Jordan Journal of Business Administration, Volume 10, No. 4, 2014 - 723 - *Director of MBA, College of graduate studies and research, Ahlia University, Kingdom of Bahrain asarea@ahlia.edu.bh **College of Business and Finance, Ahlia University, Kingdom of Bahrain Received on 19/1/2014 and Accepted for Publication on 26/8/2014. © 2014 DAR Publishers/University of Jordan. All Rights Reserved. Bridging the Gap between the Perceptions of Accounting Students and Accounting Practitioners: Evidence from Ahlia University of Bahrain Adel Mohammed Sarea, Fatema Ebrahim Alrawahi ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, professional accounting bodies, accounting practitioners and educators have criticized accounting education programs for failing to meet the demands of the changing business environment. This failure by universities has created a gap between accounting practice and accounting education.With the aim of increasing transparency, minimizing the gap between students, job seekers and practitioners this study sought the views of accounting practitioners and accounting students in Bahrain, regarding important competencies required for a career in accounting. Data were obtained from 39 students attending the same university and 39 practitioners from various organizations using a survey. The findings indicate that although there is an agreement between the perceptions of both groups, some significant gap still exists. Basic accounting skill is rated as the most important professional skill by both groups. While students felt that leadership is the least important skill; practitioners on the other hand felt that general knowledge is the least important. The findings and conclusions of the paper have implications for accounting education in Bahrain. Accounting graduates are not well-equipped to take an immediate part within many Bahraini employers’ business and must be trained extensively before becoming fully functional. Keywords: Accounting; Accounting Education; Student Perceptions; Practitioner Perceptions. INTRODUCTION Accounting is the language of business;in turn the language of accounting is of Debit and Credit. Speaking the “language of accounting” is vitally important in the business world. Accounting is a fundamental and artificial language which was created for the communication of business information. The accounting profession requires practitioners to be fluent in this language, and for years, universities have provided students with the basic “language” skills needed for a career in accounting. On the other hand, recent major developments have led to drastic changes in the business world, thus making the environment in which accountants practice their profession more challenging. A first major development has been a wave of corporate globalization. Due to faster modes of transportation and immediately available information, the world has become a colossal market where buyers can purchase products from overseas as conveniently as they can from a local store.Second, technological advances in communication and information have changed the face and pace of business through low cost, high speed data collection, processing and dissemination. Third, corporate governance reforms have received increased attention due to high-profile scandals involving abuse of corporate power. For example: the scandals of companies such as Enron,