Changes, problems and challenges of accounting education in Libya

While accounting education has existed in Libya for over 45 years, knowledge about it is scarce among Western accounting academics. This paper reports the development of accounting education and curricula since Libya's independence in the 1950s and examines its current problems during a decade of United Nations (UN) sanctions. Following an introduction to the accounting profession in Libya, the paper provides an overview of the changes to accounting education since 1957 and analyses major issues currently faced by Libyan accounting educators, including: a shortage of qualified accounting academics; inappropriateness of imported syllabuses to the peculiarities of the economy; the unfit marriage of academic teaching and professional training in the accounting curricula; and inadequate accounting research. The paper concludes that social and economic characteristics must be fully taken into account in the case of Libya in importing accounting education systems from the West.