A survey on student satisfaction with cooperative accounting education based on CPA firm internships

Guangyou Liu

doi:10.1108/13217341211263300

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Asian Review of Accounting

ISSN: 1321-7348

Online from: 1992

Subject Area: Accounting and Finance

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A survey on student satisfaction with cooperative accounting education based on CPA firm internships

Document Information:
Title:	A survey on student satisfaction with cooperative accounting education based on CPA firm internships
Author(s):	Guangyou Liu, (School of Business and Center for Accounting, Finance and Institutions, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China)
Citation:	Guangyou Liu, (2012) "A survey on student satisfaction with cooperative accounting education based on CPA firm internships", Asian Review of Accounting, Vol. 20 Iss: 3, pp.259 - 277
Keywords:	Accounting education, China, Cooperative accounting education, Internship, Student satisfaction, Students, Surveys
Article type:	Research paper
DOI:	10.1108/13217341211263300 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Acknowledgements:	The author is grateful to Sun Yat-sen University for its research grant of “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”.
Abstract:	Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how cooperative accounting education (CAE) programs jointly activated by an accounting institution and its cooperating CPA firms impact the students’ satisfaction with practising what they have learned in work placement. Design/methodology/approach – A structured equation model is constructed to describe the explanatory framework of the student satisfaction with CAE programs based on the CPA firm internship. The paper also presents a survey of 192 accounting interns at 14 local CPA firms in South China, in order to test how satisfied the intern students are with the cooperative education program. Findings – The results prove that student interns are quite satisfied with the arrangements and learning effects of CAE programs, but they are not much related to improvement of their socialization skills. The findings reveal that the CPA firm culture has considerable influence on the effectiveness of CAE; the student command of accounting expertise has moderate impacts on it; and university curriculum makes no significant differences to student satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – The structural framework established in this study synthesizes the impacts of accounting expertise, CPA firm culture and university curriculum on student satisfaction with CAE programs could be implicative to further research on cooperative education or work integrated learning. Practical implications – My study highlights the importance of student satisfaction with CAE programs based on the CPA firm internship. An effective CAE program requires the involvements of the universities, the students and the CPA firms. In particular, the firm culture greatly contributes to the student satisfaction with the program. Originality/value – This paper points out the student satisfaction as a crucial perspective to evaluation the effects of CAE programs. This paper also synthesizes from prior literature a theoretical framework for investigating the effects of CAE programs based CPA firm internship.