The Accounting team at Sussex’s School of Business, Management and Economics were delighted to host the annual BAFA Accounting Education Special Interest Group conference at the Hilton Brighton Metropole from 2-4 May.

Deputy Head of School Professor Hans van der Heijden opened the conference by welcoming over 100 delegates from as far afield as Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, and the USA.

Papers were then presented on a variety of interesting educational themes and included both full paper presentations and emerging ideas in the form of PechaKucha papers (20 slides displayed for 20 seconds per slide).

The keynote paper was delivered by Professor Miklos Vasarhelyi of Rutgers University, USA on the theme of Disruption in Accounting Education. This theme was picked up by plenary speakers from the professional accounting bodies and practising accountants, with Martin Martinoff of ICAEW asking ‘How do we help students flourish in the future?’ and a panel session exploring ‘2025 – The challenges for a newly qualified accountant’.

Group Chair, Professor Greg Stoner of the University of Glasgow announced the 2018 conference awards at the closing plenary session:

• Best Full Paper: Olga Cam and Plamena Pehlivanova, An interpretation of the views of accounting professoriate on the accounting lecturer as the ‘More Knowledgeable Other’ through a Vygotskian theoretical lens

• Best Emerging Paper & Pecha Kucha Presentation: Suzanne McCallum and David Nicol, Activating inner feedback: Improving learning while reducing teacher-feedback workload

Professor Alan Sangster is the editor-in-chief of Accounting Education and is hopeful that some of the conference presentations are eventually submitted to the journal for consideration by its panel of reviewers.

Speaking after the conference, Prof Sangster and co-organiser Susan Smith said: “The conference was a great success and it was clear that all delegates shared a passion for education and improving the outcomes of their students.”

Further information: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/bam/bafa-conference/index