Academic governance and accountancy: complexity emergence and garbage can model

The purpose of this article is to show how the accounting studies, directed towards the activities of chartered accountant and auditor, were born in France and how they were initially controlled by the authorities which perceived their importance. The Ministry of National Education favoured the professional teaching of accountancy in polytechnic high schools and in management schools and these institutions acquired a strategic position in that field. Later, the Ministry of Higher Education favoured the teaching of accountancy at university, but faced with the complexity of the institutions involved, it often turned down opportunities, torn by internal corporative fights. But perhaps all is not lost, because the quality of teaching which will have to be ensured in the future gives universities the chance to regain lost ground.