Professorial Rankings of Australian Accounting Departments

This article presents the results of a survey of professors in accounting departments in Australia. Professors ranked Australian accounting departments on a variety of research, teaching and staffing attributes, on contributions to the accounting profession and provided an overall ranking of the departments. Overall rankings placed the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales a close first and second, followed by the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, the University of Western Australia, and Monash University. Analysis of the separate sub‐dimensions of performance shows that it is variations in respondents' perceptions of research‐related performance of departments which accounts for variation in the overall ranking. We also asked the professors for their views on several issues facing accounting educators and those who recruit accounting graduates. Most believed that there should be more breadth in undergraduate accounting courses than is currently the case. However, most felt that recruiters would prefer degree structures to remain as they are. There was overwhelming consensus that it was reasonable to expect ethics to be taught in accounting programs; that the Australian Securities Commission should not replace corporate management in the appointment of auditors; and that accounting standards should not be written to force very conservative depictions of profitability and financial position. There was disparity of opinions on whether auditors ought to be expected to foreshadow financial distress; whether the audit role should be expanded to explicitly embrace fraud detection; and whether financial reports should be understandable to the lay person.