The "Accounting in the Era of Change: Challenges and Future" National Forum for Deans and Department Chairs of Universities was held offline and online in Xiamen recently. Hundreds of experts, scholars, teachers, and students from Anhui University, Renmin University of China, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, and other institutions attended the conference.
The conference was co-sponsored by the Xiamen University Accounting Development Research Center, a key research base of humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, and the Department of Accounting of Xiamen University School of Management.
Li Jianfa, former Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Dean of the School of Management of Xiamen University pointed out that there are 18.44 million teachers in universities, schools, and colleges nationwide, and the population of the accounting profession far exceeds the total number of teachers, and the proportion of accounting majors in colleges and universities is the first among all majors, but accounting and auditing still fail to obtain a first-class discipline, and the reasons and problems are various. He expected that experts could get together to discuss the future of accounting development.
The conference was divided into keynote speeches, group reports, and discussions.
Keynote Speech: Interesting and Exciting
During the session, there were 10 experts from different institutions giving keynote speeches.
In his speech entitled "Some thoughts on the construction of accounting fundamental theory", Wei Minghai, professor of Guangzhou University, distilled the "one axis and six aspects" of accounting theory research, taking accounting information and its application as the axis and discussing six aspects, including institutional factors, factors of production, market competition, stakeholders, corporate governance and organizational behavior.
Professor Zhang Xinmin from the University of International Business and Economics gave a lecture titled "Accounting Education and Capacity Building of Professors in the Era of Change", in which he proposed that accounting education should be transformed from the original job-based education to the education that serves the organization system, and accounting teachers should enhance the ability of scientific research, the ability to perceive practice, the ability of talent cultivation and the ability to serve the society.
Professor Chen Xiao from Tsinghua University gave a keynote speech entitled "Accounting in the era of change: stick to the profession or integrate across borders? " From the challenges faced by accounting, he guided the participants to consider whether accounting should take the path of specialization to establish high industry barriers in the future, or should integrate across disciplines to become a system integrator.
Li Zengquan, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, gave a speech titled "Accounting Governance in the Era of Digital Intelligence". Based on the perspective of historical evolution and the impact of the era of digital intelligence, he proposed that the significance of accounting in civilization is to provide trust, and digitalization has changed the way of trust and the means of achieving civilization, but the aspiration of human beings to civilization is eternal, and accounting does not stop until civilization stops.
Professor Ye Kangtao of the Renmin University of China, in his speech titled "Accounting performance evaluation based on strategic orientation", made an in-depth observation on the issue of accounting measurement based on strategic orientation, and analyzed several realistic issues such as cost apportionment, depreciation, fair value measurement, etc., and concluded that accounting measurement should provide help for company value creation.
Zhang Longping, a professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, gave a lecture entitled "Sino-US Cross-border Audit Regulatory Cooperation: Challenges and Future", which pointed out that the changing environment poses new challenges to accounting and auditing by sorting out the main history of cross-border audit regulation in China and the US.
Professor Song Xianzhong from Jinan University gave a speech titled "A few thoughts on the change of accounting in the era of digital intelligence", discussing the reform of accounting education in the era of digital intelligence from two dimensions of economics and management, combining the relationship between the market and enterprises.
Professor Cai Chun from Southwest University of Finance and Economics gave a lecture entitled "Theoretical Explanation and Reflections on the State Audit's Right to Audit the Non-public Sector", introducing the meaning of the extension of the state audit's right to the non-public sector in the context of the revision of the Audit Law, and sharing several theoretical explanations and reflections on the establishment of the state audit's right to audit the non-public sector.
Sun Fangcheng, professor of Chongqing Industrial and Commercial University, gave a speech titled "Deeper into the Essence Insight into the Crisis and Future of Accounting", discussing the understanding of the essence of accounting from two perspectives of disciplinary attributes and information technology, and proposing that for the future, we should further strengthen the various economic and management indices based on accounting data, promote the accounting industry to implement the new development concept, promote accounting research to return to the basic theory, discover and study the real problems, and reform the training mode of accounting talents.
Professor Wu Zhongxin from Hainan University gave a keynote speech entitled "Accounting: the messenger of human civilization", using knotted rope to introduce the discussion on accounting and property rights, pointing out that the essence of accounting lies in solving the trust crisis, and the basic accounting and supervision functions of accounting are actually defining and protecting property rights. With the development of big data technology, manual labor is greatly saved, but double-entry bookkeeping and accounting standards with property rights as the core connotation will never die out.
Breakout session and discussion: A clash of views
In the breakout group presentation and discussion session, the first group, chaired by Professor Cui Xegang from Beijing Normal University and Professor Zhu Help from Guangxi University, gathered the following views: With the advent of the digital economy, all industries are facing great challenges, and accounting is no exception. But as Marx said, the more the economy develops, the more important accounting becomes. Times change will not affect the essence of accounting as an information system. In the course of economic development, accounting has always played an irreplaceable role as a mechanism and tool of trust. Facing the challenges of the digital era, universities should focus on the comprehensive training of students' ability, adjust the design of the curriculum system, dynamically update the content of teaching materials and strengthen the construction of teachers, etc.
The second group, chaired by Hu Guoliu, a professor at Zhejiang University of Technology and Industry, and Li Peigong, a professor at Shanghai Lixin College of Accounting and Finance, gathered the following views: the structural contradiction between practitioners and the status of the discipline makes accounting need theory as a way to change the social perception of accounting and enhance the status of the discipline. Full use should be made of private academic power to strengthen intellectual consensus and promote accounting propaganda. From multiple perspectives of teaching, research, and social service, we should look beyond accounting and draw on expertise in science and technology, ecology, and other fields to realize the integration of industry and education. At the same time, establish a new concept of training in the digital era and cultivate new first-class talents by building new structures, new models, and new standards.
Xin Qingquan, a professor at Chongqing University, said that the conference was rich in content and unique perspectives on the impact of the change of the times on accounting, which was inspiring for the research of the participating scholars. He called on the accounting community to take action to actively carry out research on basic theories, form theories with internal logic and self-consistency, so that other disciplines can have a "sense of access" and generally improve the social awareness and social status of accounting disciplines to better serve economic construction and social development.
