Is Accounting an Academic Discipline?

The question of whether accounting is an academic discipline transcends the usual concerns for the latest research or pedagogical twist or the ever-present tensions among the numerous clusters of interest. Clearly, the short answer to the question is no, accounting is not an academic discipline. Indeed, the instruction has become first-job vocational. Accounting majors are treated to a litany of rules and even tutoring in how to look up additional and newer rules. In conclusion, accounting is not today an academic discipline; it is an ever-narrowing, insular vocational enterprise. But it could and should be an academic discipline. At this point, the only path the author sees is mutiny. It is time to strike out, to change the game, to ensure accounting has an honorable presence in the academy. What is new is its perfection, the unrelenting vocational approach to all the activities.