This study, which examines the factors that affect first year (Hong Kong) accounting student performance, is motivated by two considerations. First, such studies are important in providing comparative evidence from recently developed countries such as Hong Kong in the context of calls for the harmonization of international accounting education. Second, prior studies seldom consider the variable student personality type as one of the predictor variables. Results using 455 students in the introductory accounting class as subjects, and a multiple regression model indicate that self-expectation of examination results, English secondary school education, high school certificate level grades in English and Mathematics, personality type, intention to obtain a business degree and previous knowledge of accounting were significant predictors of student performance.
[Copyright of Accounting Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639289300000003 ]

Ethics is concerned with individual character; it relates to morals and the treating of moral questions. Teaching ethics involves the study and evaluation of the moral consequences of reflective choices of actions among alternatives that are not clear, or that are in conflict with one another. Although it can be debated whether we should teach ethics, the question arises as to wheather accounting educators should take up the challenge and sensitize their students to the ethical issues they will face throughout their professional careers. As an integral part of the first undergraduate programme in accountancy in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic developed a compulsory full-year subject, ethics in accountancy, for its final-year accountancy students. The Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Accountancy course, which was implemented in 1988, was accredited to replace the traditional professional diplomas under the UK model. In 1990 the subject ethics in accountancy was first taught to about 230 final-year students in Hong Kong. This paper reviews the process of developing the subject from its initial from to its present structure. Based on practical experience, the paper addresses the issue 'Can ethics be taught?' and the questions of why, what and how.
[Copyright of Accounting Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639289400000003]

In accounting education, most Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) research has investigated the relationship between students' performance and their approaches to learning. Relatively limited research has been conducted on how assessment practices influence the quality of students' learning from the students' perspective. This paper seeks to address this gap in the accounting education literature. The research is centred on a large Australian undergraduate accounting degree delivered in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Focus group interviews were conducted with students across the three locations. The research results reveal that: (1) it is the English competency of students that has the most important impact on students' completion of set assessment tasks and thus their approach to learning; (2) it is the way in which assessment is designed and written and the way lecturers convey their expectations about how assessment will be undertaken that is crucial to how students from various countries perform in that assessment; and (3) students' approaches to assessment and their preferred assessment tasks are not homogeneously based on cultural background.
[Copyright of Accounting Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639280902836939]

The purpose of this study is to identify attributes of public accounting firms that accounting graduates find most desirable in their job selection decisions, and the impacts of individual differences on these perceptions. Factor analysis performed on the responses of 167 final-year accounting students in Hong Kong to a 30-item questionnaire identified seven factors. The results indicate that accounting graduates considered help in finishing their professional accounting examinations and good staff relationships as the most important criteria in their choice of employers. In addition, female accounting graduates were more concerned about the possibility of being required to travel or be transferred, but were less concerned about the reputation and profile (such as the client base and the size) of the firms than their male counterparts. Accounting graduates with a higher grade point average (GPA) were less concerned about the working environment, but more concerned about a firms' reputation and profile than those with a lower GPA. The implications of these results are discussed.
[Copyright of Accounting Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639280010010452]