Business-related university degrees are failing graduates in the workplace. The world of accounting and finance has rapidly innovated, but the university degrees associated with these disciplines have not moved forward.

Universities need to wake up to the reality that such practices as logging accounting journal entries by hand and using a calculator during your exam, do not represent what is demanded of graduates in the 'real world'.

Having spent the last five years doing a bachelor degree and then two masters degrees in business disciplines, I believe I can give a fair picture of the teaching practices used in Australian universities.

Although I have attended only one university, I know from friends and peers that what I am describing here is consistent across many of them.

Accounting is still taught from a textbook. It is true that the theory underlying the subject has important implications and therefore, the textbook has a role to play in teaching these principles. But the courses fall short in applying the theory to practice.

It is a similar story in finance courses. The finance industry surrounds itself with technology, the same technological resources which universities have access to. However, lecturers shy away from using these in class.

A simple way to deal with this would be to have students work on a case study, in tandem with learning the theory. For example, to work out a depreciation schedule for a company, students would be given a set of data on Excel which they would use to learn about the depreciation methods and the ways to check the calculation process.

To take this example further, students could then be asked to give advice in respect to the client's situation.

No practical skills

Of course some academics will argue that it's not the role of universities to teach beyond the theory, because students will learn practical skills in the workplace.

Buy why are universities so fixated on theory as opposed to practice? I believe that part of the problem is because universities place such high value on research which is bolstered by the weight given to research citations in international university ranking tables such as QS and Times Higher Education.

The result of this is that students become highly literate in academic theory, yet lack an understanding of how to use their knowledge.

The other issue with the university system is the examination processes. Accounting and finance units are mainly tested with handwritten exam papers. Manually entering long equations into a calculator is a time-consuming process. It would make far more sense to test students' ability to use Excel for this task, which is the way they will do it when they get a job.

Handwritten answers are also not conducive to students learning to think "outside the box". Being prevented from changing your answer once it's down on the paper, even if you develop a more cogent idea later on, is not ideal.

Archaic institutions

When I tell my father, who trained as an accountant 30 years ago, how I was being taught at university and how my knowledge was being assessed, he was surprised. He said nothing had changed since he did his degree.

Universities are archaic institutions. They pride themselves on preparing graduates for the workforce, however they are failing to achieve this. Their teaching methods are often dated, lacking industry practical skills. I believe that technology is not used to its full extent due to conservative university thinking.

The good news is that there is some evidence things are changing. The Australian Financial Review recently reported that Macquarie University has embarked on a new initiative to teach soft skills, such as communication, to their accounting students. This is a wise move because many of the tasks which accountants have traditionally done are being outsourced or performed using artificial intelligence.

Now is the time to make meaningful changes to traditional degrees and use this to differentiate the courses which our universities offer compared to others in the world. I guess it's fair to say, there has never been a more exciting time to be a university administrator.

James Heaton has a bachelor degree in commerce, a masters degree in accounting and a masters degree in finance from a Group of Eight university. He works as an accountant.