Accounting Education in Greece During the Gfc (2009-2016)

The structure of accounting education in Greece, and in the world, is facing nowadays many significant challenges since the global financial crisis has left behind many critical educational burdens. At the same time, there is an increase in accounting omissions and malpractices of ethics both in the public and in private sector of Greece. These undoubtedly contributed to massive unemployment, high poverty rate, crime and other social ills experienced in the country. This motivated the study on restructuring accounting education by devising a new educational framework that can be applied to Greek universities and colleges with the purpose of preparing finest and ethical professionals. Data was collected through interviews and questionnaires administered to accounting professors and accounting professionals in Greece. Data was analyzed using content analysis for the recorded interviews and descriptive statistics for the questionnaires. The study revealed that accountancy program of Greek universities as currently structured is outdated and inappropriate in terms of helping graduates acquire the skills and competencies needed in the real world. In addition, both professors and professionals recognized many ethical lessons learnt derived from the global financial crisis. The study also indicated an obvious potential to introduce further innovations in the content, delivery and assessment of a new accounting curriculum. Hence, the researcher recommended a new educational framework, which would significantly respond, react to the marketplace demands though integrating and/or redesigning content and teaching mechanisms in the university accountancy program to develop graduates' skills and build a link between the profession, academics and industry.