Abstract

The Information Systems combined and joint honours degree programmes become more popular in accounting at institutions of higher education in the UK leading to the award of an honours degree which focus on the use of computers rather than on their technical aspects. The intention of these programes is to provide accounting graduates with the knowledge they need to leverage the latest information technologies to support the use of financial information in management decision-making, and integrate financial information and internal controls into business information systems. These joint degree emphasise how computers can apply, for instance, to business, commerce and the world wide web. The graduates are more likely to be systems analysts than software engineers. The degree programmes have a large practical element, which means you have to analyse problems and reason logically. However, they do not cover the mathematical aspects of computer science. With the joint honours degrees, the students combine Computing with accounting. On these degrees, the student spend approximately half their time studying Computing and half their time on accounting topics. The degree titles all include the word 'and' to indicate this equal division, eg Computing and Accounting or Information Systems and accounting. In other courses provided by the accounting departements, the students can also study Computing or Information systems as a minor part of their degree. The title of the degree in these cases uses the words 'with Computing', eg Accounting with Computing. On these degrees, where Computing is the minor subject, the students spend approximately a quarter of their time studying Computing. The purpose of this paper is, first exploring the different approaches in Accounting programmes in UK Universities toward integrating information systems content into accounting programmes. Secondly, investigating whether all programmes provide something different or all the same but only different names.