There are many, many program offerings by our universities that would be more appropriately taught by colleges (or degree granting Polytechnic's); accounting is only one of them. These vocational programs should be taught largely by experienced practitioners, not university academics whose primary focus is research.

Unfortunately however the trends are in the opposite direction. Universities have been gradually but steadily taking over the delivery of vocational career training such as for engineers, school teachers, accountants, and most recently nurses.

Canada, and particularly the Province of Ontario, really needs to rethink the post-secondary educational system. Other jurisdictions have put great effort into the integration of institutions (e.g., in California and many other US states), and the streamlining of the delivery of all post-secondary programs (including skilled trades, technical diplomas, and degrees). The classic European Poltechnic model is also something that needs serious consideration.

Your observations and commentary regarding the business schools is excellent, however the problems extend well beyond this field in my opinion.

Accounting is not bookkeeping, bookkeeping belongs in college not accounting.
Right now in accounting theory we are learning about the role of accouting research in establishing the role of financial information in investor markets such as the stock market and its role in evaluating management performance. We've explored a large number of research studies and standard setting issues. Accounting is rapidly changing and there is research behind those changes. Major changes are due for implementation in 2011.
Medicine, law, science all have their practical purposes as well, they don't belong in college either. As with many professions you don't really understand them if you have never studied them at the upper undergrad of grad levels.
There is more concentration in doing case studies and developing professional judgement in accounting than the average person could ever dream of. We learn why and how with an emphasis on why since no one can tell you how for every possible situation.
Income tax, cost accounting, financial accounting and auditing are all complex subjects that require sound conceptual skills. We don't go around keeping manual books or filling out income tax forms in our classes. We don't learn how to use bookkeeping software. We do discuss what standards are, the ramifications if they are changed and how to advise clients in various business situations. We write way more reports than we book entries.
There is no social services dept that could teach finance or accounting or that would have profs qualified to teach the other business school areas. As business students we take typically 6 liberal arts courses and some of our elective courses can be liberal arts type courses as well. Business school PhD's are highly academic and prepare graduates for academic careers. Many, many science, engineering and social studies students flock to MBA programs.

This article sounds like it was written from someone with no experience within a business school. To say that professional training belongs outside of University is absurd. No one would want a doctor or lawyer who had attended a college and in the same way no company wants a manager without a university level education.

The author's contention that business professors should be moved to other departments makes little sense. Business may be made up of a multitude of social sciences, but it is there very cohesion and interrelatedness that makes business the interdisciplinary study that it is. To decentralize and silo the different areas of thought would completely destroy what business schools have been striving for for their entire existence - providing an interdisciplinary education for future well-rounded and knowledgeable business persons.

-DG

MD based on your comments I doubt very much you have taken senior accounting, finance and marketing courses, those are reserved for those with the background ie those who have taken introductory and intermediate courses which means business students, if you are a former business student you are very bitter about it, perhaps you did not pass or graduate as you didn't understand those senior courses you took
there are no preset accounting 'guidelines' there is professional judgement development, GAAP changes all the time and is undergoing major changes even as we speak, accounting is used for all sorts of organizations, I myself have been a treasurer for 2 non-profit agencies, even Greenpeace employs accountants and financial people, if they are not then how do they account for their proper use of your donated funds
I don't know anyone in the business faculty who hates the environment as you seem to imply, we read the papers too and know what is going on with global warming and environmental issues
accounting and finance are all about social responsibility, it is about ensuring that another Great Depression does not happen ensuring that public suffering does not happen to that extent again(soup lines, labour camps etc.), its about ensuring that people don't invest their life savings in shady companies like Enron, it is about ensuring that there is a functioning market so that people can invest in companies developing clean energy - where did you think these companies were going to get their investment dollars? its about ensuring proper pricing for electricity and water and other utilites that have to justify their prices to public boards

Universities are meant to create critical thinkers, researchers, and innovators. Business Schools create, for the lack of a better word, lemmings who simply follow pre-established Accounting "Guidelines" and Marketing "Frameworks." Having taken senior Accounting, Finance, and Marketing courses at the undergraduate level, I completely agree that these subjects should be reserved for colleges who teach the practicalities of these disciplines. A Business School, within a university, must establish itself as the body which seeks solutions, alternatives, and improvements. That is, our world is now on the forefront of a societal transition which will require businesses to acknowledge environmental degradation. Business Schools - at the university level - should be developing critical thinkers who acknowledge environmental and social issues as serious business issues in the future. Rather, in today's typical business school these issues are pushed to the background and even often ignored or denied completely. This sort of status-quo thinking is what created our broken society in the first place. It's sad and fundamentally wrong that the vast majority of business graduates first do not know of serious global issues like climate change, or they don't understand it, or most likely they don't see themselves as critical actors in the problem and potential solution.

I have a degree from two faculties that Mr. Coleman probably feels should be integrated as departments into other faculties: I graduated with a Bachelor's of Mathematics from Waterloo and received my MBA from the University of Chicago.

The argument seems to be based on the idea that no faculty should exist if it's courses cannot be taught within other faculties. This argument seems to have only one logical conclusion - we should only have one faculty. It's the only state that exists where all courses taken by a student are taught by professors of that faculty.

This is a flawed way of examining the university system however. Most obviously, it ignores the aspect of educating the student. If there is no faculty of business, then how does a curriculum get created that meets the needs of people wanting to seriously study the business world? Having a faculty of business allows for this focus.

Looking at the way that research is conducted, it further reinforces the idea that student need is a greater driver of faculty creation / designation than research / teaching needs. Professors often conduct research with professors working at other universities. Therefore, faculty boundaries within schools cannot be significant drivers of research focus when schools themselves can't even drive focus.

As to the academic aspect of business schools, I think the courses you've been exposed to so early in your academic career are biasing your viewpoint. For instance, introductory accounting courses in undergrad are like early-level Korean courses (or any other language) - you're learning the basics of the language of business and haven't gone to the advanced stage where true academic research is involved. At further levels, there is significant research into accounting. As one example in recent history of revolutionary research in accounting, one can look at Dr. Kaplan, who is a professor at the Harvard Business School, and his development of the balanced scorecard in the 1990s. This is but one example of many, many, many advances that are being made.

Thanks for your reply Jerry. I was a Business Student and took my share of Finance and Accounting courses, and yes you could say I was bitter upon graduation. It wasn’t because I failed the courses and it wasn’t that I didn’t understand the material, I was bitter because 1) the curriculum was incomplete and the course offering was insufficient, and 2) the students didn’t show interest in social and environmental issues (contrary to your experience).

I’m glad to hear that you had different experience, and that made me realize I need to be careful with my generalities about business students, but I’m speaking from my own experience which was full of professors who literally laughed off discussions of a carbon tax, students who presented on topics like Marketing in times of the Climate Change Hoax, and international business case studies which took a completely one-sided view of events like the 1999 Seattle Protest of the WTO.

I understand that our world operates because of accountants and financial people – I’ve experienced it in my line of work as well, but I think it’s unfair to say that “accounting and finance are all about social responsibility,” many corporate observers would have to disagree with you – especially in today’s financial crisis. You’re example of Enron is a nice example of people looking to protect investors from Enron, but we can’t forget it was Finance and Accounting disciples which started that crisis in the first place.

I’m not suggesting get rid of these subjects within Business Schools, I’m suggesting they need to be coupled with proper ethical, social, and environmental training – not from giving them “6 liberal arts electives” because these are often filled by so-called bird courses – but by integrating a proper curriculum within courses like International Finance that develop well-rounded students properly. And yes, finance people are needed to grow the clean energy industry, but the root of the problem is that many corporations (led by former business students) won’t allow clean energy to be a part of our society because of the profit over environment mentality.

MD, there are unethical people in every profession, in our local news I can point to recent example of a doctor sexually molesting patients in emergency, a lawyer sexually molesting youth clients, a teacher sexually exploiting students, and we all know about priests from all the news coverage and incidents
if you want more examples just look at the disciplinary hearings of any professional body, watch the film True Steel about engineers behaving badly or refer to the infamous blue pages of their professional journal
and the same is true of accounting, refer to the Livent trial
that does not mean any of these professions are inherently corrupt
that being said my experience is an accounting prof telling us that we have the technology to charge differential prices at the pump so that polluting vehicles are charged more and hybrids and small scooters like he drives would be charged less - makes sense to me

For those who suggest that the business schools should focus more on social responsibility are way off base. Business and our system in general is about risking capital in the attempt to earn a profit. That's it. Business education should focus on that. Business ethics is an oxymoron. The very basis of business is unethical, and its been that way since the people starting engaging in commerce.
About accounting belonging in colleges... Accounting is not about record keeping, computers do that now.
Accounting courses are often thought off as being the most difficult. There is a whole body of work of how accounting information is used which accounting is useful, and the proper treatments and valuation of items on the financial statements.

I have never taken business courses, however I think that we do need to examine what the role of a university is. Business school or not, I know that at certain universities, the Business School provides huge amounts of profit for the university. By being profitable it doesn't mean that it is unimportant, but we need to be careful that the use of such schools is not there to simply provide more money for the university and to provide critical thinkers who can aid real business.

I think the main problem with the concept of university and college in Canada in general is pure academic arrogance. The educational system in Canada is primarily based on an old colonial British system, which promotes credentials and arrogance as a byproduct of higher learning. In my opinion, most Canadian universities have watered down their programs to suit the needs of less inspiring students. Maybe Dr. Mayer is right citing accounting as a being less than academic, which in my opinion is quite true. Accounting is packaged together with so many business courses, and is considered only part of the bundled degree package. Accounting is basically practical, but so is finance and marketing. Most business courses in most degree programs can be taught at the College level. University is meant for research, and an exploration of new idea development, but unfortunately the old business models that are still practiced and applied today don`t fit with the new technologies and engineering that is taking place today. Finally, until the arrogance of academia and short-sightedness of the business community changes, Canadian Universities will decline and eventually decay away catering to a society that prides itself on credentials and arrogance and not achievement in a global marketplace.

I would hope that an undergraduate University degree would develop the critical thinking skills neccesary to properly evaluate the University in which you choose to pursue an MBA. I don't disagree that the courses/program fees are signficantly over priced, and there is frustration going through the program and not seeing any evidence of where this money is going to, but some Universities are certaintly better than others. I'm currently pursuing an MBA part time, and without plugging the school I'm pursuing this through, I can assure you that I went through a lengthly due diligence in evaluating the merits of each school. The "better" schools (better in their offering) do balance mandatory courses with ethics and current events and have an establish philosophy. A number of people have already alluded to the GAAP changes, and distinguished between Financial/Managerial account and Book keeping.

University degrees used to be the bare minimum to get a job with a larger company, and as MBA's become more and more common, I suspect this will become a minimum requirement as well.

Sort of like academic inflation.

Marketing is very creative and is not a simple exercise. That's like saying painting is mostly practical because in the end you produce a painting that is intended to be bought and sold, for millions if you are Van Gogh.
Understanding what consumers want, how best to get the message to them, how to market a particular product to them. All of this requires a great deal of creativity and psychological insight. Its also not just about ads, its also about distribution. Its why we as typical consumers never have to go very far to buy our soaps, toothpaste, automobiles, beer, clothes etc. Its why we have good return policies if something we buy doesn't turn out right. I'm still amazed at how people comment about subjects they've never studied. You might as well tell me what its like being a surgeon based on your favourite tv show.

If you haven't gone through business school yourself or aren't teaching in a business school, and you're in an "Arts" program - you're not entitled to an opinion.

You are entitled to an opinion, but you should be prepared to realize that its wrong as its not based on first hand experience. Just as I could be wrong about what historians, English professors or philosophers really do and what those professions are really about. By the way when I was an engineering student the most vocal attitude of engineering students was they would be glad to get rid of the 'artsies'. Just saying. Wasn't my attitude by far but engineering faculties are structured such that engineering take an extra course than other students but the liberal art component is only 1 full year course in say economics and one half year course in an English course. Other than that its all technical courses & labs.

i've been to business school. he hasn't. why am i reading this? not a strong piece.

lacks insight. weak arguments. and misleading.

"been blogging for 2.5 years" does not make one knowledgeable.

Why do we continue to turn to Business Schools to solve our financial crisis when it is their graduates that caused it? Microsoft was created by a dropout, not a business school graduate! Google was created by engineers, not business school graduates! Silicon valley did not come out of the Stanford Business school!

Okay Norman then you fix it. Good luck. The less you know about it the better you will do I'm sure.

Too many run on sentences in this article.

We are all less intelligent after reading this article.