Relevance and Applicability of Accounting Studies in Bangladesh within the Global Context

Business education is a vital pillar of the contemporary economies, it provides people with the knowledge and skills needed to compete and achieve success in the ever more complex and competitive international markets. As industries are changing with the world being globalized, nations need to reform their higher education curricula to suit the globalization atmosphere. A rapidly growing economy with ambitious targets through the Vision 2041 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Bangladesh has experienced an unprecedented increase in the number of students pursuing business schools over the past thirty years. Each year thousands of students are undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management, and International Business. The paper is a critical evaluation of the applicability and relevance of business education in Bangladesh in the international context. Using the global best practice and national realities in Bangladesh, the paper determines the main strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities. It also stresses the need to reform the curricula, to meet international accreditation criteria (including AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA), and to increase industry-academia connections. Besides, it also contains a reference to the increasing need of entrepreneurship, sustainability, and digital transformation in the sphere of business education. Placing Bangladesh in the global context, this paper contends that business education needs to become less theoretical and examination-focused and more innovative, skill-based, and globally competitive.