Accounting Streams workshop 2025

Categorised: Events, News, Pedagogy
Posted by Toby York. Last updated: September 8, 2025

This workshop raised challenging questions about our role as accounting educators—are we ready?

In the heart of Canary Wharf, among the towering symbols of financial power, accounting educators gathered to consider how best to attract and develop the next generation of accountants. A broad range of conversations and presentations revealed the challenges we face. Incorporating the social and political context of accounting, developing employability skills, higher-order thinking and emotional intelligence in students, maintaining institutional accreditations, and dovetailing new content into curriculums already stretched to capacity. It was a busy day, and provided ample evidence that accounting education is far from static, technical or undisputed. There were demonstrations of innovative and accessible education initiatives, a heated exchange about regulatory effectiveness and provocative calls for radical changes to climate change accounting.

Beyond “greenwashing”

Richard Murphy delivered a combative keynote, arguing that “current sustainability standards are crap and simply greenwashing”. His proposal for Sustainable Cost Accounting (SCA)—requiring companies to provision for net-zero liabilities on their balance sheets—divided the room between those energised by his radical vision and those questioning its practical implementation.

The central thesis was stark: most companies are unprepared for net-zero, current accounting obscures this reality, and without honest reporting, we face “economic and ecological collapse”. His SCA framework presents a fundamental departure from traditional practice, requiring provisions for the full cost of achieving net-zero across all three carbon scopes.

Rather than allowing the discounting of climate liabilities, Murphy’s SCA demands compounding them to reflect the escalating expense of delayed action. As he put it, this represents “accounting as an instrument for change—not as a passive participant in the world around it”.

Perhaps most provocatively, the framework introduces the concept of “carbon insolvency”—where companies lacking the financial capacity to meet their net-zero obligations become unviable. His empirical work with two private companies (unwilling to disclose publicly) suggests the financial implications are substantial enough to threaten conventional measures of business sustainability.

When challenged about estimation difficulties and double-counting across supply chains, Richard was characteristically direct: “All of accounting is about estimation”, and, “We double-count all the time”.

Yet his broader point about accounting’s political nature resonated strongly.

Accounting is deeply political. It’s about the sharing of rewards between competing interests.

Richard Murphy

This keynote set out clearly that the profession is standing at a crossroads with the opportunity to either facilitate or hinder climate action. It set the stage for Samantha Bell’s session on integrating climate-related reporting into practical classroom activities. Her scaffolded approach builds from existing standards to help students navigate uncertainty in climate risk assessment. She offered a practical and high-quality pathway for educators, especially those who might be less confident about their expertise in this area.

The sustainability thread throughout the day—from the new QAA benchmark Subject Benchmark Statement: Accounting (2025), QAA website , CSRD The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), PWC website requirements and the ISSB Standards International Sustainability Standards Board, IFRS website —demonstrate that this is no longer an option within the accounting curriculum but a core accounting competency. 

Competing visions for professional education principles

Distinctions emerged on how professional education should respond to change. Kaija Laurila from the Capitals Coalition highlighted the skills and knowledge gaps in sustainability reporting, but also pointed to accountants’ existing strengths in “making complex judgements and exercising technical skills”. She emphasised the importance of moving beyond traditional capital concepts, suggesting that community-building initiatives like Accounting Streams could play a role in that.

John Munnelly from Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI), advocated for student-centred professional development: “Sticking to strong [technical] fundamentals is monumentally important”, but so is developing “emotional maturity”. The CAI curriculum, therefore, begins with an exploration of heuristics, sense of self and ethical philosophy.

In contrast, Alex Collins from ICAEW spoke about their market-driven approach informed by employers: “It’s up to the market to tell us what they want”, emphasising that firms recruit for competencies and behaviours, with technical knowledge following behind.

Professional ethics and regulatory accountability

Rhiannon Soper from the FRC gave a clear and insightful update about the current regulatory structures within the FRC making sense of the acronym soup that our students struggle with. During the discussion, Atul Shah challenged Rhiannon about the FRC’s effectiveness in addressing accounting scandals and professional misconduct. Rhiannon acknowledged this perception, explaining that the FRC’s responses are limited by its voluntary regulatory frameworks. She added that the FRC is still waiting for the government to give it enhanced enforcement powers under the ARGA proposals. Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), UK Government website

Nadia Gulko’s session offered practical ways to bring ethical issues into the classroom. Her work with the Institute of Business Ethics provides video cases and structured activities that help students navigate ethical complexity. The emphasis on UN Sustainable Development Goals as frameworks for ethical discussion connects technical knowledge with broader questions of professional responsibility.

Pedagogical innovations: theory meets practice

The workshop showcased several initiatives seeking to address curriculum challenges. 

The Grand Challenges initiative addresses what Jim Haslam describes as accounting education’s “theory light” problem. Rather than confining theoretical perspectives to final-year options, the project seeks to integrate critical thinking throughout undergraduate study.

You don’t find a disregard of theory in other disciplines.

Jim Haslam

Mengyuan Feng described how accounting theory helps students develop some of the intellectual, contemplative and practical skills we know our students need to develop. Educators focussing exclusively on accounting as “allocating, managing and distributing resources” miss an opportunity to provide students a more expansive view of the discipline and their future profession.

The Grand Challenges cases offer entry points for theoretical discussion through contemporary issues—from Nestlé’s labour practices to the employment illusions of the gig economy. [Available from early 2026]

The workshop also highlighted emerging pedagogical tools, from escape rooms and memory games to the experimental Accounting Tutor GPT. While some innovations appeared more promising than others, the willingness to experiment suggests Accounting Streams is becoming an important and powerful platform to help us all move beyond traditional lecture-and-tutorial formats.

Personal reflections

These discussions left me wrestling with a couple of questions about our role as educators. 

A vanishingly small number of my students are interested in accounting as an academic discipline. Largely, they want to become accountants, financial analysts or bankers. They expect the university to deliver the technical and employability skills to help them get these jobs. Their aspirations are broadly aligned with what the professional bodies appear to require of higher education.

Earlier this year, Will Holt, ICAEW’s Director of Education, stated that there had never been a better opportunity for higher education institutions to meet core accountancy education requirements and provide the technical grounding that is no longer provided in the workplace due to technological disruption. 

This raises uncomfortable questions about our role within academic institutions—are we primarily filling gaps on the path to professional qualification?

Beyond these practical concerns, the workshop raised deeper ideological questions. Accounting Streams emphasises accounting as a technical, social, and moral practice (as defined by Carnegie). Carnegie, G., (2025), “Now is the time to create an accounting that is better suited to today’s realities”, Accounting Cafe website Framing accounting beyond the technical, alongside a growing emphasis on sustainability and social responsibility, raises challenges about how we present competing ideological frameworks to students.

Rather than positioning ourselves as advocates for particular models, might we better serve students by helping them understand the political choices embedded in different accounting approaches? This tension between advocacy and analysis seems particularly acute when teaching climate-related reporting, ethics or stakeholder accounting—areas where technical competence and politics inevitably intersect.

Perhaps the most desirable outcome is students who can recognise and evaluate these choices, rather than simply adopting the preferred frameworks of their lecturers. That analytical capability might prove more valuable than knowledge of any specific set of sustainability standards.

A call for the community

These reflections point to a broader reality evident throughout the workshop: accounting education stands at an inflexion point. The challenges are substantial—sustainability imperatives, technological disruption, regulatory inadequacy, and evolving student expectations. Yet the collaborative response emerging around initiatives like Accounting Streams provides genuine grounds for optimism.

The project’s reach and impact are impressive. Susan Smith revealed 46,000 interactions across 119 countries, with established adoption in the UK, US, and Brazil, recent growth in China, and emerging engagement across Africa. More significant than the numbers is the collaborative ethos: principles of free access, comprehensive instructor resources, and academic recognition through DOI integration address the practical barriers that often prevent the uptake of innovation.

For educators seeking to engage with these developments, Accounting Streams offers both immediate resources and something potentially more valuable: a forum for the kinds of frank discussions evident throughout this workshop. Whether the challenge is integrating sustainability standards, navigating ethical complexity, or balancing market demands with educational principles, the project provides space for collective problem-solving rather than isolated struggle.

As Susan observed, “This is a community where everybody should be valued and can contribute”. Whether through resource sharing, case study development, or simply engaging with new pedagogical approaches, educators can both benefit from and shape this evolving conversation about how we prepare students for a changing profession.

The tensions and competing visions evident throughout this workshop—whether about radical climate accounting, regulatory accountability, or educational philosophy—remind us that these are fundamentally questions about values and purpose, and the kind of profession we are helping to create.

Ready to get involved with Accounting Streams?

The project thrives on community engagement. Your contribution, however small it might seem, could make a significant difference to educators and students worldwide.

Join the community

How to cite this article: York, T. (2025) ‘Accounting Streams workshop 2025, Accounting Cafe. Available at: https://accountingcafe.org/2025/04/29/is-accountancy-in-crisis . Retrieved: [insert date].

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