Abstract:

This research demonstrates the importance of the accounting curriculum design to response to the world awareness that the economic success of the State is directly determined by the quality of their educational systems (Dragut, 2011). However, this importance faces strong competition between Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and deals with the fast evolution of knowledge and experiences that obliges to change to higher demand for recognition of qualifications of study programs and to increase the pressure of sustainability of HEI.

The first part of the research presents, on the accounting scientific area, the Portuguese Undergraduates Degrees. It will undertake this with the purpose of improving student learning and developing professional skills. So, the research process will be based on collecting and reviewing accessible information about higher degree study programs in Portugal. The second part of the research is focus on the creation and the change process of the Accounting Undergraduate Degree at the Technology and Management Higher School of the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (in Portuguese, ESTG-IPG) and, also, presents: (1) the process of curriculum revision; (2) the integrated timetable and the course syllabi; and (3) the definition of outcomes (Elizondo-Montemayor et al., 2008). The third part of the research reveals the evolution on the teaching and learning process on the accounting undergraduate degree that fulfill the rapid change in the practice environment of accounting and the need of the curriculum design going behind emerging issues and trends that will increase competitive advantages and recognizes the professional well-trained workforce.

The results of the research show that the resistance to change was decrease with the communication process and the change itself follows the Ainsworth (2001) purposes, specifically: (1) extended dialogue about teaching, curriculum, and pedagogy; (2) careful process for implementing change; and (3) the model of the accounting curriculum is more consistent with the proposals of Professional Bodies and scientific evolution. Thus, with the accounting curriculum design, the student must gain skills and knowledge in accounting, taxation, auditing and corporate finance that will develop the planning, management, evaluation and control in organizations, associated with economic and business sciences, in a technical and professional context of national and international scope. All this allied with a high sense of ethics, diplomacy and resourcefulness in social relations.

Keywords:

Accounting, Curriculum design, Innovation, Polytechnic Institutions.