Past research

Realising the potential: Assessing professional learning through the integration of ePortfolios in Australian business education

Team: Prof Kim Watty, Dr Shona Leitch, A/Prof Dale Holt and Dr Leanne Ngo

The project will develop an e-portfolio framework for assessing business students' professional learning capabilities; and supporting professional development resources and illustrative case studies. The project aims to realise the full potential of implementing e-portfolios in advancing the quality of the student learning experience in business education.

Innovative teaching, learning and assessment in accounting education: engaging with digital technologies that enhance student learning

Team: Prof Kim Watty, Dr Jade McKay and Dr Leanne Ngo

Focused on improving teaching and assessment practice through the use of digital technologies, this project aims to effect innovation and excellence in teaching practice in accounting education.

The proposed project will make its findings available through an i-resource, which will be both relevant and useful to accounting educators at various levels of the Higher Education (HE) sector and those involved in Professional Education Programs.

The objectives of this study are to:

1. Investigate and report on best practice in the use of digital technologies that enhance teaching and assessment in business education broadly and accounting education specifically; and
2. Develop and promote resources, including exemplars from the national and international education sectors that inform academics of the potential for digital technologies to develop innovative teaching and assessment focused on evidencing student learning outcomes.

The i-resource is an example of the possibilities for developing engaging and interactive resources that models potential innovative practices, designed to enhance innovative teaching and assessment.

Financial statement reporting practices of entities lodging under the Corporations Act

Team: Prof George Tanewski and Prof Peter Carey

This study analyses the reporting practices of for-profit and not-for-profit entities, particularly those lodging financial statements with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and with Consumer Affairs Victoria, NSW Fair Trading and Fair Trading Queensland. More specifically, the study examines the implementation of the reporting entity concept by entities lodging reports with the ASIC; the financial reporting practices by entities who lodge with the ASIC, and the financial reporting practices by entities who lodge reports with Consumer Affairs Victoria, NSW Fair Trading and Fair Trading Queensland.

In examining reporting practices of entities lodging with the ASIC, a random sample of 1,546 entities is used to provide the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) with results that are generalisable across the following 5 populations of entities: (i) Large proprietary companies; (ii) Small proprietary companies that are required to lodge reports with the ASIC; (iii) Small proprietary companies controlled by a foreign entity; (iv) Unlisted public companies other than those limited by guarantee; and (v) Public companies limited by guarantee.

Further random samples are drawn from entities lodging with Consumer Affairs Victoria (400 entities), NSW Fair Trading (377 entities) and Fair Trading Queensland (386 entities) and analysed to provide the Board with evidence of the reporting practices of various types of entities lodging with these bodies - including co-operatives, associations and charitable entities.

The policy implications emanating from this research have the potential to lead to de-regulation or to amendments to 'AASB 1053 – Application of Tiers of Australian Accounting Standards', other relevant accounting standards, and to the Corporations Act.

The pricing of deposit insurance under systematic risk

Team: Prof Ed Lin

This project develops a deposit insurance pricing model based on Merton (1977) put option framework that incorporates asset correlations, a measurement for the systematic risk of a bank, to account for the risk of joint bank failures.

Estimates from the model suggest that actuarially fair risk-based deposit insurance that considers only individual bank failure risk is underpriced, leaving insurance providers exposed to net losses. The estimates also capture the size premium where big banks are priced with higher deposit insurance than small banks. This result is particularly relevant to the current regulatory concerns on big banks that are systemically important. Above all, the approach provides a unifying framework for integrating risk-based deposit insurance with risk-based Basel capital requirements.

An investigation into the role of educators, employers and the accounting profession in providing opportunities for Indigenous Australians to enter the field of accounting

Team: Luisa Lombardi and Prof Barry J Cooper

A comprehensive research report will be developed to provide an in-depth understanding of the barriers to the development of financial skills of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, together with strategies to address these barriers and support Indigenous Australian into the Australian accounting profession.