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Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Professorship of Accounting

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. Accounting has become firmly established as a core discipline in most of the world's leading universities and forms a vigorous academic community with prominent academic societies in Britain, Europe, and the United States. Academics in the field of accounting contribute to, and interact with, cognate areas such as finance, economics, organizational behaviour, and strategy. The major business schools world-wide typically have substantial departments devoted to the subject, since this occupies a prominent place in both compulsory and elective course lists for the M.B.A. Degree. In addition to accounting occupying a core function in both the corporate and company sectors of business, accounting and audit techniques of monitoring and control are being introduced or extended in many other areas of activity, education and health care being prime examples. Subjects such as regulation, market behaviour, probity, and accountability are all central to the study of accounting and raise major intellectual challenges for theory and professional practice.

2. In the United Kingdom, at least three Nobel Prize winners in Economics gained much of their reputation in accounting whilst within the University of Cambridge. Professor Richard Stone was made a Nobel Laureate in recognition of his contributions to developments in this field. Accounting has long played a major part in the economics research programme of the University. The importance of developing the subject further was recognized in 1987 when, following receipt of a benefaction from the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse, the General Board agreed to recommend the establishment of a Professorship of Financial Accounting for an initial period of ten years. This Professorship was established in the Faculty of Economics and Politics from 1 October 1988 and was held by Professor G. Whittington until his resignation on 31 July 2001 when funding for the Professorship lapsed.

3. During his tenure, Professor Whittington was responsible for providing intellectual leadership in the field of accounting, not only in the Faculty of Economics and Politics but also, following its establishment in 1990, in the Judge Institute of Management Studies. As accounting is a fundamental cornerstone of any business school, it accordingly forms an integral and critical part of the Judge Institute's undergraduate teaching programme in the Management Studies Tripos as well as for engineering students. Postgraduate teaching in accounting is provided to the M.Phil. courses in Management Studies and in Finance as well as to the M.B.A. course. The Institute's teaching in accounting is provided at present by only two University Teaching Officers, funded from M.B.A. income, and the Management Studies Syndicate are very aware of the need to increase this provision and to take forward research activity in the field. The importance attached to strengthening this field is reflected in the high priority that the Syndicate attached to the establishment of a Professorship of Accounting within the Institute's fundraising campaign. The case for the provision of senior leadership in accounting within the Institute has been endorsed by the Faculty of Economics and Politics.

4. Following the resignation of Professor Whittington, however, and in order both to sustain this group and to take forward developments in teaching and research, the Management Studies Syndicate have advised the General Board of the urgent need for this Professorship to provide senior leadership in both teaching and research in the field of accounting within the Judge Institute of Management Studies. This request has been warmly endorsed by the Council of the School of Technology, who have allocated an initial sum of £19,000 of recurrent funding in support of a Professorship of Accounting. The Management Studies Syndicate have undertaken to give the highest priority to obtaining permanent funding to meet the balance of the cost of the Professorship. In the meantime, the Syndicate have agreed that these costs, together with the support costs for the Professor, will be met from M.B.A. income.

5. The General Board are assured that suitable accommodation for the Professor is available and that the necessary support and facilities will be provided by the Judge Institute from M.B.A. income. The Board are satisfied that appointment at this level will be likely to attract a strong field of well-qualified candidates.

6. The General Board accordingly propose that a Professorship of Accounting should be established in the University from 1 January 2002 and assigned to the Judge Institute of Management Studies. They have agreed to concur in the view of the Management Studies Syndicate that election to the Professorship should be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that candidature for the Professorship should be open in the first instance without limitation or preference to all candidates whose work falls within the general title of the office.

7. The General Board recommend:

That a Professorship of Accounting be established from 1 January 2002, placed in Schedule B of the Statues, and assigned to the Judge Institute of Management Studies.

28 November 2001 ALEC N. BROERS,
Vice-Chancellor
KEITH GLOVER PETER LIPTON
  TONY BADGER MALCOLM GRANT A. C. MINSON
  P. J. BAYLEY J. C. GRAY KATE PRETTY
  N. BULLOCK BRIAN F. G. JOHNSON M. SCHOFIELD
  H. A. CHASE    

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Cambridge University Reporter 12 December 2001
Copyright © 2001 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.