History
Accounting teaching at the University of Melbourne started in 1925 when instruction in the Faculty of Commerce commenced.
E.V. (later Sir Edwin) Nixon and A.A. (later Sir Alex) Fitzgerald, who taught Accountancy I in that year, were to become two of the great figures in Australian accounting. Between them, they headed large accounting firms, sat on a range of important governmental enquiries and bodies, provided top-level advice on wartime financial problems and, in Fitzgeralds's case, chaired the Commonwealth Grants Commission (responsible for allocating Federal income tax to the Australian States) during 1946-60. In a part-time capacity, Fitzgerald was appointed to Melbourne's (and Australia's) first chair in accounting in 1955.
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Faculty academic staff, 1925: Standing, left to right: G.L. Wood, A.A. Fitzgerald, E.V. Nixon, E.C.W. Kelly. Seated: R.B. Lennon, Professor D.B. Copland. |
Most of the early Bachelor of Commerce students were qualified accountants who took the degree to broaden their knowledge of the business sciences. Six of the Faculty's first ten Bachelor of Commerce degrees were awarded to qualified accountants who included Alex Fitzgerald and his younger brother Garry, who taught part-time from 1928.
In the 1930s, the student mix changed and, gradually, the Bachelor of Commerce became a gateway into the accounting profession, a phenomenon which has continued to the present day. Since the 1970s, the majority of Commerce graduates have included accounting majors in their degrees and qualified for entry into the professional programs of CPA Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
Business Information Systems is introduced
Alex Fitzgerald's immediate professorial successors, Louis Goldberg and Robert Nicol, were responsible for curriculum initiatives, particularly the introduction of business information systems and corporate finance.
In the 1990s, Professor Peter Brownell is credited with boosting the Department's international reputation for the quality of its staff research, some of which is carried out in conjunction with major corporations and professional bodies.
Promise Fulfilled - history of Accounting at Melbourne
Promise Fulfilled, by Associate Professor Geoff Burrows, Principal Fellow in the Department of Accounting and Business Information Systems, was published in August 2008. The book recounts the history of the accounting discipline at the University of Melbourne, from its inception in 1925 to its 80th birthday in 2004.
Published by Melbourne University Publishing, Promise Fulfilled depicts a discipline that has always possessed a powerful undergraduate presence, but which in recent years has also gained international recognition for its research and postgraduate programs.
According to Geoff, who had a 30-year career at the University and was Head of Department from 1987-1990, accounting had to counter the image that it was not a 'true' academic discipline and at the same time cope with changes in information technology, adapt to new research paradigms, manage burgeoning enrolments, and develop attractive postgraduate programs.
Promise Fulfilled chronicles the response of accounting staff to these challenges and their success in transforming the discpline's presence within the University. It rebuts the uptight image of academic accounting, depicting a rich collection of staff and student personalities, and more than a few pranks perpetrated by the latter.