The information superhighway that Bill Gates talked of ten years ago is now a multiple-lane freeway. In many countries, there has been an increasing demand by societies in general for decision-makers to be more accountable. Sometimes this has been the result of dramatic or catastrophic events, such as the Bhopal gas leak, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, or the environmental disaster of the Exxon Valdiz oil spill. Many more times, they have come from an enhanced local awareness of living in a new century. Governments as well as the commercial sector have felt the pinch of this pressure.
Accountability seems to be the catchcry.
These are just some of the more obvious pressures on business in the 21st century. Accountancy facilitates business activity by providing information on the economic actors. The discipline has to meet the needs of the economic decision-makers by continuing to provide reliable, relevant, useful and timely information. An effective accounting education program has to respond to, and even anticipate, these new demands that have been placed on accountants. Not all university accounting courses have adapted to this need - but fortunately, some have.