WHAT MAKES BBS’S COURSE DIFFERENT?

BBS is seeking to differentiate its BAcc from other private higher education providers by offering a set of cutting-edge, future-focused units that recognise the dynamic, evolving nature of the accounting profession.  The units will also be taught in innovative, practical, and contemporary ways and include authentic assessments to make the BAcc academically rigorous and valuable to employers.  Some aspects of differentiation are:

Accounting for Sustainability

The world currently faces substantial climate-related challenges.  It also faces many social challenges (e.g., modern slavery) and governance challenges (e.g., money laundering).  A compulsory unit within the BAcc will cover environmental, social, and governance (ESG or Sustainability) reporting as a means of enabling stakeholders to make more informed decisions about the performance of an organisation.  Students will learn how to apply key global sustainability reporting frameworks and standards (such as those of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)) and sustainability assurance standards.  As a result, students will be well placed to be members of any multidisciplinary team that is needed to enact sustainability reporting and to provide assurance services.  Where appropriate, climate-related challenges, social challenges, and governance challenges will also be addressed in other units within the BAcc (e.g., units that cover management, data analytics, company law, and auditing and assurance).

Ethics embedded in units throughout the Course

Maintaining a high level of ethical standards is a critical requirement for accountants.  Being able to recognise ethical risks, appreciate the prospective drivers and impacts of such risks, and understand how to respond to them appropriately is a fundamental skill that accountants need in many situations they face.  Throughout Barton Business School’s Bachelor of Accounting degree rather than as part of a standalone unit, students will be exposed to ethical challenges and prospective solutions in each unit of the course.  The aim is to ensure students have a contextual understanding of the nature and application of ethics in their professional role, the confidence to meet ethical challenges proactively, and an ability to respond to ethical challenges effectively.  Embedding ethics in accounting degrees is critical because accountants play a vital role in ensuring the integrity of financial and non-financial information and decision-making.

Business Analysis and Data Analytics

As the information technology revolution continues to unfold rapidly, businesses, governments, and not-for-profits have to collect and analyse an increasing amount of data.  This data only becomes an asset, however, when its value is released via timely, effective, and efficient analysis and reporting in the context of corporate objectives.  Such analysis depends on the suitability of the data collected for its purpose, the methods of collection and storage, and the capacity of personnel to undertake effective interrogation and analysis of the data.  Accountants must be competent in analysing data, including use of appropriate software to answer relevant questions.  Without skills and an understanding of data analytics, accountants will be unable to meet the future needs of business, which increasingly depend on a broader range of interdisciplinary skills.

Forensic Accounting

Accounting traditionally focuses on the technical aspects of the field.  However, accounting is critically impacted by personal behaviour. Therefore, accountants need the skills and perspectives that allow them to make judgements about organisations and their employees.  Forensic accounting is an important area that allows accountants to develop and maintain a level of professional scepticism and behavioural understanding that extends beyond traditional accounting compliance processes.  It supports accountants in their audit and assurance work, builds skills that enhance their capacity to act as an effective chief financial officer or director, and allows them to appreciate the risks and responses associated with organisations.

Accounting Perspectives in the Not-for-Profit and Public Sector

Accounting is a profession that impacts all parts of the economy and all types of organisations.  From sector to sector, the technical fundamentals are relatively uniform, but the behavioural and systemic aspects of different sectors and activities are substantially different.  From the management of stakeholders’ expectations through to compliance, financial goals, fundraising, and decision making, each sector has its own priorities that align with purpose. These differences, in turn, impact accounting practice. Barton Business School’s accounting qualification recognises this reality and prepares candidates for the many roles they might hold across different sectors of the economy.  Auditing, financial controllership, regulation, and general management are all activities that are undertaken in the commerce, government, and not-for-profit sectors.  Barton Business School’s graduates will appreciate the variation in purpose, context, and structure that impact organisations operating in each of the three sectors.

Presentation/Reporting/Analysis Skills Focus

Students will build their technical skills as well as their capacity to develop and communicate ideas to a broad audience.  They will develop their presentation and public speaking skills, report writing capabilities, and analytical abilities.  They will also learn how to use appropriate software to improved their report-writing and presentation skills.  These skills and capabilities will be developed progressively throughout the course so that students are able to learn and develop their skills through experience and feedback gained as they progress through the course.  This is especially important as increasingly accountants are required to demonstrate interdisciplinary skills beyond the technical aspects of accounting.

Course Focus on Small- to Medium-Size Enterprises

Most organisations in Australia (and many other countries) are small- to medium-sized enterprises.  They are often complex and difficult to manage because they do not have the resource bases of large organisations, which include the financial and human resources required to manage an entity effectively, efficiently, and ethically.  To that end, the BAcc focuses on small- to medium-size enterprises because they are the types of organisations with which accountants are most likely to engage—either as executives or service providers such as auditors and financial advisors.  The course develops students’ abilities to operate effectively, efficiently, and ethically in the kinds of complex, resource-constrained environments often found in small- to medium-sized enterprises.  For instance, the students will use software for small- to medium-sized enterprises when they study accounting information systems (e.g., MYOB and Xero).  Similarly, the students will use software designed for small- to medium-sized enterprises when they study data analytics (e.g., Excel and Zoho).  Students will also be exposed to a range of managerial, financial, legal, and ethical problems that also face small- to medium-sized enterprises.

Electives to help gain accreditation from the Tax Practitioners Board

When undertaking Barton Business School’s Bachelor of Accounting, students will be able to build their knowledge to help them to meet the educational requirements to become registered as tax practitioners with the Tax Practitioner Board (pursuant to the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth)).  If students choose appropriate electives are chosen, they will be well placed when they enter employment to undertake further study in and to gain experience with taxation law that will eventually enable them to become registered tax practitioners.

BBS strongly believes these points of differentiation will be attractive to many prospective accounting students as well as to prospective employers in the commercial, government, and not-for-profit sectors.  Moreover, BBS believes these points of differentiation can be sustained, at least for some time, because (a) the overall design of the BAcc is being done in an integrated way, (b) the design of the course and the units is not constrained by legacy considerations, and (c) academics who teach units in the course will be inculcated with the view that the BAcc is and needs to remain a modern, innovative, contemporary, and future-focused degree that meets the needs of students, employers, and the accounting profession.

Barton Business School’s Bachelor of Accounting will also be an accredited degree with both CPA Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ).  The pinnacle of professional accreditation in accounting is to hold membership in both these prestigious professional organisations.  They only accept new members with an appropriate level of expertise developed through an accredited accounting course.  Moreover, they require their members to comply with the highest levels of integrity and professional standards.  These requirements are important for consumers of professional accounting services to have the requisite levels of confidence in the professionalism and competence of the accounting profession.