Accounting curricula: does professional accreditation lead to uniformity within Australian bachelor's degree programmes?

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of first degree programmes in Accounting, as accredited by the two major professional accounting bodies in Australia. The analysis addresses the question of whether the accreditation process leads to an unacceptable degree of uniformity, or simply provides a framework or basic structure within which varied curricula may be developed. The analysis is extended to an examination of accounting theory, one of the subjects within the accredited programmes. It is concluded that, in Australia, the accreditation process may have influenced institutions in terms of the basic structure of their degree programmes, but in terms of specific content, the accounting theory subjects suggest that accreditation has had little effect.