17 September 2001 Lincoln professor new Accounting Association president

Accounting Professor Fawzi Laswad of Lincoln University has been elected President of the Accounting Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ), the 700-member transtasman umbrella organisation of accounting academics and others involved with accounting education.

The appointment is for a two-year term and Professor Laswad shares the position with an Australian counterpart, Professor Gary Monroe of Edith Cowan University, Perth.

Professor Laswad has been Professor of Accounting at Lincoln University since 1997 and was appointed to the position after 10 years on the lecturing staff at Victoria University of Wellington.

A Chartered Accountant (CA), Professor Laswad has a PhD in Accounting from the University of Sydney and a masters degree in Accounting and Banking, Investments and Finance from the University of Wisconsin-­Madison.

He is a past winner of the prestigious Coopers and Lybrand Peter Barr Fellowship and has been involved in numerous working parties on specific topics, issues and standards for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (ICANZ).

Professor Laswad maintains strong links with the accounting profession. He is a member of ICANZ's Academic Committee and the Academic Board of Advanced Business Education Limited, the ICANZ subsidiary responsible for the delivery of the Accounting Professional Competency Programme.

He is the author or co-author of over 55 journal and conference papers.

Founded in 1960, the Accounting Association of Australia and New Zealand has teaching, research and professional practice roles plus an advocacy function for the profession.

"There are strong links between the accounting academic community and the profession," says Professor Laswad. "The ICANZ and its two Australian counterparts are the principal sponsors of AAANZ.

"Among matters the association is concerned with is maintaining the quality of academic teaching and research in accounting at universities, and related to that we also have an interest in the recruitment and retention of quality accounting academics.

"Universities find it hard to compete with the salaries and career advancement opportunities that accounting graduates can enjoy in the private sector.

"The recruitment and retention of quality staff is therefore one of the challenges facing accounting education in Australia and New Zealand, and indeed worldwide."

Professor Laswad says the accounting stream within Lincoln's commerce degree programmes has good enrolments and there is a strong demand for the University's graduates in New Zealand and internationally.

"The accounting programme at Lincoln University is well recognised for its innovative use of information technology, case study based learning and the development of critical thinking and analysis among its students.

"These innovations reflect the strong commitment to excellence in teaching, research and contributions to the profession and the wider community.

"We have a strong postgraduate programme at all levels - honours, masters and PhD. With a total of five PhD candidates at the moment we're possibly in a unique position among university accounting groups in New Zealand."

The arrival of 11 postgraduate accounting students from Lincoln's past connection with Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) in Malaysia has expanded the University's postgraduate programme to 26 students.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.