The Survey of Factors Influencing Kolej Asa Students

The survey of factors influencing Kolej Asa students in choosing Diploma in AccountancyCourse as their major 1 CHAPTER 1 1. 0 INTRODUCTION The introduction of this study, will discuss the background of the survey of factors influencingKolej Asa students in choosing Diploma in Accountancy Course as their major. The significant and objectives of the project, the limitation encountered during the investigation of this project. 1. 1 OVERVIEW OF STUDYAccountancy  is the process of communicating financial information about a  business entity  to users such as  shareholders  and  managers . The communication  is generally in the form of  financial statements  that show in money terms the  economic resources  under the control of management; the art lies in selecting the information that is relevant to the user and is reliable. The  principles  of accountancy are applied to business entities in three divisions of practical art, named accounting,  bookkeeping, andà ‚  auditing.The  American Institute of Certified Public Accountants  (AICPA) defines accountancy as â€Å"the art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character, and interpreting the results thereof. † 2 Accounting is thousands of years old; the earliest accounting records, which date back more than 7,000 years, were found in  Mesopotamia  (Assyrians). The people of that time relied on primitive accounting methods to record the growth of crops and herds. Accounting evolved, improving over the years and advancing as business advanced.Early accounts served mainly to assist the memory of the  businessperson  and the audience for the account was the  proprietor  or record keeper alone. Cruder forms of accounting were inadequate for the problems created by a business entity involving multiple  investors, so  double-entry bookkeeping  first em erged in northern Italy in the 14th century, where trading ventures began to require more  capital  than a single individual was able to invest. The development of  joint stock companies  created wider audiences for accounts, as investors without firsthand knowledge of their  operations  relied on accounts to provide the requisite information.This development resulted in a split of accounting systems for internal (i. e. management accounting) and external (i. e. financial) purposes, and subsequently also in accounting and disclosure regulations and a growing need for independent attestation of external accounts by  auditors. 3 Today, accounting is called â€Å"the language of business† because it is the vehicle for reporting financial information about a business entity to many different groups of people. Accounting more concentrates on reporting to people inside the business entity is called  management accounting.It used to provide information to employees, managers,  owner-managers  and  auditors. Management accounting is concerned primarily with providing a basis for making management or operating decisions. Accounting that provides information to people outside the business entity is called  financial accounting  and provides information to present and potential shareholders,  creditors  such as  banks  or vendors,  financial analysts,  economists, and  government agencies. Because these users have different needs, the presentation of financial accounts is very structured and subject to many more rules than management accounting.The body of rules that governs financial accounting in a given jurisdiction is called  Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. 4 1. 2 BACKGROUND OF STUDY Accounting is a significant subject in the middle of students. Essentially accounting process involves record keeping—recording, classifying, reporting and interpreting economic events. However accountingat the mo ment is somuch more. Currently, the accountant is an even more precious member of the corporate strategic team with involvement in the corporation’s planning, evaluating and forecasting of the future.According to Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib b TunRazak (Speech on The Occasion of the ICAEW Malaysia Achievers’ Ball, 2004) by the year 2020 in line to achieved residential country status it has been predictable that Malaysia needs 60,000 accountants. The figure now stands at 21,000. All the way through Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW’s) hard work, and together with the Malaysian accountancy bodies, can show to students the charisma of an accounting profession and lend a hand to correct any misconceptions on the career. For the Diploma Accountancy course in Kolej Asa, students are being exposed to the importance of current situation of our country. Students require to completing 7semester in order to gain their D iploma in Accountancy. Understanding students’ perceptions of accounting is a very significant first step in the effort to attract the best to the accounting profession. This paper aims to study the factors such as personal factors, reference group and job related factors that may possiblymanipulate Kolej Asa students in choosing accounting course as their foremost. 1. PROBLEM STATEMENT Even though there are many opportunities created in the accounting profession, there are also many challenges the accounting profession has to contend with (Mladenovic, 2000; Parker, 2001). In today’s world accounting profession is facing one challenge that is rehabilitating the public perception of the accounting profession itself, especially in the aftermath of the many high-profile scandals in the United States involving corporate giants such as Enron, WorldCom and others. 6 Choosing a course to study after â€Å"Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia† (SPM) is not easy.On the one hand, it can be quite confusing due to the plethora of courses and institutions available to the student to choose from. On the other hand there are many pitfalls that a student should avoid in order to make the right choice (Loke, 2008). Several programs and marketing material are design by The American Institute of Certified PublicAccountants (AICPA) and some state societies to attract students to accounting. According to AICPA research conducted in 2002, the number of graduates of accounting programs, undergraduate and graduate, declined by 21. 3%, from 59,140 in 1990/1991 to 46,555 in 2000/2001.In Canada, the UK and the US the decline in quantity and or quality of students majoring in accounting and entering the profession has been an issue of concern for several decades, (Adams et al. , 1994; Stice and Swain, 1997). Recent evidence from The USA, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada indicates that professional accountancy practice is becoming less attractive to accounting graduates and trainees from universities and colleges, and that professional accountancy firms are concerned about losing bright accounting candidates to other professions (Ahmed et al. 1997; Albrecht and Sack, 2000; Felton et al. , 1994; Marriot and Marriot, 2003). 7 This research intends to find the relationship regarding the factors that influence student’s choice in accounting course. According to Carolyn, Susan and Brian (2005) understanding students’ perceptions of accounting is an important first step in the effort to attract the best to the accounting profession. Many studies have been done at universities on the universities level for example research by Cohen and Hanon (1993), Ahmed et al. (1994) and Saeman et al. (1999). 1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Based on the previous discussion, research question is to help out the researcher to respond and clarify the problem statement. The research questions are: i. Is there any significant relationship between â€Å"personal factorsà ¢â‚¬  and student’s choice of accounting course? ii. Is there any significant relationship between â€Å"reference group† and students choice of accounting course? iii. Is there any significant relationship between â€Å"job related factors† and students choice of accounting course? 8 1. 5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The objectives of this research are: i.To investigate the relationship between personal factors and the choice of the Kolej Asa students’ in accounting course. ii. To investigate the relationship between reference group and the choice of the Kolej Asa students’ in accounting course. iii. To investigate the relationship between jobs related factors and the choice of the Kolej Asa students’ in accounting course. 9 1. 6 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY Accounting profession is becoming less attractive to accounting graduates and trainees from universities and colleges, and that professional accountancy firms are concerned about losing bright acco unting candidates to other professions.The misinformation about accounting effects students’ decisions in choosing accounting as a potential career or major. However, when students are exposed to more information about accounting, there is a significant increase in their interest in accounting (Saudagaran, 1996). The AICPA and some state societies have introduced several programs and marketing materials designed to attract students to accounting. Employers and universities also have a stake in attracting students to accounting careers (Hardin al. , 2000).Recruiting efforts should begin early and should emphasize the challenging nature of accounting work and provide specific information about starting salaries. Rather than avoiding discussion of the recent accounting scandals e. g. Enron, recruiters should considering using them as an illustration of the critical role accounting plays in our capital markets. 10 1. 6. 1 STUDENTS A good starting place is to listen to high school students’ perceptions of theaccounting profession. In Malaysia, students have to make a decision in choosing a course to study afterSPM.Business studies has become one of the main courses offered in many tertiaryinstitutions be it public or private universities or colleges. Students choosing a businesscourse will have to major in one the fields such as accountancy, finance, marketing,human resources or business administration. While there has been increasing effortsamong the universities and colleges in offering the courses that matches the students’qualifications and needs, very little research has been conducted on the factors thatactually influences the students’ choice. 1. 6. KOLEJ ASA This research will subsequently help those producers to know more about the opinion of accounting students on influences on accounting course provided in Kolej Asa. 11 1. 6. 3 FUTURE RESEARCHER This research will also benefit future researcher sources of in information if the y are in fasted to do the topic related with this study. They also can extend to the other factors that studied in this research. 1. 7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1. 7. 1 SUBJECT This research is focus on the student’s influences factors on accountancy course in Kolej Asa. 1. 7. LOCATION Kolej Asa in Rawang town has been chosen. The reason of choosing is, Rawang town area has more students compare to rural area. 12 1. 7. 3 RESPONDENTS The student consists of accountancy course provided in Kolej Asa. The specific chosen sample for this survey is in Kolej Asa. In this survey there are 50 students from accountancy course were being chosen. This research is essentiallyfocused on students who study accountancy course. 1. 8 LIMITATION I do aware that my research is not possible to accomplish due availability of current resource.Besides that, shortage of time is the main constraint to me. In addition to that, the information that I obtain from secondary data might not be accurate. The subjec t area of my research is student’s satisfaction. Therefore, customer perception will not be included. As this research is conducted at Kolej Asa in Rawang, the result will not reflect the view of student in other state within Malaysia. Alongside, the college authorities are not co-operate enough, disallowed survey on their student. 13 1. 8. 1 TIMEIn my research, I realize that shortage of time is the main constraints to me due to the reason that we just provide 4 months to conduct the survey. With the given 4 month of time, it is actually very limited amount of time for me to collect data and report analysis. Therefore, due tom the reason above with lacking of time, I had to settle this research for non-random sample of population. 1. 8. 2 COST By conducting this survey, we realize that the semester holiday of Kolej Asa will be factor that will be the factor that will affect this research.From this, we know that semester holiday of Kolej Asa is different from other College. T herefore, it is very hard to estimate the holiday of Kolej Asa and due to this research, I have to waste some cost in order to prepare my research as well as some expenses in order to do the questionnaire papers to conduct my survey. 14 1. 8. 3 RESPONDENT The respondents are the student study in Kolej Asa at Rawang. Therefore, this research is conducted student at Kolej Asa; Rawang town such as other colleges will not be the respondent of the research. 1. CONCLUSION The chapter 1 is the introduction to the reader on the topic of my research. It started out with a general introduction about the intended study before deductively moving towards narrowing down the research scope. I have given a brief introduction about accounting and the factors influencing them. Besides that, I had identified the subject area of my study: student’s preferences towards in accounting course. Further, problem faced by the accounting course have been clearly stated and identified in the problem stat ement section.I had list out 3 research question related to this research and subsequently the research objective to the research question. Significant of the study have been clearly mention in this chapter in which this research will benefit the students, Kolej Asa and future researchers. This study will be specifying on the students influencing in accountingcourse. 15 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEWAPTER 2 2. 1 Introduction This chapter reviews factors that are significant to student’s choice in accounting majoring.Using quite a few present literatures, we will talk about factors such as individual personal factors, reference group, job related factors and institutional factors that manipulate students in choosing accounting course as their foremost. There were researches done in United States of America and Australia in identifying factors influencing student’s choice of business major. Some of this research examined the subjective factors including social, cultural, so ciological, psychological and personal factors, some looked at the objective factors and many others took into consideration both categories.The dramatic decrease in both accounting graduates and enrollments prompted the AICPA to undertake a comprehensive survey of the factors causing the downturn in accounting majors. The AICPA engaged the Taylor Consulting and Research Group toconduct the survey and the report of the study can be found on the AICPA web site (AICPA, 2001, http://accounting. rutgers. edu/raw/aaa/aapg/spr01/spr01-6. htm). 16 The findings reveal that the accounting profession is facing several critical challenges, including the awareness and understanding by students about accounting careers as well as negative perceptions of the profession.High school educators have a relatively low opinion of accounting as a career option for high school students (Hardin et al, 2000). Hardin et al. identified three major hurdles in changing high school teachers’ and studentsà ¢â‚¬â„¢ perceptions of the accounting profession. First, it is difficult to get the message that accounting is a challenging and rewarding career to the teachers who interact with the best and brightest students. Second, when accounting is offered in high schools, it is offered as part of a vocational track.Third, many students say that their counselors had discouraged them from taking high school accounting because it was not for college-bound students. Students who attend high schools that offer accounting courses and even students who take accounting in high school are no more likely to take a college accounting class than those who attend high schools that do not teach accounting. It appears that having a high school accounting class does not encourage students to study accounting in college. 17 Accounting education has been the subject of considerable debate since 1980s.Prior research documents that introductory accounting students study accounting with negative perception on a ccounting. Accounting is attractive to the students in terms of professional, but â€Å"negative views regarding the nature and role of accounting persist† (Fisher and Murphy, 1995, p56). Similar findings have been documented by other researchers. The accounting majors also because of less attractive in accounting education. According to Albrecht and Sach (2001), most introductory accounting classes often focus on the preparation of financial data rather than on its use.In that case Students are not exposing to the business operation financially and they feel that accounting course are too hard and need more time to study. Nowadays preparation and dissemination will be faster, easy and not an expensive process due to advance in technology. In Malaysia, business studies has become one of the main courses offered in many tertiary institutions be it public or private universities or colleges. Students choosing a business course will have choose to major in one the fields such as accountancy, finance, marketing, human resources or business administration.While there has been increasing efforts among the universities and colleges in offering the courses that matches the students’ qualifications and needs, very little research has been conducted on the factors that actually influences the students’ choice of major. 18 Research in other countries such as United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia have established that students’ choice of major appear to be influenced by several factors ranging from personal to job related factors.Gender, race, their quantitative skills, students’ interest in the subject, expected marketability, performance in major classes, the approachability and teaching reputation of the faculty are among the factors that have some influence on the students’ choice. 2. 2 Factors influencing students’ choice 2. 2. 1 Reference Group Students’ norms, attitudes, and values through dir ect interaction are providing by reference group including family and non-family groups. Previous studies confirmed that reference groups either family or non-family groups who have significant amount of interaction could influence student’s choice of major.Other studies have found that students’ decision to major is influence by referents. Study confirmed that parents do influence students’ choice of business major except for those who chose accountancy as their major. Parents, followed by instructors had a strong influence on students’ choice of majors. 19 Parent’s occupations are also influence students’ choice of business major. Research has showed that the instructors including high school teachers and college lecturers play a significant role in influencing a student’s final choice of business major.This study aims to explore if Malaysian students with a different cultural background are influence by either parents or educators in choosing their business major. 2. 2. 2 Personal factors An important selection factor is the genuine interest in the subject. Many research revealed that one of the significant factors identified that influences their choice of major are student’s interest in the subject found that factors such as interest in the subject, ability to do the major is important for the students in making such choice. Other factor such as quantitative skills and intellectually challenging also influences student’s choice.When students considered that accounting is interesting and enjoyable they are more likely to choose accounting as a major. This finding was further supported by results of where intrinsic rewards such as enjoyment of the study of the topics studied in accounting, were a predictor of intention to undertake a career in accounting. 20 Other research findings indicated that students with better quantitative skills tended to choose either accountancy or finance as business major whereas those who chose to major in marketing, management and management information system were those with weaker quantitative skills.This is consistent with the finding of who suggest that accounting requires good number skills. 2. 2. 3 Job related factors A number of studies have indicated that in accounting students’ discipline choice, a job satisfaction is important. Many research indicated that student’s choice of business major are influenced by higher earnings, prestige and career advancement discover students who chose other business major were more influenced by personal and normative factors and students who choose accounting as their major feel that compensation, career opportunities and prestige were significant factors that influence them.The findings from many other studies also support the result that student’s choice of business major are influenced by higher earnings, prestige and career advancement. This means that accounting studentsâ⠂¬â„¢ discipline choice has traditionally been heavily influenced by earnings potential and job market conditions or opportunities. 21 There should be a general awareness among students on the career opportunities available in Malaysia and overseas and level of compensation for accountants as it has been widely published in the local newspapers.With the amount of news publicity given to a particular profession, it is interesting to find out if these job-related factors are the key factors influencing student in choosing accountancy as a major in Kolej Asa. 2. 3 Summary Based on the literature discuss above, this paper investigates if the personal factors, reference group and job related factors have significant influence to the KOLEJ ASA students in choosing accounting course as their major. 22 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3. 1 IntroductionThe purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influencing Kolej Asa students in choosing Diploma Accounting course as their major. Survey based methodology was used in this research to obtain data from the respondents namely first semester Diploma Accountancy students from KOLEJ ASA. It was a basic question regarding their choice of choosing Diploma Accountancy course in KOLEJ ASA. The questionnaire was developed to study the factors that influence students in choosing Diploma Accountancy course as their major. The data for this study was collected through a self-administered questionnaire.In the survey, respondents were asked to indicate the influence of four different factors on their selection of Diploma Accountancy. The set of four possible influences on decision to choose Diploma Accountancy course were determined from internal and external factors. 23 3. 2 Research Theoretical Framework ? The research theoretical framework is presented in the figure 1 below: Figure 1 – Research Theoretical Framework |Personal Factors | |Reference Group | | | STUDENT’S CHOICE | |Job Related Factors | †¢ In th is framework the dependent variable is a students’ choice while the independent variables are personal factors, reference group and job related factors. 24 3. 3 Hypotheses Development Paolillo and Estes (1982), Zhang (2006), Malgawi et al. (2005) and Pimpa, (2007) studied on the factors which influence the choice of course. From these previous researcheshypotheses were developed in finding the relationship of the three factors influencing students in choosing accounting course as a major. 3. . 1 Personal factors Personal factors such as interest in the subject, ability to do the major quantitative skills and intellectually challenging and not boring were examined. Many research revealed that student’s interest in the subject is one of the significant factors identified that influences their choice of major. Research findings indicated that students with better quantitative skills tended to choose either accountancy or finance as business major whereas those who chose t o major in marketing, management and management information system were those with weaker quantitative skills.Many research revealed that student’s interest in the subject is one of the significant factors identified that influences their choice of major. It was conclude that personal factors have a relationship with student’s choice. 25 Based on these previous researches, it can be suggested that personal factors has a relationship with student’s choice in choosing accounting course. Therefore, for the purpose of the current research, the hypotheses built will be: | |H1 – There is a significant relationship between personal factors and students’ choice on their major. | 3. 3. 2 REFERENCE group There was a positive relationship between reference group and the choice of student which indicates that parents, high school teachers and college lecturers play significant role in influencing student’s choice. Other than that, parent’s occup ation could also influence student choice on accounting course as a major.Therefore, the hypothesis built for this paper is: | | |H2- There is a significant relationship between reference group and students’ choice in accounting course. | 26 3. 3. 3 Job related factors The Albrecht and Sach (2001) study asked participants to identify the â€Å"most important reason† students choose to major in accounting. A study conducted by Doran also found that the â€Å"most important action† that would attract more high-quality students to the accounting profession would be to â€Å"pay higher starting salaries† (Doran, 2001). | |H3 – There is a significant relationship between job related factors and students’ choice in accounting course. | Zhang (2006), found that job-related factors including potential job opportunities and compensation are two keyfactorsthat influence the student’s choice. The research by Giladi, Amoo and Friedman (2002) foun d that higher earnings, prestige and career advancement influence the choice of student. From the previous researches, it was found that job related factors do have significant effect on student’s choice. Therefore, the hypothesis build for this paper is: 7 3. 4 Variables Definition 3. 4. 1 Personal factors ? Including interest in the subject, ability to do the work, workload and challenge. 3. 4. 2 Reference group ? Including parents, relatives, friends, school teacher and counselor. 3. 4. 3 Job related factors ? Including job opportunities, higher earnings, career advancement and prestige. 28228 3. 5 Operational Definition 3. 5. 1 Personal factors ? The degree to which the students believes that the interest in the subject, ability to do the workload and challenge can influence them in choosing accountancy course. . 5. 2 Reference group ? The degree to which the students believes that parents, relatives, friends, school teacher and counselor can help them in making decisions . 3. 5. 3 Job related factors ? The degree to which the students believe that job opportunities, higher earnings, career advancement and prestige can influence them in choosing accountancy course. 29 3. 6 Sampling and Data Collection The population or the unit of analysis for this research will be the first and second semester of Diploma Accountancy Students in KOLEJ ASA.At Kolej Asa there are 5accounting classes and total of the students are 100. From the total population, the researcher tried to achieved 100% response rate, however, due to certain limitation, response rate that were obtained was only 50 students. A set of questionnaire were given to the class representative and he was responsible to distribute the questionnaires to the respondents and to collect the questionnaire after being filled by the respondents. The respondents were given 15 minutes to answer the questionnaire and returned it to the class representative.The next day, researchers collect the questionnaire fro m the class representative from each class. 30 3. 7 Instrumentation and measurement of variables The questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part 1 of the questionnaire solicited demographic information such as gender, race and basic qualification. In Part 2 of the questionnaire was further divided into section A, B and C. Section A contains 10 questions on respondents’ personal factors that would influence them in choosing accounting course using a five point Likert scale (1= strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree).Section B contains 9 questions on respondents’ referent group view of their choice and the degree of importance they placed on the referents’ view. Using a five point Likert scale (1= strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree), respondents were asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement with the statement that their parents/relatives/friends/counselor think that they should choose accounting course. Section C is set out to ascertain the job r elated factors that would influence them in choosing accounting course.Respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their agreement on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 (1= strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree). In this section there were 9 questions to be answered. The questionnaire used was adapted from Tracy (2003) and Marriot (2003), however, certain alteration has been made to suit the condition of this research. Refer Appendix B. 31 3. 8 Validity and reliability of measurement In determining the validity of the measurement used, pretest had been conducted.According to ASA (1997), pretesting a questionnaire is central to planning a good survey and is critical for identifying questionnaire problems. The problems can occur for both respondents and interviewers regarding question content, patterns, or formatting. Before the questionnaire was distributed to the respondents, the researcher firstly sent the questionnaires to 6 pretest respondents consisting of colleagues and friends to comment on the questionnaires. The purpose of pretesting is to get the experts’ view on the questions. After the comment was obtained, modification was made to the questionnaire.For the purpose of testing the reliability, Cronbach alpha was used to determine the reliability of each the data collected for each factor. The analysis was done using SPSS package. Cronbach alpha are widely used to describe reliability of tests and measurements (Kistner and Muller, 2004). A high alpha indicates that the factors has a high reliability and vice versa. According to guidelines by Sekaran (2003), a coefficient of below 0. 6 is considered to be poor, 0. 7 is acceptable, and over 0. 8 is good. Therefore, from the alpha score, the conclusion on whether the data is reliable can be concluded.If the alpha is low, this indicates that some of the items for a factor might not consistent with other items for the same factor. To overcome this problem, the items which are not consistent with other items will be eliminated. 32 3. 9 Data Analysis The analysis was done by using SPSS package and was divided into several phase. The first phase of analysis involved the analysis of central tendency. In this research, mean was used, which enable the interpretation of data where the point of greatest concentration can be obtained.Therefore, it can be observed on which factor the respondents will be in choosing Diploma Accounting course. The next phase involved the analysis of standard deviation. This was done to study the spread of dispersion of data. Therefore, interpretation of data involved in seeing whether the choices of respondents were dispersed or their choices were converged to certain point. The final phase involves the analysis on the relationship between the independent variables (Personal factors, Reference group and Job related factors) with the dependant variable, which is students’ choice. These were one through the analysis of multiple regressions and enable th e data interpretation to see the strength and direction of each independent variable with dependent variable. Therefore, it can be identified on whether the independent variables have a significant relationship to dependent variables as being hypothesized previously. The analysis had also identified the independent variable that have the most influence on choosing Diploma Accounting course. 33 In determining the regressions among the independent variables and the dependent variables, the impact of multi co linearity should not be neglected.Multi co linearity results from the situation where exists the correlation amongst predictor variables or the independent variables (Polhemus, 2005). When this situation happens, the regression results between the independent and dependent variables might be imprecise. 34 CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS 4. 1 Respondents background The main objective of this research is to find out if there is a significant relationship between reference groups, personal f actor, job related factor and institutional factor of KOLEJ ASA accounting students in choosing accounting course as being hypothesized before.As explained in the earlier chapters, the scope of this research is limited to KOLEJ ASA accounting students. The population for this research is 50, and from this total population, the data gathered was from 50 respondents, which represents 25% of the total population. Table 1 shows the respondents’ backgrounds which represent 78 % are female and male 22%. They are from various races where, 44% is Chinese, 38% is Indian, 16% Malay and 2% others. All the respondents are students currently studying in KOLEJ ASA. 35 Table 1: Respondents Background Respondents |Frequency |Percent | |Gender | | | |Male |11 |22% | |Female |39 |78% | |Race | | | |Chinese |22 |44% | |Indian |19 |38% | |Malay |8 |16% | |Others |1 |2% | Figure 1: Distribution of gender[pic] 36 Figure 2: Distribution of type of race [pic] 37 QUESTIONAIRE |STRONGLY AGREE |AGR EE |UNSURE |DISAGREE |STRONGLY DISAGREE | | |(5) | | | |(1) | | | |(4) |(3) |(2) | | |2. Accounting is interesting |32 |14 |3 |1 | | |3. I would enjoy being an accountant |42 |7 | |1 | | |4. I am willing to learn accounting subject |32 |18 | | | | |5. I am willing to spend a lot of time studying accounting |40 |7 |2 |1 | | |6.I can do better in calculation |42 |7 |1 | | | |7. I like to answer question in figures |43 |4 |3 | | | |8. Accounting is a course with lots of classwork |18 |29 |3 | | | |9. Learning accounting is very challenging |31 |17 |2 | | | |10. I can maintain high greed point average (GPA) |28 |19 |3 | | | |11.My family wants me to choose accounting course |13 |29 |3 | |5 | |12. My friends think I should choose accounting course |29 |15 |5 |1 | | |13. Other students recommend accounting course to me |32 |15 |3 | | | |14. My teacher thinks that I should take accounting course |45 |5 | | | | |15. My own motivations for choosing accounting course |35 |15 | | | | |16.My co unselor at school recommend accounting course to me |35 |12 |3 | | | | | | | | | | |17. Performance in secondary school subjectmatter makes me | | | | | | |choose accounting course |39 |11 | | | | |18. My parent’s occupation encourage me to choose accounting |12 |21 |15 |1 |1 | |19. My parent wants me to choose accounting course |40 |10 | | | | |20.If I choose accounting course,there will be job |26 |24 | | | | |available for me when I graduate | | | | | | |21. If I choose accounting course,there will be a great job |39 |8 |3 | | | |market demand for people like me | | | | | | |22. I can get a high paying job if I graduate with accounting|36 |14 | | | | |23.My starting salary will be satisfying if I graduate with |27 |23 | | | | |accounting | | | | | | |24. Accountants are boring people |6 |19 |2 |8 |15 | |25. Being an accountant has a lot of prestige |42 |8 | | | | |26. The accounting profession is well respected |31 17 |2 | | | |27. Accounting is a profession on par with me dicine and law |45 |5 | | | | |28. Accounting is a field with broad exposure to business |39 |11 | | | | 39 4. 2 Validity and Reliability of the Instrument Earlier chapter explain that to increase the validity of the instrument, the researcher has conducted pretest, where the questionnaires are distribute to the experts who gave their comments. The questionnaires are then being amended to increase the validity.Apart from that, the questions are also being design to include both positive and negative questions. In managing the data, the negative questions are being transformed and record into different variables before being analyzed. In other words, the negative questions were being transformed to positive questions. 40 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS 5. 1 Discussions The purpose of this paper is to find out factors influencing Kolej Asa students in choosing Diploma Accounting course as a major. From the data analysis gathered from 50 respondents, as explained in Chapter 4 the three factors h ave been supported by the findings which is significantly influence the student’s choice.Reference group, personal factors and job related factors indicate a significant correlation with students’ choice, which means that all the factors had a relationship which will influence the respondents’ to choose accounting course. However, the strength of influence by reference group is considered moderate compared to personal factors and job related factors. This showed that the respondents perceived personal factors, although significant and to be a huge influence to the students choice. 41 Among all the three factors, personal factors is seen to have the strongest influence over students’ choice which is consistent with the result found in Adams, Pryor and Adams (1994)Doran ( 2001), and Pritchard et al. , (2004).Therefore, it can be concluded that the respondents perceived that their choice in choosing accounting course will be determined more by independents, higher earnings, career advancement and prestige, followed by the job related factors which influence them to choose accounting course which consistent with the finding in Adams, Pryor and Adams (1994), Doran ( 2001), and Pritchard et al. , (2004). 5. 2 Conclusions The above discussion is based on the objective of the research, which is to find out if there is any significant relationship between the personal factors, reference group and job related factors and the students’ choice in choosing accounting course at KOLEJ ASA. All the factors indicated a significant relationship to the students’ choice. 42 5. 3 Implications The implications of this findings suggest the importance of career counseling road shows and career fairs to create awareness and understanding among young high school leavers who intent to pursue an accounting course in higher education institution.This will rectify the problem of students enrolling into other courses of which they have no knowledge of the subjects taught and future career options thus minimizing the number of students dropping out when they found out they are not interested in the subjects taught at all. The awareness and understanding of subjects taught and career options available are important to high school leavers who intent to pursue an accounting course as this research found that the utmost important factors influencing their choice of courses include interest in the subject, career advancement and career opportunities available. Another implication derived from this research is the emphasis of factor influencing undergraduate’s choice of courses.It is vital to highlight to undergraduate who intent to pursue a particular course on the possibility of the existence of factor influencing them to choose a particular course. This research hopes to highlight the importance of the role of the higher education institutions in offering sufficient and relevant information to potential students who want to pursue an accounting course so that these young high school leavers are able to make informed decision about their future career. 43 5. 4 Limitations This study has the following limitations. Firstly the study has a limited reference from local researchers so it is more depend on research that had been done abroad.It is also lack of accounting research which could help to explain on local situation. Secondly the study selected only four variables because of time constrains. Thirdly the questionnaire was only administered at one institution. The limitations of this study provide a pathway for further research in this area. 44 References ? How to Conduct Pretesting. 1997. American Statistical Association. ? Speech on The Occasion of the ICAEW Malaysia Achievers’ Ball, 2004 ? Brown, J. W. 2004. Techniques of Multivariate Data Analysis ? Adams, S. J. , L J. Pryor, and S. L. Adams. 1994. Attraction and retention of high –altitude students in accounting: An exploratory long itudinal study. Issues in Accounting Education. Ahmed, K. , K. F. Alam, and M, Alam. 1997. An empirical study of factors affectingaccounting students’ choice in New Zealand. Accounting Education: an international journal. ? Albrecht, W. S. , and R. J. Sach, 2001 . The Perilous Future of Accounting Education. The CPA Journal. ? Auyeung, P. and J, Sands. 1997. Factors influencing accounting students’ career choice; a cross cultural validation study. 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Marriott. 2003.Are we turning them off: a longitudinal study of undergraduate accounting students’ attitudes toward accounting as a profession, accounting Education: an international journal. ? Mauldin, S. , J. L Crain and P. H. Mounce. 2000. The accounting principles instructors’ influence on students’ decision to major in accounting, Journal of Education for Business. ? Sekaran. (2003) Measurement: Scaling, reliability, validity. In Research methods for business: A skill building Approach. John Wiley. ? Zickmund, W. G. 2003. Business Research Methods. Thomson South Western, Ohio 48 QUESTIONNAIRE GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Gender ? Male ? Female 2. Race ? Malay ? Chinese ? Indian ? Others 3. Basic qualification ? SPM ? STPM Other institution Stated below are a number of questions to test on the factors that influence the respondent in choosing Diploma Accountancy course in KOLEJ ASA. Circle the best answer for each question according to the scale provided below: Strongly Agree (5) Agree (4) Unsure (3) Disagree (2) strongly disagree (1) Part 1 PERSONAL FACTORS 1. I like accounting 5 4 3 2 1 2. Accounting is interesting 5 4 3 2 1 3. I would enjoy being an accountant 5 4 3 2 1 4. I am willing to learn accounting subject 5 4 3 2 1 5. I am willing to spend a lot of time studying accounting 5 4 3 2 1 6. I can do better in calculation 5 4 3 2 1 7.I like to answer question in figures 5 4 3 2 1 8. Accounting is a course with lots of class work 5 4 3 2 1 9. Learning accounting is very challenging 5 4 3 2 1 10. I can maintain high gred point average (GPA) 5 4 3 2 1 Part 2 REFERENCES GROUP 1. My family wants me to choose accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 2. My friends think I should choose accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 3. Other students recommend accounting course to me 5 4 3 2 1 4. My teacher thinks that I should take accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 5. My own motivations for choosing accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 6. My counselor(s) at school recommend accounting course to me 4 3 2 1 7. Performance in secondary school subject matter makes me choose accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 8. My parent’s occupation encourage me to choose accounting 5 4 3 2 1 9. My parent wants me to choose accounting course 5 4 3 2 1 Part 3 JOB RELATED FACTORS 1. If I choose accounting course, there will be job available for me when I graduate. 5 4 3 2 1 2. If I choose accounting course, there will always be a great job market demand for people like me. 5 4 3 2 1 3. I can ge t a high paying job if I graduate with accounting 5 4 3 2 1 4. My starting salary will be satisfying if I graduate with accounting 5 4 3 2 1 5.Accountants are boring people 5 4 3 2 1 6. Being an accountant has a lot of prestige 5 4 3 2 1 7. The accounting profession is well respected 5 4 3 2 1 8. Accounting is a profession on par with medicine and law 5 4 3 2 1 9. Accounting is a field with broad exposure to business 5 4 3 2 1 Suggestions / Comments: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you for your time in completing the questionnaire. I am sure that the responses will be a great help and useful for the purpose of this research. [pic][pic]