Using an Accounting Fair to Increase Students’ Favorable Perceptions of Accounting and Interest in the Accounting Major

We discuss an accounting fair designed to foster a more favorable perception of the accounting profession and to identify accounting career opportunities, thereby increasing students’ interest in the accounting major. The fair is a unique model that provides students with accurate information about the accounting profession, rather than to recruit firm employees. The model can be tailored to meet other objectives of accounting departments, such as, to increase diversity of students selecting the major, to increase the quality of students in the major, or other objectives a department might deem appropriate. We studied the effects of the fair on students’ perceptions of the accounting profession and interest in the accounting major, using pre- and post-accounting fair surveys. Our statistical results indicate the accounting fair was successful in fostering a more favorable perception of the accounting profession. As a result, students’ interest in the accounting major increased, which is consistent with the actual increase in the number of accounting majors at our institution since implementing the fair. Similarly, by employing a fair similar to ours, the achievement of other departmental objectives should result from fostering a more favorable perception of the accounting profession.