Pragmatic, convivial and efficient: The history of the Department of Accounting

Of the cohort who studied Accounting 1, seven were women. Their eagerness was understandable: the University of Melbourne was the only option for women wanting to study accounting at a tertiary level in Victoria.

Pioneers across the country

In those earliest days, the discipline was led by Edwin Nixon, an esteemed accountant who had already garnered a reputation in Melbourne’s business world. Nixon was supported by Adolf Alexander (Alec) Fitzgerald*, who had himself enrolled as a student in the Bachelor of Commerce in 1925, while simultaneously agreeing to lecture in accounting part-time. The well-respected Fitzgerald was among those who represented the accounting profession in negotiations with Sir Douglas Copland while the latter was planning the establishment of the Faculty.

Accounting on the home front

A steady increase in students and part-time staff continued, and the start of World War II tested the department and the Faculty, as many staff managed obligations towards the war effort while still teaching.

Former Head of Accounting Geoff Burrows, who has detailed the history of the University’s Accounting Department in his book Promise Fulfilled, says owing to the nature of the war, students who had nearly finished their degrees couldn’t enlist.

“Every university student within one year of completing their degree was not allowed to enlist, so University teaching had to keep on.”

“It was important to keep the tap of qualified people running.”

The changing face of Australian accountancy

The demographics among students changed considerably after the war. Many of these new students were returning from service overseas. Their classes would have been particularly jarring as many lessons were held in ex-army Nissen huts on campus, which were small prefabricated buildings made of corrugated metal.

“There wasn’t enough space in the University,” Burrows explains.

The era of learning in Nissen huts continued until the late 1950s.

"My Accounting 1 tutes were held in a Nissen hut in 1959," he recalls.

Sir Alec defines a new department

In 1954, Alec Fitzgerald was appointed to the newly established GL Wood Chair of Accounting and became the inaugural head of the Department of Accounting.

Knighted in 1955, Sir Alec Fitzgerald continued in this leadership for three years before his retirement in February of 1958, which forced the department to shift its long-held structure that relied on a select few dedicated staff teaching an enormous proportion of students.

Fitzgerald retained the chairmanship of the Commonwealth Grant Commission until 1960.

Modernity brings change

One of the fastest changes emerged with the advent of technology. While a few individuals within the department dabbled with computers and punch cards throughout the 50s and 60s, the biggest change came in 1980 when computing was added to the syllabus.

Many of the department’s established lecturers had to attend classes in COBOL programming themselves during the week in order to help their technologically advanced colleagues keep abreast of students’ work.

Throughout the first half of the century, those in the accounting discipline had often been responsible for organisation of the teaching of business law within the Bachelor of Commerce. This returned in 1984, when Accounting merged with the Legal Studies Department to fully encapsulate business law. That year, it also introduced a Master of Commerce specialising in Finance.

In 1991, the Business Law discipline was hived off into a separate unit, leaving a department now deemed the Department of Accounting and Finance. By 1999, diverging subject matters and swelling staff numbers in Accounting and Finance meant the two departments split, a differentiation that continues today.

Into the present

With his long tenure as part of the Department of Accounting, Geoff Burrows reflects that the department has undergone significant changes, particularly in its staffing and student demographics. Initially characterised by a local and older student body, the department now reflects a diverse, international profile.

Burrows says this transformation includes an influx of high-profile international staff who contribute to honours and postgraduate programs, enhancing the overall quality of education.

*Fitzgerald preferred 'Alec' to 'Alex', according to Geoff Burrows, who was made aware of the nickname after he published Promise Fulfilled.