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University Education

August 31, 2008

Three months from now I will be graduating from university. I tried to recollect all the things that I have studied for the pass three years and ask myself – what have I learnt? I may be getting a university degree, but am I getting a university education?

Not long ago I had an interesting conversation with a lecturer. He teaches Financial Statements Analysis, and hence he is the ‘guru’ in analysing firms. This course has neither tests nor exams; just assignments and surveys. Every week after class we are to report anonymously what we learnt in his class, after which he will publish them in the course website. He told us that  “Judging by the surveys that the students have done, I finally come to a conclusion that I have overestimated your knowledge in accounting”. He went on saying “How do you explain final-year accounting students not knowing the real meaning of equity?”

I was struck by this question. To be honest, I took more than a dozen of accounting courses but surprisingly I could not apply any of them in my daily life. How pathetic is that? I went for class, I sat by myself, took some notes,...

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Tags: accounting, education


Posted at: 06:56 AM | 5 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink

Accounting for CSR - A Tool to Construct Reality

June 5, 2008

Catlett once claimed that the accounting community has constructed and developed a motivated notion called accounting – it is designed to accomplish certain objectives; not the objective per se.

 

CSR is provision of information about various facets of an organization social performance, including information about its environment performance, health, support of local community etc. Unlike financial reporting, it is largely unregulated. It is done on a voluntary basis. 

 

The core issue in CSR is the openness of the CSR definition. Because CSR is largely unregulated, managements can take a variety of interpretations. They can report anything they wish, from receiving minor environmental award to paying billions of dollars of environmental fines. They can even choose to report only favorable information and omit unfavorable information, and claim themselves as CSR.

 

There is a question of substance over form and reliability in CSR reporting. For example, McDonald’s CSR reports about its efficient water usage at its outlet but did not report that each of its quarter-ponder requires 600 gallons of water. It also reports about its practice of recycling paper but did not report about the bacteria-infested waters caused by its large-scale pork production in Southeast U.S. This...

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Tags: accounting, ethic


Posted at: 09:43 PM | 1 Comment | Add Comment | Permalink

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