Rising expectations in business education.

• Author: Nellen, Annette

Today, assessing accounting students and helping them to integrate liberal learning and professional learning should be part of every business professor's teaching focus. Whether students learn is meaningful to many stakeholders, including accrediting bodies, policymakers, campus committees that certify or approve courses, and employers. Student learning includes not only basic accounting knowledge, but also communication and analytical skills, and an understanding of multiculturalism and globalization.

Background on Rising Expectations

Higher education has shifted from teaching to learning, from discipline-specific learning to integrative learning with an emphasis on liberal learning, and from a small select student body to one that includes 75% of high school graduates; see Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College (2002) (Greater Expectations), p. 2.

Global changes from an industrial era to a knowledge era have made a college education more crucial to more people today. This has caused many (including government agencies) to question what higher education is delivering. For example, in September 2005, the U.S. Department of Education established the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. It will examine how colleges intend to ensure that (1) higher education is accessible and affordable and (2) students are prepared for today's global economy. The Commission is holding hearings and will publish a report in August 2006; see www.ed.gov/ news/pressreleases/2005/09/ 09192005.html, and Field, "Federal Panel on Higher Education Appears Likely to Call for Testing of College Students" The Chronicle of Higher Education (12/9/05).

The AAC&U refers to this journey and era as one of "achieving greater expectations." Reaching this new level of achievement and "new vision for learning" will require shared responsibility among universities, high schools, accrediting agencies, policymakers, business leaders, the media, the community, boards of trustees and college students and their parents. Achieving greater expectations will also require "creating a society where learning is prized and everyone has access to an excellent education" (Greater Expectations, p. xiv).

What is important in accounting higher education today? What do rising expectations mean for professors, students and employers? This column answers these questions and includes a discussion of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International's (AACSB's) new requirements for assessing whether students are learning. While not all business programs are AACSB-accredited, the requirements of regional accrediting bodies may be similar in their focus on liberal learning and assessment of student learning.

Liberal Learning and Globalization

A need for liberal learning: The AAC&U has been one of the leaders in the call for a renewed look at how universities truly help prepare students for life, continued studies and rewarding careers, to ensure they receive "an education of lasting value" (Greater Expectations, p. vii). It wants students to become "intentional learners who can adapt to new environments, integrate knowledge from different sources, and continue learning throughout their lives" (Greater Expectations, p. xi). Liberal education needs reinvigoration. It should be practical, yet also prepare students to live and work in a diverse global community. Students will need to prepare for liberal education while still in high school, which will help more students go to college and lead to greater inclusiveness and learning opportunities (Greater Expectations, pp. 25-28).

To help highlight the importance of reinvigorating liberal education for all college students, the AAC&U launched...