The development of accounting in UK universities : an oral history

Abstract

This paper reports on the development of the accounting discipline in universities in England and Scotland from the 1960s. Drawing on the oral history narratives of six distinguished accounting scholars who played a significant role in the discipline, the paper documents: (i) the initial influences on the teaching of accounting in English universities; (ii) the somewhat different influences on the teaching of accounting in Scottish universities; and (iii) the influence of US universities and their scholars on the development of academic accounting in Britain. With a focus on the second wave of accounting professoriate who followed the ‘LSE Triumvirate’ of William Baxter, Harold Edey and David Solomons, this paper provides first hand insights into the shape and spread of university accounting education at a crucial stage of its development (Napier, 2011: 185). This in turn develops understanding of the contemporary academic accounting discipline in the UK (van Wyhe, 2007).