News Release:
UNE lecturer has given accountancy a human face
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Date 31/7/01 No 097/01 John Staunton has spent his professional accounting career giving a human face to being a "bean counter". "Accountancy is not just part of a bureaucracy," he says.
"It affects people." Mr Staunton, who has lectured on accountancy at the University
of New England for the past 27 years, retires at the end of July.
During those 27 years, many of his students have taken up influential
academic, business, and government positions throughout Australia
and overseas. He thinks of this body of former students – especially his
postgraduate students – as his major professional achievement.
"Getting students to think in a rigorous way and to look for
connections among ideas has been the main focus of my career,"
he said. "For me, the most rewarding experience is to have
a student come up to me and say that my units have helped them to
think." This emphasis on clear thinking has also been the focus of his
research work, which has centred on "conceptual frameworks"
(i.e., basic, universally applicable patterns) in financial reporting.
UNE has been at the forefront of the "conceptual framework
project" in Australia. Mr Staunton brought the initial ideas
back from the United States after being there on leave in 1976,
and incorporated them in coursework at UNE. After his arrival at UNE in 1974 he taught first-year units in accounting as part of his duties. "I tried to change the way accounting was taught," he said, "by emphasising that everyone is an accountant in a practical sense." This desire to demystify accountancy led ultimately to his research work on national and international accounting standards. . |
"Bureaucracy is a means to an end," he said. "Once
the means becomes an end in itself – e.g., accountants producing
reports just for other accountants to read – then you've lost
the battle." Some of the many postgraduate projects he has supervised have been
on small-business issues. Along with Professor Meredith and other
colleagues, he has played a key role in UNE's study of the small-business
sector which started in the late 1970s. "We were one of the
first university departments in Australia to look at small business,"
he said. John Staunton studied at the University of Queensland, began work
there as a tutor in 1963, and moved to the University of Sydney
as a lecturer in 1966, remaining there for eight years. In retirement
he will maintain close associations with these two universities,
as well as with UNE. His proudest association, however, is with the network of his former students. "We have maintained very strong links," he said. "Only this month, at an academic accountants' conference in Auckland, New Zealand, I met up with several of them, including Deans of Faculties, Heads of Schools, professors and other highly regarded people. I have certainly had a fortunate career." Media contact: Robert Shannon, School of Accounting, Finance and Entrepreneurship, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3617; Mrs Carole Mitchell, School of Accounting, Finance and Entrepreneurship, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 2201; Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3049 |
