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With a government agenda to increase university participation, and larger numbers of students being "first-in-family" to attend university, students have a limited understanding and appreciation of their chosen profession. Adverse implications include reduced motivation towards study and non-appreciation of the required skills to succeed in the work force. Work integrated learning (WIL) can provide these career skills and understanding. This article analyses whether students undertaking an external off-campus internship in their 2nd and 3rd years of a business degree assists in "realizing the professional" within. Building on prior research for 1st year students, the article examines the effects on students' professional skills and professional identity of an off-campus internship while studying part-time. The results demonstrate the important role of WIL, with WIL students demonstrating greater improvement in professional skills and professional identity. Resources for WIL should be provided to conform to the government's aspiration for greater university participation.

Academic dishonesty is a fundamental issue for the academic integrity of higher education institutions, and one that has lately been gaining increasing media attention. This study reports on a survey of 1206 students and 190 academic staff across four major Queensland universities in relation to student academic misconduct. The aim of the survey was to determine the prevalence of academic misconduct, and to investigate the extent to which perceptions of dishonesty are shared between students and staff, as preliminary steps toward developing effective strategies to deal with the academic dishonesty/misconduct problem. Results indicate a higher tolerance for academic misconduct by students in comparison to staff, particularly with respect to falsification of research results and plagiarism, as well as considerable underestimation by staff of the prevalence of virtually all forms of student academic misconduct. Overall, the study's findings confirm the significance of the issue of academic dishonesty within the Australian tertiary sector, indicating considerable divergence between students and staff in terms of perceptions of the seriousness and prevalence of student academic misconduct. We suggest that university administrators need to examine this issue closely in order to develop mechanisms for managing and curtailing the level of academic misconduct, since a failure to do so may lead to a further undermining of the academic integrity of the Australian tertiary sector. (Contains 7 tables and 13 endnotes.)

International students studying a Master of Professional Accountancy (MPA), or equivalent postgraduate degree in accounting, in Australia were designed to fill the skills shortage gap for accountants, but employability rates appear low at 25% compared to 75% for domestic graduates. University work integrated learning (WIL) programs have been implemented to provide opportunities to increase employability, yet participation rates for international students appear low. This study uses an exploratory, qualitative approach, with semi‐structured interviews of industry and students, to explore the participation rates, experiences and expectations of stakeholders in relation to WIL. Implications of the findings for stakeholders include preparation programs and simulated WIL opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial advice is perceived to be inaccessible and complicated with consumers at the mercy of a sector under sustained scrutiny, raising questions about value for clients. This study systematically reviews the literature on the value of financial advice. Extant research focuses on financial benefits and lacks a holistic view of value and the factors impacting it. Gaps exist across non‐financial benefits, geographic regions and over time. We call for a sustained and coordinated approach to research in this field. The findings inform consumer engagement strategies, policies concerning the uptake of professional financial advice and development of the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While work-integrated learning (WIL) is seen as a way to address the call for improved "employment readiness" and generic skills of graduates, it has been stated that WIL programs need to be "well managed and structured" and "well integrated". To provide such structure and integration a Professional Development (PD) Program was developed to assist students who would undertake a WIL internship as part of their business degree. This paper details evidence of the impact of the PD Program for first year students compared to those undertaking a conventional orientation process. The preliminary evidence demonstrate that structure and integration of the PD Program has had positive effects in terms of generic skills, satisfaction and self-efficacy. (Contains 2 tables and 3 notes.)

The Australian financial advice industry continues to be the subject of ongoing regulatory reform largely driven by persistent failures of advice and products. Despite these concerns, many Australian consumers continue to have productive, effective, and high-quality relationships with their financial adviser. This article seeks to understand the determinants of quality in these relationships both contemporaneously and how this has changed over time. Deploying a research instrument used in a study in 2009, we compare and contrast the views of practitioners and clients both with updated data and over time. We find once again that systematic differences in the perceptions of professional-client relationship quality exist. We find that these perceptions have changed over time, with high-wealth clients' perceptions differing from those of other clients, just as the perceptions of more highly educated financial advisers differ from those of advisers with less education. Overall, relationship quality has increased over a number of dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]