Awareness, Motivational Drivers, and Support Mechanisms: Exploring Accounting Students' Perspectives on Professional Qualifications

Professional accounting qualifications are central to strengthening corporate governance, financial reporting, and workforce capacity, yet Malaysia continues to face persistent shortages. The national aspiration of producing 60,000 qualified accountants by 2020 remains unmet, and the profession now faces a significant talent crisis. This study explores accounting students' perspectives on professional qualifications following a university–professional body outreach programme. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 final-year Bachelor of Accounting students at Universiti Teknologi MARA Melaka, purposively selected at the threshold of graduation (CGPA 3.12–3.62). Interviews (25–40 minutes) were conducted alongside an ACCA outreach talk, with transcripts analysed thematically using Braun and Clarke's six-step framework. Findings reveal predominantly limited awareness: nearly half of the participants first encountered professional qualifications only through the outreach programme, and all reported exposure solely to ACCA, with negligible awareness of CIMA, CPA Australia, or ICAEW. Despite this, students exhibited a strong intention to pursue ACCA, anchored in career advancement, employability, and a recognised chartered accountant pathway, tempered by perceived examination difficulty. The outreach programme was perceived as beneficial in expanding awareness of CIMA, although the ACCA sessions were more comprehensive, signalling the need for balanced representation and earlier exposure. Most students were unaware of available scholarships, and the discovery of funding opportunities through the programme substantially strengthened their intention to pursue certification. The study underscores the indispensable role of structured university–professional body engagement in translating favourable attitudes into a committed pursuit of professional qualifications, with practical implications for curriculum design, balanced multi-body representation, and proactive scholarship dissemination.

Accounting Education

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