In collaboration with Edge Research, the Center for Audit Quality released a new report exploring shifts in student perceptions of accounting and identifying messaging strategies to broaden the talent pool. The findings build on research conducted from 2021 to 2023 and offer key insights into today’s educational landscape.
Washington D.C., April 28, 2025 – In recent years, the accounting profession has undertaken a rebranding initiative aimed at dispelling common misperceptions among students and highlighting the breadth, impact, and relevance of careers in accounting. Several years after the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) launched its Accounting+ campaign to fight this bias and inform students of the myriad opportunities an accounting career can offer, new research assesses the campaign’s progress and the new challenges it has uncovered.
The CAQ partnered with Edge Research on the report, Expanding the Accounting Profession Pipeline: 2024 Update, to better understand high school and early college students’ academic and professional motivations and to identify the most successful strategies to attract the next generation of accountants.
“This research is an important step toward understanding both the persistent challenges and the emerging opportunities in building a strong accounting talent pipeline. It’s encouraging to see growing interest among students. This is proof that when we listen, learn, and adapt, we can positively impact the talent pipeline.” – Julie Bell Lindsay, CEO, the Center for Audit Quality.
Some key findings from the report include:
- Significant improvements have been made in how students view accounting careers with notable increases in seeing accounting as a career that is meaningful and provides value, has strong long-term earning potential, and a good work-life balance. These positive shifts indicate the professions’ collective efforts to transform accounting’s image are gaining traction.
- Practical, benefit focused messaging drives interest with students, especially messages that highlights accounting’s strong salary potential, career flexibility, and job security, and emphasizing these points as strengths within the accounting profession resonated strongly amongst all demographics in the study.
- Direct exposure to accounting strongly correlates with interest in accounting. With many students lacking personal connections to accountants, the profession must continue meeting students where they are – both in classrooms and on social media. Accounting professionals can maximize their impact by using Accounting+ evidence-based messaging on salary potential, career flexibility and job security- approaches shown to significantly increase student interest.
“In a time of economic uncertainty, young people are making deliberate choices to prioritize stability and flexibility in their careers like never before. This presents a challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity for the accounting profession. For students, especially those from underserved communities, this isn’t just about employment. It’s about building a future and creating generational wealth.” – Liz Barentzen, Vice President, Talent, the Center for Audit Quality.
According to the Accounting+ 2024 annual report, many of these key messaging and outreach strategies deeply resonated with student populations. Accounting+ reached students more than 2 billion times via paid advertising, social media, and other digital platforms, leading to 26 million website visits in 2024 (an 86% increase from 2023) and 8 million new users (a 100% increase from 2023). The updated research shows encouraging progress in shifting the perception of accounting careers among students; however, significant roadblocks remain in translating this perception into increased enrollment numbers. A continued profession-wide, comprehensive approach is crucial to engage new students and provide educators with the resources they need to build a stronger, more competitive talent pool.
Download the full report here to learn more about the results.
About the Research
The CAQ commissioned Edge Research to perform a comprehensive follow-up on their 2023 report to assess the progress of initiatives like Accounting+, identify new engagement opportunities, and understand the evolving student mindset in “Expanding the Accounting Profession Pipeline.”
Edge Research employed a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies to gain comprehensive insights into students’ perceptions of accounting careers. The quantitative component consisted of an online survey with 3,487 high school and college students across the United States, including substantial samples of Black/African American, Hispanic, AAPI, and White students. This survey tracked key metrics against baseline data from 2021 to 2022 and examined college and career decision journeys, accounting perceptions, barriers to entry, and messaging effectiveness across various educational levels. After this broad data collection, Edge Research conducted four virtual focus groups in January 2025 with high school students (divided between freshmen/sophomores and juniors/seniors) to explore these themes in greater depth. All focus group participants were college bound and open to business careers, with diverse representation across gender, region, and school types.
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About the Center for Audit Quality
The CAQ champions the public interest in the capital markets by:
- Elevating the quality, credibility, and transparency of public company audits;
- Advancing critical issues affecting public company audits;
- Driving innovation in assurance; and
- Providing a collaborative forum for capital market stakeholders to address evolving needs and challenges.
As the voice of the public company audit profession, we work to instill trust in corporate reporting and the integrity of the auditing process, ultimately empowering investors, companies, and society as a whole.