So I have not written much in the last two weeks! Why? I went on vacation after the Fens ended. Saw more of Adelaide and Melbourne including an amazing AFL (Australian Rules Football) game at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds).
AFAANZ conference was eductional and enjoyable as usual. From the SIG (special interest group) sessions on Saturday night and Sunday morning (only in Australia would an accounting group have its annual meeting and panel discussion on a Saturday night whilst having a formal dinner and dance on a Tuesday night) to plenaries to paper sessions I found more than enough to see and do to fill out my schedule. I have to admit that “speed dating” is not a term that I assoicate with accounting but the management accounting SIG pulled it off.
Unfortunately for our Australian colleagues, the federal government in Australia has gotten the Research Assessment Exercise bug from the UK. So now millions of dollars will be spent trying to prove that university research has relevance. Watch for an uptick in press releases from down under.
But as an accountability researcher, my view is that this too will pass – maybe not as fast as we would like – but in due course it will be normalized much like it is in the UK and other countries where it has been undertaken. Mind you I object to the deadweight loss to society of such assessment exercises but it seems to be the price that we have to pay in this post modern age. We have to remember that 100 years ago universities were very small places – indeed in the entire UK in 1920 only 4500 undergraduate degrees were granted (source: http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04252/SN04252.pdf ). Part of the price we pay for being such big enterprises is the amount of “public” scrunity that comes with size.
Musings on Accounting Research by Steve 