Management Accounting Education at the Millennium

This article examines the quot;journeyquot; of management accounting education over the past 50 years, evaluates the state of the field today, and presents my personal observations about teaching approaches. I observe that we have seen a substantial addition of management accounting courses to business school curricula, and changes in what was conventionally known as quot;cost accountingquot; courses, over the past 50 years. In recent years, innovative topics have come primarily from practice and from empirical research about practice. The introduction of these innovations into courses, and the expansion of management accounting in business school curricula, has resulted in a field that is alive and well in academia. The future demand for management accounting courses may be in some jeopardy, however, because students might not see good job opportunities in management accounting. Management accounting educators must address these problems to avoid enrollment declines in management accounting. The way we teach management accounting can increase the value of our students and mitigate possible enrollment declines. By focusing on problem-solving skills and the organizational context of decisions, rather than the quot;factsquot; of management accounting methods, we can educate students to be creative problem solvers who add substantial value to their organizations