The College of Accounting has successfully hosted the first Southern Africa Accounting Association (SAAA) Teaching and Learning in Accountancy conference, convened by Associate Professor Ilse Lubbe.Held on 5 December, it was attended by 110 delegates from 17 universities across the country.

The conference was arranged by the SAAA in reaction to the trending interest in Accounting Education by delegates at the international conference that was held in Somerset West in June last year. Prof Lubbe, a member of the SAAA Exco and subject expert for Accounting Education, is also the convenor of the new Postgraduate Diploma in Public Sector Accounting, which launches next year.The conference provided a platform where academics presented and shared research and information that focus mainly on Teaching and Learning in Accountancy.  

The presentations included some ‘show and tell’ sessions, as well as the findings of peer-reviewed papers.   Topics varied from the Usefulness of Facebook and Twitter in a first year accounting course, or the Launching of a capstone course for undergraduates studying towards becoming Chartered Accountants, to the Perceived skills gap of accounting graduates when entering the accounting profession in South Africa.The newly-appointed Commerce Faculty Teaching Development Grant Co-ordinator, Dr Claire Blackman, was the key note speaker, and her description of scholarship in a professional discipline such as Accounting inspired delegates to find their individual research interests. 

The award for best paper went to Karen Odendaal from Monash SA, working with Nico van der Merwe from NWU. Karen’s paper discussed “Students’ ability to solve complex accounting problems using a framework-based approach”. 

The best paper in Management Accounting was awarded to College of Accounting academic James Anthony working with Mike Wormald, with the title “Assessing the Approaches to Learning of students studying a professionally accredited post-graduate accounting programme in South Africa – a pilot study”.Head of Scholarship in the College, Prof Carlos Correia said:  “Firstly, I thought that the organisation was fantastic and many thanks to Eleanor Williams and Asia Brey for all they did to make this a success.  Secondly, to attract over 100 delegates from around the country was a great endorsement of Ilse's ability to organise and inspire people to present at this first SAAA T&L Conference. 

This will result in a number of peer-reviewed papers for the College. Associate Professor Ilse Lubbe is not only contributing to scholarship in Teaching & Learning in the College but is making a significant contribution to Accounting Education in the country as well as turning T&L into a real force within SAAA.” 

Story By : Carolyn McGibbon