Contemporary Issues in Accounting. The Accounting Education

Eleonora Stancheva-Todorova, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Department of Finance and Accounting at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She teaches basic and advanced courses in financial accounting and reporting for specialist and non-specialist, International Financial Reporting Standards, applications of Big data analytics in accounting, and artificial intelligence in the fintech industry. Since 2015, Dr. Stancheva-Todorova is a director of the Master’s degree programme “Accounting and Audit”, which is accredited by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. She is in charge of the accreditation of the Bachelor’s degree programme “Accounting, Finance and Digital Applications”, provided by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Dr. Stancheva-Todorova is a member of the Association of the Certified Public Accountants (International). The research interests of Dr. Stancheva-Todorova lie in the field of accounting theory, financial accounting, international standardisation of corporate reporting, application of technology innovations in the accounting domain and sustainability reporting.

The monograph “Contemporary Issues in Accounting. The Accounting Education” is targeted at academics, who are interested in the ongoing transformation of the accounting education, driven by Industry 4.0 and the recent development of sustainability reporting. The case studies provided are supplemented by clear learning objectives, task assignments and implementation guidance and these teaching materials might be used for infusing more technological content into the accounting curriculum. The students could also benefit from the research when planning their career paths. The knowledge and competences required from the accounting graduates continue to expand and the accounting educators have to meet the new challenging demands of the labour market.

CONTENTS

Abbreviations / 7

List of tables and figures / 8

Introduction / 11

Chapter 1.

Recent development trends in the accounting higher education / 17

1.1. A frame of reference – the recommendations of the U.S. Pathways Commission / 18

1.2. Recent technology advances and developments – challenges and opportunities of Industry 4.0 / 27

1.3. Sustainability reporting as a driver of change / 31

1.4. Sustainability reporting and its future implications

for the accounting education / 41 

Chapter 2.

Implementing big data analytics and artificial intelligence into the accounting curriculum / 49

2.1. Introducing a Big Data case into the accounting curriculum – the experience of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” / 50

2.2. Implementing an inderdisciplinary AI-based case study for accounting students / 67

Chapter 3.

Using innovative teaching methods in accounting higher education / 85

3.1. Innovative teaching methods used in the accounting courses / 86

3.2. Bringing accounting courses to life with Accounting Bissim – the use case of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” / 99

Conclusions and future research / 115

References / 119

Appendices / 128

Appendix 1. The schedule of Financial Accounting and Reporting Module for 2022/2023 academic year / 128

Appendix 2. An example of Accounting Bissim exercise requiring preparation of a statement of profit or loss and a statement of financial position / 131

Appendix 3. An example of Accounting Bissim exercise requiring preparation of a statement of cash flows / 139

Appendix 4. Financial statements and other information extracted from the Accounting Bissim software / 141