The pursuit of quality and accreditation in education: A study on accounting education

Digital transformation brings with it rapidly changing technological developments, and with the effect of these developing technologies, the need for a workforce equipped with new knowledge, skills and competencies is revealed. The most important indicator of quality in education is the training of qualified graduates who can fully meet the needs. Accreditation in accounting education aims at contributing to the training of qualified professionals by fully applying certain standards; the realization of quality and up-to-date education by evaluating educational institutions from many aspects. It is an important practice that allows the quality assurance of the education program to the relevant stakeholders, as well as allowing the quality to be maintained. In this research, it is aimed to determine the current situation of accounting education in accredited and non-accredited undergraduate programs in terms of digital content courses and to get an idea about the effect of accreditation on program curricula. Within the scope of the research, the curricula of the "accounting" undergraduate programs accredited by AACSB, ACBSP, IACBE and EFMD and the "accounting and financial management" and "business" undergraduate programs that are not accredited in Turkey were examined, and the rate of digital courses in the programs was determined. As a result of the research, the general rate of digital content courses in non-accredited programs is higher than accredited programs, but digital content courses for higher level knowledge and skills on new technologies, changing business processes, and changing professional roles of the accounting profession, which are thought to increase in importance with the effect of digitalization in accredited programs. As a result, it has been determined that data-oriented digital content courses are given more than non-accredited programs. Changes in job descriptions of the accounting profession with the effect of digital transformation; accounting education also needs to be redesigned in many aspects such as the curriculum, the technologies used in the courses, the qualifications of the instructors and the interactions with the business world. At this point, improvements made with accreditation are considered as one of the processes that will encourage educational institutions.