Accounting Students’ Perception and Their Intention to Become Professionally Qualified Accountants

¹ Department of Accounting UniKL Business School Universiti Kuala Lumpur
² Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia

^* Corresponding author’ email: dalilahaa@unikl.edu.my

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study accounting students at Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) institutions who are predominantly Bumiputra about their perception of the accounting profession, their grit level, the need for financial assistance and whether or not these are significant in influencing them to become professionally qualified accountants. The research was conducted using a questionnaire survey structured around seven independent variables and translated into 27 statements which was then distributed to accounting students at various MARA institutions. To analyse the data, descriptive and regression analysis were employed and the findings show that all predictor variables explain about 6.3 percent of the variability of students’ intention to pursue professional qualification. The research results also show that when studying the independent variables individually, only three independent variables have significant relationship with students’ intention to pursue professional qualification. These are job security or stability, financial assistance and grit. The findings have implications for accounting educators as well as the professional bodies and other related organisations in their effort to increase the number of professionally qualified accountants in Malaysia. The study also provides evidence that students’ grittiness is a significant factor in influencing them to become professionally qualified accountants.