The Bachelor of Science in Accountancy (BSAC) program is composed of subjects in

accounting (financial and managerial), audit, business laws and taxation. This program is not only
limited to business subjects but to other fields as well that also teaches students to integrate
Information Technology(IT) concepts and skills into business systems, in order to create a more
well-thought-out and organized way of storing business related data. One of the taught IT skills
in this program is the use of Accounting Information System. Accounting Information System (AIS)
defined as the collection, storage and processing of financial and accounting data used by internal
users to report information to investors, creditors and tax authorities and is generally a
computer-based method for tracking accounting activity in conjunction with information
technology resources that combines traditional accounting practices, such as the Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), with modern information technology resources.
As the work of accountants emerge in relation to constant changes that are happening in
the business world, traditional technical skill and knowledge are essential not only to cope with
the demands of the world but for one’s growth and development. Future accountants will
increasingly need education in digital technology, globalization, and evolving regulations.
Information Technology (IT) proficiency and the ability to understand, design and communicate
new accounting system using the latest technologies became a predominant skill set for
emerging accountants. The issue of incorporating IT skills in accounting education has been an
alarm for accounting educators because such skills are still below the minimum expectation.
Information Technology (IT) proficiency and the ability to understand, design and communicate
new accounting system using the latest technologies became a predominant skill set for
emerging accountants. This issue motivated a prior study conducted to assess the different
factors that mitigate educators from incorporating IT skills in their taught unit(s). The said study
revealed that such factors are subdivided into three subcategories and they are academic staff-
based barriers, environmental-based barriers and student-based barriers. From the data that was
gathered, some factors emerged and were perceived as mitigating the IT skills development
process, all of them are considered as internal issues since they were raised by internal sources,
which are under the control of the school offering the program.
Academic staff-based barriers appeared to slow down and in some cases stop the
integration process due to lack of personal interest among the academic staff in changing their
teaching approaches and lack of knowledge regarding which skills to develop and which IT
packages are available for introduction to students. Soon-to-retire academic staffs were
perceived as another barrier in the integration for it may be hard for them to see the benefits of
it or to pursue the knowledge and skills. Environmental-based barriers included issues related to
the type of university, time, syllabus constraints and cost. Educators had to divide their time over
many tasks, including research, teaching and administrative jobs. The issue was perceived as
creating problems since the tasks had different weights concerning promotion and this situation
created tension for educators, as they had problems managing and allocating their time between
tasks, finally ending up with little or no time spent on teaching innovation. Student-based barriers
mentioned two factors relating to students that discouraged educators from using IT or
developing IT skills in their teaching. One of the factors was low participation of students in IT-
based activities another is that students are believed to have knowledge already with such IT
skills that they have gained from their previous formal or informal learning experience.

According to the study, these barriers should be considered in order to encourage the
integration initiatives and its successful implementation. These findings make significant
contribution to the already existing accounting programs that need to further improvement.