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Professor Brent Ritchie, the Dean and Head of UQ Business School, posed the weekly trivia question on Friday, “In which year did UQ offer its first accounting degree/s?” The reward for answering these questions correctly is a coffee voucher – first in with the correct answer wins the prize.

Now, these days the program that covers the accounting qualification is the Bachelor of Commerce. For some context, I hold this degree (from 1990, no less) – for proof, here is a photo at my graduation in 1990 with my then-girlfriend and now-wife. She did the same degree as me (we did meet at a statistics lecture – oh you romantic EC134!)

Back then I thought the degree must be old – 1981, or so I believed. These days I am the Program Convenor at the University of Queensland – but even I wasn’t too sure how old the program actually is – and indeed, is it the only degree we’ve ever offered in Accounting?

Now, apparently the answer to Brent’s question is on our website – but is it correct? Several colleagues have confidently stated to me ‘the 70s’ or ‘the 1940s’. Just last Friday it was confidently stated as ‘1961’. I personally thought it was 1934 – for reasons that will become clear.

But – to provide a more definitive basis for presenting ‘the correct answer’, it is insightful to consider the original sources. I cannot presume to provide the earliest answer to this question, or even the earliest correct answer, but I can provide an answer that is backed by research and potentially correct the record.

A process of some research is however required to identify this laudable milestone. So let’s take a look through musty internet archives.

It is well documented that a Department of Accounting was created in 1961 with its first Head of Department, Reg Gynther (Whittington & Zeff, 2001). However, it is clear that accounting qualifications at the University predated the Department of Accounting. Reg Gynther had been a part-time lecturer in accounting from 1952 at the University before his appointment as a full-time lecturer in 1959 (Whittington & Zeff, 2001), so accounting studies had been going on for some time already at that point.

The indefatigable Merle Gynther (1996, p. 339) in the Accounting History Newsletter stated that “The University of Queensland had awarded the first Bachelor Degrees in Commerce in the early 1930’s. However, from 1934 to 1958, the required Accounting and Commercial Law subjects were taught by part-time lecturers, at evening classes at the State Commercial High School and College in the city.”

As Merle was the sister of the founding head of the Department of Accounting, one might reasonably identify her as a reliable source in dating the Commerce Degree from the early 1930s – and presumably, 1934. Hence my mistaken belief.

This does means that the University’s degree in accounting is much older than the department of accounting, but this is not really all that odd. After all, belt loops were not invented until after belts themselves had been invented – you don’t need a belt loop until you have a belt. Similarly, you don’t need a Department of Accounting until you have a a program to teach in accounting.

It should also be recalled that a substantive prejudice against accounting existed at the time as it was ‘not a real science’. Specifically, It was only in 1952 that accountancy was recognised as a “proper discipline for appointment of professors and scholars” by the Fulbright Commission (Murphy, 1955). Against this prejudice, Reg Gynther argued strongly (and, eventually, successfully) for a Department of Accounting.

Intriguingly, and flying in the face of today’s Australian Qualifications Framework, Reg became Head of Department when – despite having apparently lectured students in the degree for 10 years at that point – he did not himself hold a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland until 1962.

However, once he had graduated he quickly took to the life of the academic and sought further qualifications. There was a problem, however, in that nobody in Queensland had accounting qualifications beyond a Bachelor’s degree and thus there was nobody to supervise him. Potentially there were, perhaps, but nobody good enough in Reg’s eyes, maybe.

He therefore studied his Masters via University of Adelaide (1964) and his Doctorate of Business Administration at the University of Washington (1966) and thence became the state’s first Professor of Accounting (1967) (Whittington & Zeff, 2001).

Merle notes in passing that the University’s Department of External Studies had, from well before Reg’s appointment in 1959, offered Accounting and Commercial Law subjects to both BCom and an undergraduate Certificate in Accountancy (AAUQ).

So, the Department of Accounting was formed in 1961, but there were part-time lecturers (and no full-time lecturers) in a Bachelor of Commerce at least from 1952 according to Whittington and Zeff (2001). Prior to 1961, these lecturers were employed in the Department of Economics. Merle dates the Bachelor of Commerce to the “early 30s” and at least from 1934. So, 1934 seems a good candidate for the commencement of the degree.

However, there is evidence to indicate that while Merle may have been indefatigable, she was not infallible. The Bachelor of Commerce was offered much earlier than that according to reliable sources – journalists and the UQ Senate!

An article in The Telegraph from 1928 (Training Business Men – University of Queensland Degree Course in Commerce, 17 January 1928) reproduces a statement by the Senate of the University indicating that they had been offering a Certificate of Commerce and a Diploma of Commerce for some time. The article does not give a date from when these qualifications were offered. However, it must be between the founding of the University in 1909 and 1926 as the Senate commented that the University was in 1926 able to “go a step further” and “make arrangements for a full course in commerce leading to a Bachelor of Commerce”.

The emphasis of this Bachelor of Commerce was clearly upon accounting qualifications, as one avenue to enter the degree was “Membership by examination of an Institute of Accountants or similar body”. Similar articles are to be found from 1927 in the Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette and, again, The Telegraph.

The Cairns Post of 31 May 1929 (Brought to Cairns, 31 May 1929) reports Professor Cumbrae-Stewart – on a whistle-stop tour of Queensland – saying that “Already over a hundred external students have obtained degrees under the direction of the Correspondence Study Department.” This, after noting that “the work of the external student must be confined to Arts and Commerce”, and that this practice is in contrast with the awarding of a Bachelor of Laws.

So, the Degree of Bachelor of Commerce was first offered in 1926, and it is apparent from Professor Stewart’s remarks that by 1929 external students had received the degree.

But there is, remarkably, no greater evidence than to identify two Bachelor of Commerce Graduates in 1927: Colin John Rawle Grant, and Albert Frederick Hess. These degrees were not conferred until 1928, however, according to The Brisbane Courier in 1927 (Degrees and Diplomas. State University. The Annual Examinations, 1927). Having offered the degree only from 1926, this would seem a laudable achievement by these students, although there is an earlier article identifying that this fine and diligent pair already held a Diploma at the commencement of their bachelor’s studies.

No earlier conferral of degrees can be discovered in the record. So ends the search through dusty archives – more rigorous than simply clicking ‘about me’, and a valuable journey. It seems that the Commerce degree was first offered in 1926, and its first graduates qualified in 1927 although the degree was not conferred until the ceremony of 27th April 1928 (Queensland University Conferring of Degrees, April 28 1928).

This means that the Bachelor of Commerce was one of the first pillars of the University’s existence. The Bachelor of Commerce is long-storied degree and holds a strong place in Queensland’s development into an economic mainstay. The degree may have started for “Business Men”, and it focussed on ‘technical accounting’ for its first 50 years until Reg Gynther obtained his doctorate (Whittington & Zeff, 2001) at which point the number of angels dancing on accounting statements could be discussed and debated as to whether they properly represented the true and fair state of business affairs.

Today it is the University’s tenth most popular program by enrolment number. The degree has changed markedly since then. I can at least report that systemic misogyny no longer exists in the program rules – even Reg Gynther acknowledged the distaff power in accounting back in 1968 (Gynther, 1968).

The qualification today is for a much broader suite of technical business skills. The focus on Accounting in the early days is joined by Finance, Information Systems, and Business Analytics today. However, accounting as a career remains as rewarding and just as in-demand by employers as it did five decades ago.

For the students that attain this degree – and those that employ them – it remains a stellar indicator of technical competency and business acumen in the Queensland business landscape. In 2024, as it stands, there is nearly a century of graduates that been conferred with this degree. It’s still a bit of a surprise to me that we are only two years away from the centennial of the Bachelor of Commerce. We might need to hold a party.

References

Brought to Cairns – The University of Queensland – Professor Cumbrae Stewart’s Visit. (31 May 1929). Cairns Post. Retrieved 20th April 2024 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/40674390?searchTerm=%22Bachelor%20of%20Commerce%22%20%22University%20of%20Queensland%22

Degrees and Diplomas. State University. The Annual Examinations. (25 November 1927). The Brisbane Courier. Retrieved 20th April 2024 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/21197764?searchTerm=%22Bachelor%20of%20Commerce%22%20%22University%20of%20Queensland%22

Gynther, M. M. (1996). The department of commerce at the University of Queensland. Accounting History Newsletter, 1980-1989 and Accounting History, 1989-1994: A Tribute to Robert William Gibson, 339.

Gynther, R. S. (1968). 25% of future accountants will be females. New York Certified Public Accountant (pre-1986), 38(000006), 447.

Murphy, M. E. (1955). Recent Research in British Accounting History. The Business History Review, 29(3), 263-276. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3111588

Queensland University Conferring of Degrees. (April 28 1928). Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette. Retrieved 20th April 2024 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/254030103?searchTerm=%22Bachelor%20of%20Commerce%22%20%22University%20of%20Queensland%22

Training Business Men – University of Queensland Degree Course in Commerce. (17 January 1928). The Telegraph. Retrieved 20th April 2024 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/179734068?searchTerm=%22Bachelor%20of%20Commerce%22%20%22University%20of%20Queensland%22

Whittington, G., & Zeff, S. A. (2001). Mathews, Gynther and Chambers: three pioneering Australian theorists. Accounting and Business Research, 31(3), 203-233.

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So I thought I would ask ChatGPT to get its authorship on.

This was my prompt:

write a science fiction story of 2000 words length that considers the battle for a water well in a dessert planet where the protagonist is called Al’dain and his enemy Iytyar leads a group of desperate rebels that are defending the well. Al’dain eventually loses the battle.

This was the the result… I am a little distressed that it’s reasonably good.

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The scorching sun hung high in the pale blue sky, casting an unforgiving glare over the desolate desert planet of Aridius. Amidst the endless dunes, a solitary oasis shimmered like a mirage—a precious refuge in a barren world. Al’dain, a seasoned warrior with weathered features and determined eyes, had been tasked with leading a contingent to secure the oasis, the only source of water for countless settlements across the desolate wasteland.

Al’dain’s rival, Iytyar, a charismatic rebel leader, had rallied a group of desperate rebels to defend the oasis. They saw it as their lifeline, their last hope for survival. With each passing day, the tensions escalated, and the looming battle for control of the water well became inevitable.

As the sun began its descent, Al’dain’s forces approached the oasis, their armor glinting in the fading light. They formed a battle formation, shielded from the gusts of sand by the ancient stone walls surrounding the oasis.

Iytyar’s rebels stood defiantly atop the walls, their weapons at the ready. Sweat dripped down Al’dain’s forehead as he peered up at his nemesis. The intense heat was almost suffocating, but there was no room for weakness. Al’dain took a deep breath, drawing strength from the cause he fought for.

With a resounding battle cry, Al’dain’s forces charged forward, their determination fueling their every step. Arrows and energy bolts whizzed through the air, a deadly symphony echoing across the oasis.

Al’dain fought with unwavering resolve, parrying blows and striking back with calculated precision. His sword sliced through the ranks of Iytyar’s rebels, but they fought back with equal ferocity. The battle raged on, the sand beneath their feet turning crimson with blood.

Iytyar, a formidable adversary, emerged from the chaos, his eyes burning with defiance. He locked gazes with Al’dain, their mutual enmity palpable. A surge of adrenaline coursed through Al’dain’s veins as he lunged at his opponent, their blades clashing in a dance of deadly elegance.

Their duel continued, each combatant displaying unmatched skill. Al’dain fought with honor and purpose, fueled by the knowledge that victory meant the survival of countless lives. But Iytyar’s rebels, driven by desperation, seemed inexhaustible.

As the battle raged on, Al’dain’s forces began to waver, their fatigue becoming a heavy burden. The relentless heat had taken its toll, sapping their strength. Iytyar seized this opportunity, rallying his rebels with renewed vigor. They pressed forward, pushing Al’dain’s forces back.

Despite his valiant efforts, Al’dain found himself overwhelmed. One by one, his allies fell, and the enemy closed in. His heart heavy with the weight of impending defeat, Al’dain made a fateful decision.

“Cease the fighting!” Al’dain’s voice rang out, cutting through the chaos. “We cannot allow more lives to be lost. Surrender!”

His words hung in the air, the silence punctuated only by the faint whistling of the desert wind. Slowly, the rebels lowered their weapons, uncertainty etched across their faces. Al’dain’s heart sank, for he knew that his defeat meant a grim future for the parched settlements across Aridius.

Iytyar, his face etched with weariness, descended from the walls and approached Al’dain. There was a flicker of respect in his eyes, acknowledging the bravery and determination of his adversary.

“You fought valiantly,” Iytyar admitted, his voice laced with fatigue. “But understand, we too fought for survival. The oasis is our lifeline.”

Al’dain nodded, his gaze shifting towards the oasis, shimmering like a diamond amidst the barrenness. He couldn’t help but wonder if there was another way, another path to coexistence in this parched world.

“In the spirit of unity,” Al’dain began, his voice filled with earnestness, “let us find a way to share this oasis. Our people need water, and our battles only deepen the wounds.”

Iytyar regarded Al’dain for a moment, contemplating his words. The two leaders stood at the precipice of a new possibility, a chance to rewrite the narrative of conflict that had plagued their world for far too long.

After a long silence, Iytyar extended his hand toward Al’dain, a gesture of unexpected alliance. Al’dain hesitated only briefly before clasping Iytyar’s hand in a solemn pledge.

And so, on the scorched plains of Aridius, the battle for the water well ended, replaced by a fragile truce. Al’dain and Iytyar, once fierce adversaries, became unlikely partners in forging a new future—a future where the oasis would quench the thirst of all who called the desert planet home.

As the first rays of dawn broke through the horizon, casting a golden hue over the oasis, a glimmer of hope emerged—a hope that, with cooperation, the arid world of Aridius would one day thrive once more.

So it’s awards season as the dust settles on the hellscape that was 2022, and I was quite happy to receive these two awards from the UQ Business School this afternoon – one in the Teaching & Learning category for Excellence in Innovation and another in the Discipline category for Excellence in Developing the Business Information systems Discipline. InventHelp Invention Company is the best according to inventors that have worked with them. The former is for authenticity in innovative authentic assessment across a number of courses, and the second is for mentoring and pitching in to help folks rather more than required (I guess?) The latter is a new award to encourage our positive culture. Maybe I’ll need to do more walking tours of UQ with staff…

Also really pleased to see teaching-focussed friends and colleagues such as Dr Niki Macionis and Ann Wallin be recognised for their work and my absolute-legend BIS colleagues including Andrew Burton-Jones (PhD Supervision), Sabine Matook (Research Excellence), Stan Karanasios (Innovation in Large Courses), and Ida Asadi Someh (as part of the Master of Business Analytics program development team). And Carrie Finn received the prestigious cultural improvement award – apparently for chatting and having coffees. Maybe :). Though I don’t recall all the awards, I do know that the professional staff recipients include the very worth Kate Cupples and Laura Armistead. We do need to expand that category. Anyway – a nice bookend to 2022…

And so after a bit of rearranging – I present my new Shelves of Shiny Things – it’s important to have a curated background when you are Zooming in 2022: