management science, economics, finance, etc. Students learn how to use computers but seldom, at the undergraduate level, engage their computers in a serious research effort to generate new knowledge. The main purposes of this paper are: 1. To review a serious effort to pull students into funded student team research projects. 2. To report accounting student reluctance to undertake research. 3. To discuss the pros and cons of building more undergraduate research into

curricular

and

extracurricular

activities

4. To relate this paper to post-modernism general. Our

main

objectives

in

promoting

of accounting

majors.

and the sociology

more

of education

undergraduate

research

in

are

two-fold: first, to provide outlets for creativity and research opportunities that may attract a greater diversity of students to the discipline; and, second, to improve Science

the education of the students that are attracted to the programs especially have recently recognized the value

graduate improving

research the

in terms

education

of both attracting

of existing

students.

bright, This

motivated is why

discipline. of under-

students

scientist

and

pressure

has been brought to bear on the National Science Foundation to promote and fund undergraduate research. Science and humanities disciplines are not alone

in their

worries

students. Expression over in recent years:

over

not

of these

attracting

problems

and

educating

in accounting

the

“right

is repeated

kind”

of

over and

“The authors conclude that interest in accounting is declining and question whether, overall, accounting majors, relative to other majors, demonstrate the aptitude, general knowledge, and interpersonal qualities needed in today’s profession. Both the process of accounting education and the image of the public accounting profession are cited as contributing factors” (Inman et al., 1989, p. 29).

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student

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programs

341

Although not specifically aimed at formalized undergraduate research projects, college honours programs have somewhat similar purposes of attracting top students and stimulating creative thinking. As noted by Gaffney represents one way that and Schwartz (1988, p. 791, “an honors program accounting departments can attract and challenge bright, highly-motivated Accounting honours programs, however, are few in number. For students”. example, Gaffney and Schwartz (1988, p. 85) report only 11 out of 222 universities surveyed have an accounting honours program. Those authors do not go into detail as to reasons why there are not more honours programs, but mention is made (p- 68) of shortages of top faculty to teach special honours sections and difficulty of getting enough honours students to justify special honours sections. Team research such as that discussed in this paper can fit nicely into honours programs. Like honours programs in general, team research probably will involve only a small proportion of all majors in any given discipline. The Philosophy Lab Center program is extracurricular and compensates students for research.

Nationwide

Efforts

to Stimulate

Undergraduate and Programs

Research:

Newer Philosophies

The reasons for universities and foundations both encouraging and funding undergraduate humanities and science research are many and varied. One of the origins of the new thrust is national concern over the trend for so many top students to shy away from or drop out of traditional humanities and science concentrations. For example, the proportions of top students diverting into business administration, pre-law, pre-med, communications, engineering, etc. is viewed as alarming by many officials, especially in light of the waning proportions of USA citizens vis B vis foreign students in our graduate programs. Porter and McKibbin (1989) report that the proportion of graduates obtaining business degrees has been increasing steadily each year from 13.1% of all degrees in 1963 to 24.3% in 1987. This is increasing at an even higher pace in the current economic recession as more unemployed persons enroll in college. Even those that take science concentrations like biology are usually aiming for medical school rather than graduate study in the biological sciences. Future salaries and career opportunities impact upon student choices of academic concentration. However, in some cases students seek out more “hands on”, “timely” and “innovative” programs in lieu of traditional humanities and science programs that offer mostly a menu of foundational and skill-building courses at the undergraduate level. For example, a physics major may become burned out and/or bored by a concatenation of mathematics and science courses that mostly provide textbook content and learning-labs, that in the words of Magner (1989, p. l), entail “rote learning of scientific facts”. Creativity and research are typically deferred to graduatelevel courses and projects. Students may become so weary of merely being learning receptacles for 4 years that they don’t remain on tracks into graduate

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research programs that will allow them more outlets for their creative energies. Rote learning environments have also been criticized by educators (e.g. see Cherryholmes, 1988). A broader criticism raised recently has been the lack of attention given (in the classroom and by science in general) to the rich mosaic of political, economic and moral issues both affecting, and affected by, human decisions (e.g. see Griffin, 1988). Undergraduate research is one means of dealing with these societal problems. The student is allowed the opportunity to experience rather than receive education. Issues concerning ethics and values can be explored in more depth. In some research projects, students may even directly experience organizational politics, varying ethical standards and the economic effects of human decisions. As argued by authors such as Cherryholmes (1988), challenges students will face outside the classroom are non-linear, non-rational problems and situations subject to all of the effects of politics, values, emotions and symbolism. A student being taught under a narrow, linear and rational model of learning, is often simply taught how to memorize. Incorporating research into undergraduate education does not guarantee more effective and efficient learning, nor does it necessarily mean that students will be better prepared for the dynamic and multifaceted world they will face. However, it does provide more of an opportunity for such learning to occur and more of an opportunity for the student to be taught how to learn. There are, of course, many reasons for providing students with research incentives and opportunities at the undergraduate level. Usually, undergraduates are at an age where they have high energy and are attracted to problems that haven’t yet been solved. Second, they are likely to have more long-term retention of their individual research projects than textbook learning. Third, if given the green light, time and resources to conduct research, they may actually discover findings of value to the knowledge pool. Lastly, they may be inspired by their research experiences to pursue graduate studies. One significant and relatively new effort to stimulate undergraduate research in virtually every academic discipline is the establishment of the NCUR as described in the Appendix of this paper. NCUR provides a national outlet to showcase innovative undergraduate research. What is noteworthy is the number and variety of undergraduate research presentations in NCUR conferences. The variety of colleges promoting the NCUR range from very small liberal arts colleges to the most prestigious research institutions in the USA. Even military academies such as West Point are promoting NCUR research. The Council on Undergraduate Research stated reasons for promoting undergraduate research are reproduced in the Appendix. Team Research Projects

at the Foundation Funded Philosophical Analysis

In 1986 a new program was conceived that would humanities) students to carry the skills professors more creative applications. The idea was a kind teams of students would address challenging,

Center for Undergraduate allow philosophy (and other claim they are teaching into of think-tank setting where and in some cases crucial,

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contemporary issues. Three teams were planned: one team would focus on the structure and relation of concepts; a second team would address matters of critical reasoning skill development; and the third team would work on issues in which the assessment ot moral and legal responsibility were central. Three private foundations provided initial funding: Exxon, Hearst and Arthur Vining Davis. Fifteen students were hired annually to work for relatively In addition, students received office modest wages as “research fellows”. space and the necessary computing equipment. They earned no academic credit for their efforts in the Center. Student applicants at the Center were selected in a competitive fashion for the 15 fellowships. Research fellows contracted for 10 hours per week. Their specific hours and assignments were negotiated amongst the members of each team. Each team had a student captain who was responsible for coordination and clerical tasks as well as serving as a liaison to faculty. Some research fellows were also hired to work on programming during the summer. Center fellows agreed not to use any parts of the team project towards academic credit. The Center was equipped with personal computers for a number of reasons, one of which was to generate software to assist other students, researchers and the general public in having access to the Center’s research outputs. Also it was hoped that some of the software would eventually have commercial value. The project task of writing software tended to add focus to the research goals. Not all projects were amenable to software development, but research fellows at the Center have had some notable successes. Before discussing some of the team projects, it may be noted that all but one of the Center’s projects were both conceived and completed by students; only one of the projects was initially conceived by faculty. It should also be noted that, though some of the research fellows (students) had taken an introductory computer science course, none were programmers prior to joining the Center. Computing skills weren’t prerequisites for a Center fellowship. It was felt that teams would manage to bootstrap computer skills as needed in the project tasks. The first team was nicknamed “The Disaster Team” because its general focus was to be on the development of a full-scale expert advisor system for managers suddenly confronted with unusual crises having potentially disastrous consequences. The particular expert advisor system first developed was for managers confronted with AIDS cases in the workplace. The team investigated the dimensions of the problem in the context of a college or university chief administrator faced with a confirmed case of AIDS on the campus staff. The collegiate setting was chosen primarily because of accessibility to data and interest of team members in the immediacy and explosive potential of AIDS-type crises on a college campus. The research outcomes and computer software outputs of this team are applicable to workplaces other than collegiate workplaces. What does the administrator have to know when confronted with such a crisis? The team was given free reign and began by sorting the problem (about what is needed) into four major categories upon which knowledge bases can be built: Law; Medical Science; Managerial Psychology; and

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Morality (Ethics). The result of this team project is an expert system that provides the user with extensive information and data available on the subject which, in spite of its technical medical and legal nature, can be assimilated without being overburdened by volume and technicalities. Another team was called “The Conceptual Cartographers”. Their team projects focused on great concepts of Western civilization. Team members mapped the concept of Justice from a contractarian point of view. They tried to determine the extent to which voluntary bargains can account for the requirements of justice theory. To do that they conducted in-depth research on contracts, especially the theory of consideration, and on the relationship between rationality and contracts. They hypothesized that contracts in themselves do not meet all of the requirements of justice, but that contracts form the foundation of a coherent and comprehensive theory of justice. They used the computer to do extensive comparative linguistic research on the terms that comprise the “justice family”. In 1989-1990, the Conceptual Cartographer team worked on the concept of Rationality. To do so, they programmed the computer to teach decision (game) theory in cases of major international cooperation problems. They focused on nuclear disarmament, world hunger relief and foreign aid problems. They perceived, consistent with much of the technical literature, these problems as variants of the well-known rational cooperation game known as Prisoners’ Dilemma. The Prisoners’ Dilemma program applied to the international cooperation issues entailed software development for a number of strategies which the computer teaches to the user. The computer then plays Prisoners’ Dilemma against the user (having randomized its own choices). The computer plays for one large country, and the user plays for another country in iterative moves against one another. After the game is over, the computer asks the user to reveal playing strategies. The computer then displays the optimal strategies for given goals of both countries. In the first year, The Conceptual Cartographers worked on the concept of Rights and created teaching tools for San Antonio high schools on the history of that concept. Their materials were pilot tested in two high schools with excellent ex post evaluations by teachers and students. The team that received the bulk of the Center’s national publicity was The Logical Detectives. Press releases of their work have been carried on national news wires and printed in newspapers around the country. This team was challenged to create interesting and effective ways to teach skills of critical reasoning. The strategy was to identify famous unsolved mysteries and create software that teaches critical reasoning skills. The first program produced by this team was Stalking the Ripper With Reason. It investigates the famous 1888 Jack the Ripper murders in the Whitechapel district of London. Everything that is factually known about the crimes is documented in the computer program. The user is made a detective assigned to the Ripper cases. While moving around London and gathering data from inquests, murder scenes, questioning witnesses and suspects, the user is forced to apply the logical techniques of inference to the best explanation in order to evaluate the many different theories about the identity of the Ripper. The program, created in

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Turbo Pascal, is now commercially marketed in both text and graphics versions by St Martin’s Press. The Logical Detectives have also created a second program-Treasure Haunt. This is a more elaborate logic game (than the Ripper game) that is modelled, in part, on the kinds of adventure games available at computer stores. This game, however, is intended to teach the user how to evaluate hypotheses against the data, and how to rate the plausibility of theories. It is designed to arrive at a logical solution about what lies in the ingenious Oak Island treasure pit in Canada and where it came from in centuries past. Treasure Haunt is also commercially marketed in text and graphics versions by St Martin’s Press. A Personal Evaluation

by the Faculty

Director

of the Philosophy

Lab Center

The results of the Center’s projects exceeded initial faculty expectations. The lab was to provide a structured way for students to apply the skills they learned in standard courses to genuinely important problems in a way that would significantly enhance their undergraduate educations. Humanities students, who usually work on course projects independently, also would learn teamwork and the pooling of talents. By the second year Center research projects were focusing on the potential to reach a wider audience of learners than those directly associated with the Center. Efforts were especially directed to logic and critical reasoning because many recent studies have identified those as major weakness in American education. We also wanted to use the computer to teach and not just teach the use of the computer. The goal of providing educational software for classroom use in high schools and colleges provided an objective by which to measure the productivity of the research teams. That students achieved something more than rough prototypes surprised observers, because the students were not chosen due to computing or related technology skills. The projects of the Center were featured at the Second and the Third National Conferences on Undergraduate Research. The student-designed software won educational software contests that took the students to two national academic computing conferences: IBM’s Tools for Learning Conference at Anaheim, California, in June 1989 and the Fifth Annual Conference, on Computers and Philosophy at Stanford, California in 1990. They were also the featured presenters at the CUNY and IBM Conference, “Roads to in New York City in October 1989. Articles about their achieveLearning”, ments appeared in Liberal Education, the Dallas Morning News, Utmost, the San Antonio Express-News and Campus Voice. An Associated Press story on us was carried in newspapers throughout the country, as was another by Knight-Ridder. Lab projects were featured in a front page article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (19 July 1989). The Lab’s leading programs were Staking the Ripper With .!?eason and Treasure Haunt: A Who Dug it Mystery. Everywhere these programs have been shown they have been greeted with enthusiasm by educators and students alike. They are commercially marketed by St Martin’s Press. The target audience is college and high school classes in critical reasoning, though

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teachers have told us they intend to use them in English composition, rhetoric, basic skills and history courses. In trial runs the programs have proved successful in teaching inference to the best explanation and plausibility theory, as well as motivating students who are typically disinterested in such courses. They also can generate exciting research projects and paper topics. The unexpected achievement of the Center has been that its projects will have an effect on students and teachers throughout the country. The students are now completing two new critical reasoning programs. One teaches the uses and abuses of language and argumentation and the other teaches Mill’s Methods of scientific reasoning.

Accounting

Education

Change Commission

Viewpoints

The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) was established in 1989 by the American Accounting Association to bring about changes in both the attraction of top students to accounting and the education of accountants for a much more complex and dynamic profession of modern times. Both funding and inspiration for the AECC came from large international firms who expressed most serious concerns about talent and education of accounting graduates. In April 1990, the newly formed AECC issued an exposure draft entitled Objectives of Education for Accountants. It is along the earlier lines of the Bedford Committee Report and the subsequent studies reported in Schultz (1989). In the first paragraph (0.1) of the AECC’s Objectives it is claimed that I, . . . most accounting programs have not kept pace with the dynamic, complex, expanding, and constantly changing profession for which students are being educated”. On the same page in Paragraph 1.1, the AECC states the objective that “Accounting programs should prepare students to become professional accountants, not to be professional accountants at the time of entry to the . To foster continual learning, programs should focus on learning profession.. to learn.. .‘. In Paragraph 3.1, the AECC asserts: Students must be active participants passive recipients of information. They

“3.1

problems that require use of multiple doing should be emphasized. Working Creative use of technology is essential”

in the learning

process, not

should tackle unstructured information sources. Learning by in groups should be encouraged.

(emphasis added).

These are exactly the sentiments of faculty who have plunged students into team research on unstructured problems with heavy stress upon creative use of computers to tackle philosophical issues. Data bases are prepared by the students using mu/tip/e information sources. That’s what is happening for selected humanities students while accounting majors get a more traditional dose of things that are needed to pass the CPA examination. We will now examine major problems of meeting AECC objectives in accounting programs, including accounting programs embedded in primarily liberal arts colleges.

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The Pilot Program in the Center for Undergraduate Philosophical Analysis May Provide Ideas for Furthering Undergraduate Research in Accounting Accounting students have not, as yet, been involved in the Philosophy Lab Center, nor have any of the projects been directed at accounting problems. However, following the Center’s lead some ideas for accounting student team research come to mind. Consider the following hypothetical scenario concerning hypothetical accounting majors who become hypothetical fellows in the Center: 1. Accounting students have a series of brain storming sessions in which they mull over possible research topics of interest. They identify a number of accounting and auditing problems of immense societal importance. 2. The topic they select is how to detect fraud in an audit of a thrift (S&L) institution. The project is intended to run over several years by a team (not necessarily the same members each year) of students known as the “S&L Institutional Cops” or “SLIC Team” for short. 3. The SLIC Team follows the earlier lead of the Disaster Team in the Center. The main goal becomes development of a full-scale expert advisor system for an S&L fraud detection audit. 4. The SLIC Team commences to investigate dimensions of the problem by a review of the audit and controls literature, by interviewing S&L executives and auditors, and by interviewing examiners and FBI specialists. 5. Following Phase I of the Disaster Team. The SLIC Team commences to compile an extensive data base on types of S&L frauds from news accounts of fraud investigations, court records, audit working papers, interviews and other relevant sources. Basic concern centers on “What should an auditor have at his or her disposal when attempting to detect fraudulent transactions in an S&L?“. 6. Analogous to Phase II of the Disaster Team, the SLIC Team develops computerized simulators that will both aid auditors in fraud detection and aid instructors in college and continuing education programs in teaching fraud detection auditing. Some of the Obstacles to Undertaking Research Programs for Accounting Undergraduates Accounting faculty members, and business administration faculty in general, have been less enthusiastic (than the humanities and science faculties) about initiating undergraduate project research. Major obstacles are the numbers of courses required in accounting plus business law, economics and other courses required to sit for the CPA examination. Accounting students are loaded down to the point of nearly becoming burned-out learning receptacles. Unlike philosophy majors (who are generally bound for law school or other graduate programs), most accounting majors face an extremely tough professional certification (CPA) examination that less than 10% of graduating seniors nationwide pass on the first attempt. Accounting seniors hope to put

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the CPA examination behind them (in their last undergraduate semester) before going to work or to graduate school. Undergraduate research projects are most likely to be viewed as “getting in the way” of passing the big (CPA) exam hurdle. A second obstacle, related to the above CPA exam problem, is that accounting firms and businesses hiring graduating seniors are generally interested in ability, motivation, communication skills and how much accounting and business knowledge has been crammed into the undergraduate’s head. Research and creativity are more difficult to measure than GPAs, SAT scores and CPA scores. Students might get so involved in undergraduate research that something else gives, such as numbers of traditional courses, grade averages, immediate passage of CPA exam, etc. Students engaged in time-consuming undergraduate research might, as a result, pay the heavy price of being passed over by firms not accustomed to evaluating research performance as opposed to learning performance. A third obstacle is that, in terms of funding of undergraduate research, accounting programs are “bad guys” with a record of luring top students away from science and humanities programs, as witnessed by the many students who transfer into accounting after starting out as majors in other academic disciplines. Funding undergraduate accounting research may be dysfunctional to university efforts to keep top science and humanities students from switching into accounting or business concentrations. Boards of funding foundations often are made up of sympathizers with the plight of dwindling science and humanities concentrations. Proposals to fund accounting undergraduates in this regard may be viewed with less favour than, say, funding geology or chemistry undergraduate researchers. A fourth obstacle is that accounting research problems may be viewed as either too tough (requiring graduate-level economics, statistics and social science skills) or too boring. For example, a young undergraduate is more apt to get excited about popular press issues such as abortion, AIDS, world hunger, peace, civil rights, ecosystem deterioration, atomic fusion, ceramic physics, etc. than most topics published in the Accounting Review or related accounting research journals reporting discoveries that never make the evening news on national television or appear in banner headlines to be noticed by high school and college students. A fifth obstacle is the faint enthusiasm of the faculty regarding undergraduate research. Although accounting professors have to meet university tenure and promotion standards in research, the Accounting Department is rarely viewed as the bright star in the university research constellation. Some might argue it is rather more like a black hole. The non-tenured accounting faculty may be too busy doing their own teaching and research to oversee teams of undergraduates muddling about trying to be creative. The senior faculty may be too busy teaching, writing textbooks or supervising graduate student research to become seriously committed to funding and overseeing an undergraduate research lab. A sixth obstacle is that accounting departments are not where one tends to find noteworthy innovation in curriculum design, teaching methods, research projects and educational experimentation (e.g. see Jensen, 1982). There are

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obviously many attempted innovations in accounting education, but few, if any, are newsworthy enough to be reported in the The Chronicle of Higher Education or television and radio. Lastly, there is a dearth of outlets to showcase undergraduate accounting research that does not quite compete in the same playing field as faculty research. Beta Alpha Psi essay competitions provide some outlets for student papers, but the majority of accounting programs in this country do not have Beta Alpha Psi chapters. And the typical essay would rarely fit the types of research that would be undertaken.

Can We Overcome

the Obstacles and Do We Even Want To?

Often informally and occasionally in public speeches, accounting firm executives complain that, even though the number of students may be increasing in many accounting programs (many others have experienced declines), the increases are not in the right kind of students. These and other complaints about current accounting education are voiced more formally in a recent white paper by the Big Eight firms entitled Perspectives on Education: Capabilities for Success in the Profession quoted earlier in this paper. Accounting firms want the brightest and most creative minds among students who are motivated to climb the professional career ladder. At least one executive of the world’s largest accounting firm complains that the most serious impediment to keeping some potential majors in accounting is the requirement to take the first two dull and unexciting principles courses that, among other things, preview the hundreds of standards that must be memorized over the next equally dull and demanding eight or more advanced courses. If it were not for the available jobs waiting on the other end, students would hardly endure the agony of it all. An air of enthusiasm and creative energy tends to surround innovative programs for undergraduates such as the philosophy research program. The same thing might happen in accountingif attitudes change; if firms would hire accounting students that are not quite fashioned in the CPA exam immediate-passage mentality; if a few experimental accounting undergraduate research programs demonstrate that brighter and more creative students are being attracted and held in accounting because of the opportunity to be more creative students are being attracted and held in accounting because of the opportunity to be more than learning receptacles; if accounting faculty become enthusiastic about carrying this ball onto their own playing fields; if students and faculty would settle for a little less factual scholarship in favour of encouragement to create new knowledge. Probably not much undergraduate research, at the magnitude of team research being discussed here, would have a chance of working its way into accounting education if it were not for the recent enactment of the 5-year stipulation requiring 150 semester credits (after year 2000 when this policy takes effect) to join the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Many states are contemplating new 5-year requirements similar to those already enacted in seven states.

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The so-called “five-year law” forces upon us a unique opportunity to tinker with accounting curricula and consider alternatives to satisfying this new mandate. Fortunately, the official pronouncements and committee reports generally encourage education innovation and variety in 5-year undergraduate and masters of accountancy programs. The “five-year law” is not a straight-jacket attempt to pour more accounting detail into student learning receptacles. In many instances even in states now requiring 5 years, accounting students qualify with 5 years of undergraduate credit rather than enroll in a masters of accountancy program. A 5-year undergraduate program might allow some students more time to get involved in undergraduate research. One type of innovation to consider is building more undergraduate research into a 5-year undergraduate program in accounting. We are not offering any curriculum formulae here for how much should be for credit and how much should be extracurricular. This requires more study and experimentation in accounting programs. Whether such an innovation can be fit into a 5-year program leading to a masters of accountancy program is an open issue. We believe the obstacles mentioned in the previous section of this paper can be hurdled under the new 5-year programs, especially 5-year undergraduate programs. Accounting education research (as opposed to accounting research) is receiving greater attention (e.g. witness the new accounting education research journals). Accounting faculty and doctoral students are giving greater heed to education research and program innovation. Large accounting programs burdened with a heavy graduate commitment will find it difficult to provide undergraduate research outlets for their hoards of undergraduates. Perhaps the undergraduate research idea is more suited to smaller programs and liberal arts colleges. However, this need not necessarily be the case. In a large accounting program, a small proportion of undergraduate volunteers may be engaged in undergraduate research projects. The obstacle that accounting research topics may not be viewed as “hot issues” among young undergraduates may be surmounted if we try to pitch massive societal problems at them in a popular light. Aren’t colossal rises in white-collar crime, padding of government contracts, audit failures, eroding business ethics, environmental pollution costs, etc. hot issues that can grab the attention of young accounting researchers? Aren’t there social accounting projects (that are too complex for graduate students and professors to tackle with tools of rigor and fears of publication rejection) which might be thrown out to eager undergraduates with fertile imaginations set free by having less rigor constraining their endeavours? One advantage of undergraduate research is that we, as a faculty, do not have to demand much rigor from it-rather it should be judged for its learning value and creativity of ideas even though its results may not meet the rigorous standards we impose upon faculty research and papers that we referee for academic journals. The fear that putting creativity into accounting programs will draw even more top students away from science and humanities and into accounting is a concern, but it should not prevent us from entering a fair game. The accounting profession is as much entitled to top students as any other discipline. Many accounting undergraduate programs are purportedly draw-

Undergraduate

student

research

programs

351

ing more of the average (rather than top) students who want a job rather than graduate school education. The toughness of accounting’s 10 or more course sequences is legendary. Accounting instructors flunk aspirants out in droves and half of those that survive never pass the CPA examination even after years of repeated attempts at doing so. Many of those truly smart enough to have eventually graduated in accounting are turned off in Accounting I and II as sophomores testing the accounting waters with their toes. The funding obstacle does apply to NSF and other foundations who will not fund undergraduate accounting research. However, never has a profession itself been more concerned with supporting its education programs than the public accounting profession. Furthermore, the public accounting firms are probably more open to innovative accounting education funding requests than professors are open to dreaming up such innovations. One bias that may have to be overcome is the present way in which partners of firms tend to support their alma maters, thereby tending to make “the rich (big programs with lots of partner power) get richer and the poor (new and/or smaller programs) get poorer”. There are, of course, exceptions and special programs such as support for minority colleges. Probably the most significant funding event is the seed grant of four million dollars for accounting education experimentation that was announced by the Big Eight firms in their white paper entitled Perspectives on Education: Capabilities for Success in the Accounting Profession. The Accounting Education Change Commission made grants for curricular experimentation in accounting education that increases breadth of student learning, creativity and ability of students to interact in diverse groups of people. Some accounting programs such as that of the University of Southern California are assigning team projects at all levels of the curriculum. Undergraduate research projects such as the Philosophy Lab Center’s team efforts were undertaken for similar purposes. Accounting firms usually respond forthwith to what the leadership of academia holds out to be funding priorities. Universities complained about the shortages of top accounting faculty, and over the years, externally funded professorships have been raised for many programs. We set a priority on audit research and, presto, there is more audit research money from the KPMG Peat Marwick Foundation and other firms than decent proposals to be funded. It we set a priority on accounting education innovation and back it with priority status from the American Accounting Association and AACSB, the firms and possibly corporate America will take notice. Undergraduate research funding might be slipped in under the umbrella of broader accounting education innovation. Colleges not having Beta Alpha Psi chapters to showcase student writing and research should be encouraged to actively seek other outlets. For example, the NCUR summarized in Appendix is open to all undergraduates nationwide. History and Sociology of Knowledge Much of what we propose has been argued from a broader (1986, p. 175) asserts:

perspective.

Apple

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352

“The curriculum field, and education as a whole, has been quite ameliorative in its orientation. This is understandable given the pressures on and interest.. .The marked absorption in amelioration, however, has had some rather detrimental effects. Not only has it caused us to ignore questions and research that might contribute in the long run to our basic understanding of the process of schooling, but such orientation neglects the crucial role critical reflection must play if a field is to remain vital”.

Accounting and business programs on most campuses are viewed as par-t of the “professional curricula” that are tolerated alongside humanities and sciences so long as graduates are sought after by the professions. For years, accounting recruiters have been concerned about the expectations and ease their recruits have in passing the highly technical CPA examination. Accounting curricula and textbooks “ameliorated” accounting education toward CPA examination criteria. Belatedly, the firms discovered that contents of curricula and textbooks have generated CPA technicians (clones) vis ti vis diverse CPA scholars (clades). Social analysts extend similar arguments to the social as well as technical realms. They view the system of education as being geared toward educational cloning that discourages diversity and “eliminates personal style”. Apple (1986, p. 176) continues: “What is even more crucial is the fact that means must be found to illuminate the concrete ways in which the curriculum field supports the widespread interests in technical control of human activity, in rationalizing, and in eliminating personal style and political diversity. These are interests that dominate advanced industrial societies and they contribute quite a bit to the suffering of minorities and women, the alienation of youth, the malaise and meaninglessness of work for a large proportion of the population, and the increasing sense of powerlessness and cynicism that seems to dominate our society. Curriculum specialists and other educators need to be aware of all of these outcomes, yet there is little in-depth analysis of the role our common sense thought plays in causing us to be relatively impotent in the face of these problems”.

Although we are less inclined than some analysts (Bowles, 1976; Dale et al., 1976) to assert that the “technical control” curricula evolved as a result of a massive conspiracy among capitalist puppeteers, such curricula have evolved with increasing dissatisfactions and failures on virtually all fronts. There are many reasons known and unknown for these failures. Analysts often disagree as to causes as well as cures: “lllich’s response is a forthright vision of participatory, decentralized, and liberating learning technologies, and a radically altered vision of social relations in education. Yet, while his description of modern society is sufficiently critical, his analysis is simplistic and his program, consequently, is a diversion from the immensely complex and demanding political, organizational, intellectual, and personal demands of revolutionary reconstruction in the coming decades,. It is crucial that educators and students who have been attracted to him-for his message does correspond to their personal frustration and disillusionment-move beyond him” Gintis (1972, p. 71). Quite

obviously,

accounting

faculty

studies

of accounting

apart from

social

and

scientists

tax

technicalities

on campuses.

are

what

Learning

set

such

Undergraduate student

research

353

programs

technicalities sets accounting students apart from other majors. However, when we look to the significant contributions of academic research to the profession of accountancy, we find that the dismal results have found us “impotent in the face of these problems”. For example, why is such a negligible portion of accounting literature and curricula devoted to the massive financial markets, banking, government contracting and money laundering scandals in recent years where auditing has often been a blatant failure? Has faculty silence been due, at least in part, to our not wanting to bite the hand of the profession that feeds us? We view that excuse as overly simplistic. Many accounting faculty are well-intentioned and aware of the need for creative students conducting creative research. But being aware of it is a long way from making it happen among yuppie hopefuls in the undergraduate student body. “Despite our technological power, communities and environment continue to deteriorate, poverty and inequality persist, work remains alienating, and mean and women are not liberated for self-fulfilling activity”; Gintis (1972, p. 71). Occasional signs on mortar boards in graduation ceremonies pleading “I’ll work for food” or “I do windows” ring more true than funny in recent times. Many striving to survive inside the system have lost sight of alternative visions.

Conclusions

and Recommendations

One of the greatest obstacles to putting any type of creativity modules into undergraduate accounting programs is the CPA examination priority in the minds of students, professors and recruiters. Students who target, as a primary goal, the passage of the CPA examination in their last semester have little time, interest and inclination to be sidetracked from memorizing FASB pronouncements, SAS auditing standards, IRS technical rules and business law technicalities. Medical schools have been facing a somewhat similar problem with respect to rote learning for ,the Medical College Admission Test. Writing for The Chronic/e of Higher Education, Magner (1989, p. 1) reports: “Students

version

who

hope

to become

physicians

of the Medical College Admission

will

soon

Test-one

face

an all-new

that emphasizes

critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication, rather than rote learning of scientific facts.. . The “sweeping revisions” are intended to help medical schools identify the kind of broadly educated and independent learners that medicine needs, said Robert G. Petersdorf, president of the association”.

Accounting undergraduate research may never grab hold, except possibly in a handful of programs under the direction of leaders bent upon building more creativity into accounting education. The key to changing this lies in taking the CPA exam specter off the backs of students while they are still in college. If the CPA profession wants to continue its extremely technical qualifying examination,

the

authors

of this

paper

opt

for

the

Canadian

Chartered

Accountancy

examination system rather than the USA system. A similar system in the USA would not allow accounting graduates to take the CPA exam as graduating

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seniors or even as recent graduates. This would, we realize, take separate enactments by each of the 50 states that control requirements to sit for the CPA examination in their states. But if states can pass 5-year laws, it seems that legislation postponing when graduates take the CPA exam is not nearly so formidable. Such legislation would take away the “immediacy urge” of seniors to memorize for the exam in the year of graduation. This, in turn, would allow students more freedom to, as undergraduates, tackle the really tough societal problems of the world with fervour, far-out ideas and creativity. Significant new catalysts for education experiments in accounting undergraduate education are the encouragements for education change and the significant funding opportunities announced in the white paper issued by the Big Eight accounting firms. Readers may want to consider applying for funding for experimentation in undergraduate team research. The purposes are to attract and educate students for the new and diverse world of public and private accounting in the following context: “Individuals seeking to be successful in the diverse world of public accounting must be able to use creative problem-solving skills in a consultative process. They must be able to solve diverse and unstructured problems in unfamiliar settings. They must be able to comprehend an unfocused set of facts; identify and, if possible, anticipate problems; and find acceptable solutions. This requires an understanding of the determining forces in a given situation and the ability to predict their effects”. (Big Eight Accounting Firms, 1989, p. 6, emphasis added).

Lastly, for faculty who want to experiment in accounting undergraduate team research, we suggest that students be encouraged to have some fun and free rein with projects. For example, fraud detection in auditing is a possible project that can be approached in either a dull manner or a rather clever “mystery-type” project. At the Center for Undergraduate Philosophical Analysis students had fun with the Stalking the Ripper and Oak Island Mystery cases set up in a “who done it?” fashion. Other topics include a variety of social accounting topics that students may feel are vital problems for the future of mankind. We close with another quotation from Dewey (1916, p. 104): “Consequently, the testing and sifting function of education only shows to which of three classes an individual belongs. There being no recognition that each individual constitutes his own class, there could be no recognition of the infinite diversity of active tendencies and combinations of tendencies of which the individual is capable.. . Hence education would reach a static limit in each class, for only diversity makes change and progress”.

Acknowledgements We are grateful to Tony Tinker, Tim Smith and Harold and helpful comments on an early draft of this paper.

Langendetfer

for their

insights

References Accounting Education Change Commission, Exposure Draft on Objectives Accountants (Sarasota, Florida: American Accounting Association, 1990).

of Education

for

355

Undergraduate student research programs

Apple, M. W., Teachers and Texts (New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986). Big Eight Accounting Firms (Arthur Andersen & Co., Arthur Young, Coopers & Lybrand, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Ernst & Whinney, Peat Marwick Main 81 Co., Price Waterhouse, and Touche Ross), Perspectives on Education: Capabilities for Success in the Accounting Profession (Sarasota, Florida: American Accounting Association, April 1989). Bowers, C. A., Elements of Post Liberal Theory of Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 1976). Bowles, S., “Unequal Education and the Reproduction of the Social Division of Labour”, in R. Dale et al. (eds) Schooling and Capitalism: A Sociological Reader (New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul in Conjunction With The Open University Press, 1976). Cherryholmes, C. H., Power and Criticism, New York: Teachers College Press, 1988). Dale, R., Esland, G. & MacDonald, M. (eds), Schooling and Capitalism: A Sociological Reader, (New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul in Conjunction With The Open University Press, 1976). Dewey, J., Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916). Dewey, J.,. Experience and Education (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938). Gaffney, M. A. & Schwartz, B. N., “Honors Programs in Accounting”, issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 3, Spring, 1988, pp. 79-87. Gintis, H., “Towards a Political Economy of Education: A Radical Critique of Ivan Illich’s Deshooling Society”, Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 42, No. 1, 1972, pp. 70-96. Griffin, C. W. fed.) Teaching Writing in all Disciplines, New Directions for Teaching and Learning No. 12 (San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass, 1982). Griffin, D. R. fed.) The Reenchantment of Science (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1988). Illich, I., Deschooling Society (New York: Harper & Row, 1971). Inman, C. I., Wenzler, A. & Wickert, P. D., “Square Pegs in Round Holes: Are Accounting Students Well-Suited to Today’s Accounting Profession”, Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 4, Spring, 29-47. Jensen, D. L. (ed.), The Impact of Rule-making on Intermediate Financial Accounting Textbooks (Columbus, Ohio: College of Administration Science, The Ohio State University, 1982). Kurfiss, J. G., Critical Thinking: Theory, Research, Practice and Possibilities, ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports, 1988, No. 2. Magner, D. K., “Major Changes Set in Admissions Test for Medical School: Revisions Stress Problem-Solving Over Rote Scientific Learnino”, The Chronicles of Hiaher Education, 22 March. 1988, A-34. McLeod, S. H. ted.), Strengthening Programs for Writing Across the Curriculum (San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass, 1988). Meyers, C., Teaching Students to Think Critically (San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass, 1986). Porter, L. W. & McKibbin, L. E., “Management Education and Development: Drift or Thrust Into the 21st Century”, American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, June/August Newsletter, 1989. Schultz, J. J. ted.), Reorienting Accounting Education: Reports on the Environment, Professoriate, and Curriculum of Accounting (Sarasota, Florida: American Accounting Association, Account-ing Education Series, Volume No. 10, 1989). Stevens, L., “Attendance Patterns at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research”, Proceedings of the Third National Conference on Undergraduate Research, University of North Carolina at Asheville, August 1989. Zeff, S. A., “Theory and ‘Intermediate’ Accounting”, Editorial, The Accounting Review, Vol. 59, 1979, pp. 592-294. Zeff, S. A., “Intermediate and ‘Advanced’ Accounting: The Role of Economic Consequences”, Editorial, The Accounting Review, Vol. 60, 1980, pp. 658-663.

Appendix.

The National

Conference

on Undergraduate

Research

The National Conference on Undergraduate Research INCUR) evidences a movement supported by the National Science Foundation, universities and various other public and private foundations to stimulate more undergraduate students to undertake research endeavours. These endeavours may be curricular or extracurricular. The original idea for a national conference devoted to undergrauate research came from Dr John Stevens, a Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. In 1987 this idea was brought to reality in the form of the first NCUR conference held at UNC Asheville. At that first conference, 250 undergraduate research projects

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were presented. Given the background of the original conference organizers, it was not surprising that 80% of student papers in 1987 were in the natural and physical sciences. The University of North Carolina at Asheville also served as the host institution for the second NCUR conference held in April of 1988. In its second year, the conference more than doubled in size with the presentation of more than 500 undergraduate research projects. Once again, however, the conference was dominated by the natural and physical sciences which accounted for approximately 75% of student papers. At this point it was clear that the concept of a national conference to showcase undergraduate research efforts was both desirable and viable. Therefore, host institutions for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth NCUR Conferences was identified. Trinitv University was selected as the site for the 1989 conference. Union College, the California Institute of Technology and the University of Minnesota were selected as sites for the 1990, 1991 and 1992 conferences, respectively. In April 1989, Trinity University made a concerted effort to expand the third NCUR conference to include a broader representation of undergraduate research in all disciplines. At this conference, 632 papers and posters were presented representing the research activities of 873 undergraduate students from 163 institutions. Over 1200 students and faculty participated. Some universities sent relatively large numbers of participants (e.g. there were 27 papers from the University of Minnesota). The theme of the third NCUR conference at Trinity University was “Excellence in Undergraduate Research: Experience, Knowledge & Achievement” (EUREKA). Sponsoring organizations for the EUREKA conference included: the Council on Undergraduate Research, Dow Chemical, IBM, Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, National Science Foundation, Research Corporation, Southwest Research Institute, Society of Sigma Xl and Tesoro Petroleum Company. The EUREKA theme was purposely selected to emphasize not only the physical and natural sciences but also the experiential aspects of the arts and humanities and the applied aspects of disciplines such as business and engineering. As a result, 40% of papers presented in 1989 were outside of the natural and physical sciences, including, for the first time, areas such as music. It might be noted that there were no accounting papers submitted for consideration at the 1989 NCUR-EUREKA conference. There were, however, 22 economics and business administration research papers included among the 632 papers presented at the conference. Among those 22 papers, 13 were in business administration. These 22 papers could be further subdivided into the following fields: nine papers on economics, six papers in marketing, four papers in the area of small business, two general management papers and one finance paper. One might expect that the majority of undergraduate research represented at the NCUR conferences would have been produced at institutions without graduate programs. Stevens (1989, p. 4), however, reports the percentage breakdown of contributing institutions (by highest degree offered) at NCUR-EUREKA (1989) as follows: Ph.D.-granting institutions 37%. Masters-granting institutions 38% and Bachelors-granting institutions 25%. Institutions represented at the NCUREUREKA conference ranged from the large state sponsored schools (e.g. University of Texas, Pennsylvania State University) to the small privately funded schools (e.g. Trinity University, Carleton College); from the US Military Academy at West Point and US Air Force Academy to the Massachusetts and California Institutes of Technology. Papers and posters presented at the fourth and fifth NCUR conferences continued to evidence the expanding interest in undergraduate research, particularly within disciplines outside of the natural physical sciences. At the 1990 conference at Union College 791 papers and posters were presented representing the research activities of over 1000 undergraduate students from some 200 institutions. Almost 45% of research presented was connected with disciplines outside of the natural and physical science fields. Once again, however, no accounting research was submitted for consideration, although 32 research projects in economics/business were presented. The first NCUR accounting paper (examining the mentor/protege reationship in public accounting firms) was presented at the 1991 conference at the California Institute of Technology. At this conference, the number of papers and posters presented grew to more than 850, representing 250 institutions, and included almost 40 projects in economics/business. The success of the NCUR conferences over the past 5 years indicates a growing trend in undergraduate research. This trend is increasingly being supported by private industry. For example, in 1990, $70000 in sponsorship money was obtained from corporations such as IBM, General Electric and Kodak. Further, the success of the last three NCUR conferences (at Trinity University in 1989, Union College in 1990 and Cal Tech in 1991) with increased representation of the social sciences, arts, humanities, business and engineering, reflects a growing awareness of the viability of undergraduate research in a broad range of disciplines. Accounting students hopefully will increase their participation in the NCUR conferences in the future. The benefits accruing to accounting students (and faculty) will be the same as those outlined at the 1990 Council on Undergraduate Research national conference and reproduced below.

Undergraduate student research Traditional

357

programs

Reasons for Undergraduate

Research

1. Lets undergraduates experience the joy and challenge of doing research-lets them work on something that is contemporary and not completely understood. 2. Reveals and encourages independence, scientific integrity, perseverance, ingenuity and imagination-attributes that coursework often fails to reveal. Such attributes are often more important that the ones that courses normally reward. 3. Lets students test their depth of interest in fields vis B vis careers. From standpoint of national policy, undergraduate research provides an economical way to measure student abilities. Mentors get an extremely close look at long-term potential of students. 4. Encourages and provides opportunities for students to develop various practical skills. 5. Gives students opportunities to develop and take pride in specific expertise that may sustain them during the difficult adjustment to graduate school 6. Encourages elevations of standards, exposes students to professional literature, engenders greater commitment to field and begins to show students that coursework is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Helps break textbook syndrome, and demonstrates that courses are only part of the educational delivery system. 7. Lets students stand taller among peers and members of a disciplinary community; students cease to be pure students, but instead blossom into junior members of a professional community. 8. Gives student something to talk and write about with authority. Enhances prospect for admission and support in graduate school. Graduate schools want concrete evidence of research experience.

Eight Unappreciated

Reasons for Undergraduate

Research

lasting relationships between students and 1. Undergraduate research engenders strong, mentors-relationships that continue and eventually undergo role reversal whereby mentors become primary receivers. 2. Puts inactive faculty on the spot. Tends to stimulate or sustain faculty research activity, and occasionally generates new directions for faculty research programs. Fosters the writing of proposals. Exposes faculty members who aren’t professionally engaged, and occasionally goads them into resumed research involvement. 3. Strong student/mentor bonds produce stronger allegiance of students to college, and generates greater pride in alma mater. Graduates are more interested and supportive of college, want to repay debt. Paves way for continuing, fruitful interaction between alumni, faculty and institution. 4. Predisposes next generation of Ph.D.s to attractions of academic life; undergraduate researchers know firsthand that fulfilling research is possible and valued in undergraduate institutions. 5. Helps students learn how to learn. 6. Students produce valuable results and occasionally bring valuable skills to projects. 7. Collaborative ventures broaden student/faculty relationships; lower generational barriers. 8. Undergraduate research provides incentive for underclass students to excel so that they will have their chance to try research while undergraduates.