In three recent issues of the periodical "Accounting Reviews" dated October, 1943, January and July, 1944, representative educational programs of accounting majors have been printed for sixty colleges in the U.S. and for two in Canada. It is the purpose of this article to analyse the data thus collected. The first analysis, will deal with the quantitative aspects of the programs. This will classify the courses according to the usual departments of instruction and thus indicate the fields of education which receive particular attention in most programs in the sample. A subsequent analysis will deal with course names in order to derive further indications of the educational pattern of college students who major in accounting. Public accountants and others who give employment to college graduates with a major in accounting may find these representative programs helpful. They are individual programs, each representing the work of an actual student who was graduated from the school named. They can be studied individually as one deals in the office with one man at a time.

It is not unusual for accounting teachers to stress knowledge as an important aspect of preparation for a career in professional accounting. And it is perhaps understandable that sometimes they may not show full appreciation of the existence of other factors besides technical competence. Accounting practitioners, on the other hand, often emphasize the fact that qualities other than technical competence contribute greatly to successful professional service. Perhaps they sometimes give the impression that personal factors are more important than technical preparation. In one occupation rating scale constructed from data supplied by twenty industrial and vocational psychologists, occupations of university professor, oculist, civil engineer, journalist are classified in the first category of high abstract intelligence. But no mention is made there of the certified public accountant (CPA) or his counterpart in industry, the controller. It is not necessary to assert that a CPA is the intellectual equal of an oculist, a journalist, an engineer, or a professor, in order to point out that there may be a real question here concerning the adequacy of sampling which omits an important occupation.

The usefulness to teachers of results of aptitude tests given to their students may easily prove greater than might at first be expected. If a school must limit its enrollment, objective measurements of learning capacity would be a helpful addition to the evidence afforded by previous classroom grades. There are several reasons for thinking that teachers of accounting and colleges of commerce generally should be glad to cooperate in this experiment wherever it is feasible to do so. If the accountant needs a certain type of ability, but little or no mathematical knowledge, it is an open question whether the study of mathematics is the best way to attain that ability. If some other approach will develop the desired ability and at the same time give the student certain knowledge that will also be directly useful in his future work, it is clearly an advantage to follow this course, even if to do so means foregoing the discipline which is part of the study of mathematics.

Reviews the book "Square Pegs in Square Holes," by Margaret E. Broadley.

The article discusses the social significance of accounting and the public-interest aspect of public accounting. The author views the concept of accounting as a factor in social control. Too few men come from college with any appreciation of the relation between the accounting principles and practices which they have studied and the social consequences that may result from their application. Regulatory bodies in recent years have taken it upon themselves to determine accounting principles and practices in many cases in order to promulgate their regulatory objectives without making their social consequences clear. The question can be fairly raised as to whether the profession and the teachers have made the contribution that should be made in relating accounting policies in use to such consequences. Any consideration as to the soundness of a particular accounting policy is sterile which does not embrace the possible social consequences thereof. The theory apparently underlying the typical program in business or accounting reflects a belief that education for living and education for working can be successfully integrated throughout the four years leading to a bachelor's degree, or the five years to a master's degree. This expresses the idea that working is a part of living and living involves working.

Professor Thomas W. Leland has been appointed as education director of American Institute of Accounts. According to the press, his work for the institute will include development of refresher courses sponsored by the institute and collegiate schools of accounting for members of the accountancy profession returning to their practice after war service. Included also in the educational program to be administered by Leland will be relations with state boards of examiners of states which have officially adopted the standard American Institute examination for certified public accountants. In this phase, Leland will work with the board of examiners of the institute. He will also be concerned with other educational activities of the organization. In expanding its service to the profession, the institute is making increasing use of staff comprising of various functional heads. A technical assistant is provided in normal times for each of several important research committees and a director of research is retained to coordinate the work.

The article presents information about a Committee appointed by the American Accounting Association. The work of the Committee on Monographs during the year, 1943, has been devoted primarily to two projects. The first consisted of preparing a compilation of the releases and pronouncements on accounting matters issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Committee on Accounting Procedure and the Committee on Auditing Procedure of the American Institute of Accountants. The second project was the preparation of a monograph on the principles of consolidated statements. This monograph was written by Dr. Maurice Moonitz of Stanford University, and was reviewed and approved for publication by the Committee. The Committee has also given some attention to two or three other projects and manuscripts. The president of the Committee said that the educational institutions and programs are all being subjected to special stresses and difficult restrictions during the war. The programs of most colleges and universities in fields customarily followed by men have had to be materially curtailed or completely eliminated.