Open Journal of Economics and Commerce Volume 1, Issue 2, 2018, PP 20-26 ISSN 2638-549X Open Journal of Economics and CommerceV1● 12 ● 2018 20 Importance of Mathematics and English from Prior Education in a First Year Accounting Subject Dr. Ragini Rina Datt, Girijasankar Mallik Western Sydney University School of Business Senior Lecturer, School Business, Western Sydney University, Australia. *Corresponding Author: Dr. Rina Datt, Western Sydney University School of Business Email: R.Datt@westernsydney.edu.au INTRODUCTION Accounting education has been in the Australian university sector for several years as accountants play a vital role in our society as investors and depositors need to have faith in the ability of the accounting profession to perform the job which has a unique function of assuring the integrity of the financial information on which our society expects. Most accounting degrees have a strong industry focus, meeting the professional accreditation requirements by the Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Accountants (CA). However, by 2025, it may still be expected that the percentage of 25-35 year olds in Australia having obtained a university degree will increase from the current level of 29% to 40% (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009; Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008). Now the universities are deregulated and can choose their fees based on demand. This increased participation target will have a significant impact on the quality of university education because of lower admission standard. This clearly impacts the ongoing quality of university accounting programs and its ability to meet professional recognition requirements for the accounting industry.A key factor that will also impact on this increased university participation strategy is evidence of declining mathematics ability amongst Australian students. This has seen reduced mathematics ability in recent years, both at an Australian level and benchmarked internationally, with Australia currently ranked only 15 th globally compared to 12 th in 2006 (OECD, 2010; IAEEA, 2008). This is further supported by the observation that students tend to select the easier mathematics options in HSC. This has seen a 25% decline in students selecting mathematics (mathematics with calculus) options in HSC during the period 1995-2007, and a 30% increase in students selecting general mathematics (elementary mathematics-without calculus) option (Group of Eight, 2009). Similarly, students under taking mathematics in the HSC has declined from 99.7% in 2001 to 80% in 2013 (New South Wales (NSW) Board of Education, 2010). This raises both quality and quantity issues regarding the mathematics background of students as they undertake accounting degrees in Australian universities. In NSW state of Australia four different levels of mathematics (general mathematics, mathematics, mathematics extension 1 and mathematics extension 2) are offered. General mathematics is relatively easy compared to mathematics, mathematics extension 1 and mathematics extension 2. Mathematics extension 2 is the toughest among ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that influence a student’s performance in a first year accounting subject in university. The data were collected from Western Sydney University (WSU) database for 3011 students who undertook the first year accounting unit - Accounting Information for Managers (AIM) during 2009 and 2010. The results reveal that students who had studied higher level mathematics (with calculus) and advanced English in the High School Certificate (HSC) were better equipped to undertake AIM. In contrast, students who had only studied general mathematics (without calculus) and standard English in the HSC were found to be disadvantaged. Keywords: Education, Accounting, Mathematics, OLS. JEL Classification: A20, A22