On September 24, 2022, the "Accounting in the Age of Change: Challenges and the Future" National University Deans and Department Deans Forum was held offline (online) in Xiamen. From Anhui University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Normal University, Chongqing University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Dalian University of Technology, Southeast University, University of International Business and Economics, Fuzhou University, Guangxi University, Guangzhou University, Hainan University, South China University of Technology, Huaqiao University, Jilin University, Jinan University, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nankai University, Ningde Normal University, Tsinghua University, Shandong University, Shaanxi Normal University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai University, Shanghai Lixin Institute of Accounting and Finance, Sichuan University, Wuhan University, Hundreds of experts, scholars, teachers and students from Wuhan University of Light Industry, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Southwest University, Xiamen University, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Gongshang University, China University of Mining and Technology, Chinese Minmin University, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, and Minzu University of China, as well as the editorial board of "Friends of Accounting", attended the meeting. The conference was co-sponsored by the Accounting Development Research Center of Xiamen University, the Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, and the Department of Accounting, School of Management, Xiamen University.

Guests take a photo

The conference kicked off under the chairmanship of Professor Liu Feng, Director of the Accounting Development Research Center of Xiamen University.

Professor Liu Feng

The opening ceremony was delivered by Professor Li Jianfa, former Executive Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Xiamen University and Dean of the School of Management. He first expressed his gratitude and welcome to all the experts, scholars and students who came online and offline, and also briefly introduced the development process of accounting discipline of Xiamen University in the past 100 years. Professor Li Jianfa said that in the past 100 years of development, the accounting discipline of Xiamen University has never interrupted its operation, and has cultivated a batch of outstanding accountants for the society. Professor Li Jianfa introduced in detail the original intention of the preparation of this forum: combined with the process of leading the organization of accounting and auditing declaration of first-level disciplines in 2021, Professor Li Jianfa pointed out that the national team of primary and secondary school teachers is 18.44 million, but the number of employees in the accounting industry far exceeds the total number of teachers, and the proportion of accounting majors in colleges and universities is also the highest among all majors, but accounting and auditing still fail to obtain first-level disciplines, which exposes many problems. We look forward to the gathering of experts to discuss the future of development.

Professor Li Jianfa 

After the opening ceremony, the conference entered the keynote speeches and breakout sessions and discussions.

The first keynote speech was hosted by Professor Wang Yonghai of Wuhan University.

Professor Wang Yonghai

In the keynote speech session, Professor Wei Minghai of Guangzhou University, Professor Zhang Xinmin of University of International Business and Economics, Professor Chen Xiao of Tsinghua University, Professor Li Zengquan of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Professor Ye Kangtao of Chinese Minmin University gave speeches entitled "Some Thoughts on the Construction of Basic Accounting Theory", "Accounting Education and Professors' Capacity Building in the Age of Change", "Accounting in the Age of Change: Sticking to the Profession or Cross-border Integration?" Keynote speeches on "Accounting Governance in the Age of Digital Intelligence" and "Strategy-oriented Accounting Performance Evaluation".

Professor Wei Minghai refined the "one axis and six sides" of accounting theory research, taking accounting information and its application as the axis, and discussing six aspects: institutional factors, production factors, market competition, stakeholders, corporate governance and organizational behavior.

Professor Wei Minghai online

Starting from the two aspects of the changes of the times and the capacity building of accounting education and accounting teachers, Professor Zhang Xinmin proposed that accounting education should be transformed from the original position-based education to the education that serves the organizational system, and accounting teachers should enhance their scientific research ability, ability to understand practice, talent training ability and ability to serve the society.

Professor Zhang Xinmin Online

Starting from the challenges faced by accounting, Professor Chen Xiao guided everyone to think about whether accounting should take the road of specialization and establish high industry barriers in the future, or should be integrated across disciplines and become a system integrator.

Professor Chen Xiao Online

Based on the perspective of historical evolution and the impact of the digital intelligence era, Professor Li Zengquan proposed that the significance of accounting for civilization is to provide trust, and digitalization has changed the way of trust and realization of civilization, but human yearning for civilization is eternal, civilization is endless, accounting does not stop.

Professor Li Zengquan online

Professor Ye Kangtao made an in-depth observation on the problem of accounting measurement based on strategic orientation, and analyzed from the analysis of multiple practical issues such as cost allocation, depreciation, fair value measurement, etc., accounting measurement should help the company's value creation.

Professor Ye Kangtao Online

The second keynote speech was hosted by Professor Zhang Qiusheng of Beijing Jiaotong University.

Professor Zhang Qiusheng

In the keynote speech session, Professor Zhang Longping of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Professor Song Xianzhong of Jinan University, Professor Cai Chun of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Professor Sun Fangcheng of Chongqing Technology and Business University and Professor Wu Zhongxin of Hainan University gave keynote speeches entitled "Sino-US Cross-border Audit Regulatory Cooperation: Challenges and Future", "Some Thoughts on Accounting Reform in the Digital Intelligence Era", "Theoretical Interpretation and Thinking of National Auditing on Non-public Domain Audit Rights", "In-depth Insight into the Crisis and Future of Accounting" and "Accounting: The Envoy of Human Civilization".

Professor Zhang Longping sorted out the main processes of cross-border audit supervision in China and the United States, and pointed out that the changing environment poses new challenges to accounting and auditing.

Professor Zhang Longping Online

Professor Song Xianzhong discussed the reform of accounting education in the era of digital intelligence from the two dimensions of "economics" and "management", combined with the relationship between market and enterprises.

Professor Song Xianzhong online

Based on the background of the revision of the Auditing Law, Professor Cai Chun introduced the meaning of the extension of state audit power to the non-public domain, and shared several theoretical explanations and thoughts on the establishment of state audit right over non-public domain.

Professor Cai Chun Online

Professor Sun Fangcheng discussed the understanding of the nature of accounting from the perspectives of discipline attributes and information technology, and proposed that facing the future, we should further strengthen the research on various economic management indexes based on accounting data, promote the accounting industry to deeply implement the new development concept, promote accounting research to return to basic theory, discover and research real problems, and reform the training mode of accounting talents.

Professor Sun Fangcheng online

Professor Wu Zhongxin used the knotted rope notes to lead to a discussion on accounting and property rights. Professor Wu Zhongxin pointed out that the essence of accounting is to solve the crisis of trust, and the basic accounting and supervision functions of accounting are actually to define property rights and protect property rights. With the development of big data technology, manual labor has been greatly saved, but the double-entry bookkeeping and accounting standards with property rights as the core connotation will never die.

Professor Wu Zhongxin

In the group report and discussion session, the first group, chaired by Professor Cui Xuegang of Beijing Normal University and Professor Zhu Zhu of Guangxi University, gathered the following views: With the advent of the digital economy, all walks of life are facing great challenges, and accounting is no exception. But as Marx said, the more the economy develops, the more important accounting becomes. The changes of the times will not affect the essence of accounting as an information system, and in the process of economic development, accounting has always played a trust mechanism and tool, irreplaceable. Facing the challenges of the digital age, colleges and universities should pay attention to the comprehensive cultivation of students' abilities, adjust the design of the curriculum system, dynamically update the content of teaching materials, and strengthen the construction of teachers.

Professor Cui Xuegang

Professors Zhu Bangzhu

The second group, chaired by Professor Hu Guoliu of Zhejiang Gongshang University and Professor Li Peigong of Shanghai Lixin Institute of Accounting and Finance, brought together the following views: the structural contradiction between practitioners and the status of the discipline makes accounting need theory, so as to change the society's cognition of accounting and improve the status of the discipline. We should make full use of the strength of non-governmental academia to strengthen knowledge consensus and promote accounting publicity. From the perspectives of teaching, scientific research and social services, we look beyond accounting to accounting, and realize the integration of industry and education with the help of professional knowledge in science and technology, ecology and other fields. At the same time, it establishes a new digital era training concept, and cultivates first-class new talents by building new structures, new models and new standards.

Professor Hu Guoliu

Professor Li Peigong

Finally, under the chairmanship of Professor Zhang Guoqing, Deputy Director of the Department of Accounting, School of Management, Xiamen University, the closing ceremony was entered.

Professor Zhang Guoqing

Professor Xin Qingquan of Chongqing University briefly summarized the content of the meeting. Professor Xin Qingquan said that the conference discussed the impact of the changes of the times on accounting, which was rich in content and unique in perspective, which was very enlightening for the research of the participating scholars. At the same time, I wish the construction and development of the accounting discipline. Professor Xin Qingquan also called on the accounting community to take action, actively carry out research on basic theories, form internal logical self-consistent theories, let other disciplines have a "sense of gain", generally improve the social cognition and social status of accounting disciplines, and better serve economic construction and social development.

Professor Xin Qingquan