Bridging the gap between governmental accounting education and practice

Preparing well educated accounting students for future, involve teaching using high techniques, will benefit all public and private organizations. Accounting educators and practitioners are pressured by the industries, globalization and the professions to generate graduates with accountancy skills that meet the changing needs. In this survey, a questionnaire was conducted and distributed randomly to ascertain the views of accounting academics and practitioners on the contents of governmental accounting courses and the personal skills and competencies of recent graduates. The results show that practitioners placed an emphasis on traditional accounting techniques, while academics placed an emphasis on contemporary techniques. Both groups were in agreement on some skills and characteristics required of recent graduates. The main finding is the existence of a real gap between education and practice of governmental accounting. The implications of the results are that academics cannot ignore the teaching of traditional governmental accounting techniques and may need to increase the coverage of the issues involved in implementing contemporary governmental accounting techniques.