Jump to Content

Accountancy & Finance

◅

▻

Accountancy and Finance

For the Public Good

Consistent with our School mission to address grand challenges for the public good, the Discipline of Accountancy & Finance at the J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics engage in impactful research and teaching on the development and application of expertise in accounting, accountability and governance to support good decision making, and reliable, insightful corporate reporting to promote the sustainable use of scarce resources.

Teaching

The Discipline of Accountancy & Finance at the University of Galway has an outstanding reputation both nationally and internationally for its excellence in teaching and learning. Central to implementing our school mission, our teaching of accounting, accountability and governance is framed by ethical positioning and behaviour, the meaning of professionalism in the context of the accounting profession, and the role of corporations in a sustainable world.

We make an important contribution to our undergraduate, postgraduate and executive programmes. The following programs represent the core of our teaching activities:

Our programmes are accredited by professional accountancy bodies and graduates can benefit from significant exemptions from professional examinations. The employment record of our students is outstanding, supported by our commitment to promoting opportunities for work placement in our Undergraduate and Masters’ programs. Many of our Masters’ students secure employment contracts in advance of commencing their programme. Pathway B on our MSc in International Accounting & Analytics is designed for professionally qualified accountants who are seeking to build their professional knowledge and qualifications to meet the changing needs of accounting and finance professionals.

Research

Addressing the UN sustainable development goals related to:

Industry, innovation and infrastructure and
Sustainable communities and cities

We engage in research on management control and innovation, equitable taxation, accountability and audit, performance measurement, stakeholder salience and management accounting change. This research has been carried out in public and private sectors including, hospitals, the third sector, SMEs, the medical device industry, professional services firms and the green energy sector.

Members of the Discipline have published their research in leading journals such as Accounting, Organizations and Society; Management Accounting Research; Accounting and Business Research; Critical Perspectives on Accounting; European Accounting Review; Financial Accountability and Management; British Accounting Review; Accounting, Auditing and Accountability; and Advances in Taxation.

Funding has been awarded to a number of staff from national and international bodies such as Horizon 2020, CIMA, Irish Accountancy Education Trust, IRCHSS, and NAIRTL. Members have been recognised internationally through Fullbright scholarships, Erskine scholarships, memberships of editorial boards of high-ranking journals, visiting scholar positions, best paper awards, and membership of EFMD’s EPAS Peer Review Teams and Accreditation Board.

Further details on individual research areas and awards are available on staff members’ web pages.

Engagement

The Discipline of Accountancy & Finance is distinguished in building links between research, teaching and associated communities of practice. University of Galway's Tax Clinic aims to ensure the fairness and integrity of the tax system for taxpayers and to be a source of free information in relation to issues around taxation. Our partnership with KPMG delivers a cutting-edge summer school on Data & Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Related Technological Tools to our masters’ students. Our industry workshops on Using Management Controls to Enable Innovation have disseminated our research findings to industry and professional bodies. Much of our research has been based on case studies and surveys related to key partners in the globally significant, locally-based, Medtech and IT industry clusters. This work has been incorporated into teaching case studies to enhance the relevance of our teaching and the engagement of our students. We have invested in strong partnerships with our alumni in the international, national and local professional services firms who employ so many of our graduates, evidenced by the array of awards and prizes they sponsor for our high-achieving students.

Our faculty provide valuable service to our community through memberships/directorships of not-for-profit organisations including the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Beaumont Hospital, Croi Cardiac and Stroke Foundation, Tax Research Network and the National Parents and Siblings Alliance (a national disability rights and advocacy organisation).

Internationalisation

Our faculty work to provide a globally diverse and culturally rich learning and working experience in the School. We build relationships with international universities and partners that facilitate initiatives such as our cross-institutional project on taxation and ethics involving a US university, global mobility opportunities for our students on the BComm Accounting (International) programme, and staff visiting scholar appointments at Paris Dauphine University, Harvard Business School, the Tax Administration Research Centre (Exeter), Esade Business School, University of Canterbury and Trondheim Business School.