Career preference, career intention, and academic performance of accounting students in selected universities in Ghana

Abstract

The study examined career preference and academic performance of accounting students in Ghana. The study was informed by the social cognitive career theory, theory of planned behaviour and trait factor theory, and followed the pragmatist research philosophy. Sequential explanatory design and follow-up explanations model were employed for the study. The study engaged all the 360 undergraduate accounting students in the quantitative phase of the study. Through convenience sampling, 15 participants were selected for the qualitative phase. Questionnaire and interview guide were used to gather quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (ANOVA, t-test, linear regression and structural equation modelling) statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data and thematic analysis for the qualitative data. It emerged from the study that personal factors, reference factors and job factors significantly influenced career preference of accounting students. However, only job factors such as salary directly influenced students’ academic performance. Academic performance in Management Accounting was positively influenced by performance in Financial Accounting. There was no statistically significant difference between the academic performance of male and female accounting students. Career preference intention was found to mediate the relationships between job factors, personal factors, reference factors and academic performance. Accounting students who were willing and determined to pursue accounting career put in maximum effort to perform academically better. Accounting educators must expose students to accounting career opportunities and the positive outcomes of the accounting profession.