The world of academia is crying out for accountants who can teach valuable skills to students based on real-world experience, writes Dr. Neil Dunne, FCA
Universities need accountants to teach accounting. This seemingly obvious fact is sometimes overlooked in third-level institutions, however, where academic credentials such as a PhD outrank professional accounting qualifications.
Consequently, universities may assign non-accountants to teach technical accounting courses, a situation hard to imagine in other professional fields – law or medicine, for example.
Professionally experienced personnel truly bring a subject alive. Without them in our lecture theatres, we forsake education rooted in the ‘real world’ of professional accounting, and thus risk deterring students from an accounting career.
Academia needs qualified accountants, but we also need them to join academia in an informed manner. Here are four points to consider if you are thinking of making this move.
Heed the signs
There may be indicators that academia is for you. For me, my parents were both teachers, and I was always comfortable in explaining things to others when working as an accountant. Additionally, I enjoyed accounting at school, at university and during my ACA training.
Speak up
Don’t let a fear of public speaking hold you back. Although my own natural disposition is far from extroversion, I teach (which is a role I am passionate about) to students (whose progress I care about) in an ‘extroverted’ manner. When you are involved in something you care about, you can transcend quietness, shyness or introversion.
Research is king
To work at most colleges, you will need to have commenced a PhD at the very least. A PhD needs a supervisor. So where to begin? My approach was to attend the annual conference of the Irish Accounting and Finance Association (IAFA). I knew nobody there my first time, but everyone was welcoming. There, I found an especially interesting seminar, which led me to my own PhD supervisor, Professor Niamh Brennan at University College Dublin.
Mind the gap
There is usually an initial income fall associated with moving from a professional role to academia, but with time and progress this gap can be bridged. What newcomers may not anticipate, however, is a parallel status change. Moving to academia means we ‘start again,’ in a sense, at the foothills of a whole new mountain. For me, this was a short-term price worth paying for the autonomy, flexibility and meaning associated with an academic role.
I would advise any Chartered Accountants curious about academia to investigate more. Reach out to the IAFA, a professor whose classes you may have enjoyed, or to others that have completed PhDs. I ‘made the leap’ myself 17 years ago and have never regretted it.
Dr. Neil Dunne, FCA, is Programme Director and Assistant Professor in Accounting
at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin
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