Perception and Causality of Academic Performance and Professional Exercise of Graduates in Accounting and Auditing

Citation: Nigra.I.B., Verinas D.M., Astudillo F.C. (2018) Perception and Causality of Academic Performance and Professional Exercise of Graduates in Accounting and Auditing. Open Science Journal 3(4). Received: 2 August 2018 Accepted: 16 November 2018 Published: 23 th December 2018 Copyright: © 2018 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work Competing Interests: The author have declared that no competing interests exists. Universities play an important role in society. Through them professionalization is achieved in different areas that, in one way or another, contribute to the development of a nation. The professional life of a graduate depends in part on the effectiveness, efficacy and efficiency of the university processes and the performance presented during their student life. This study analyzes the variables that characterize student academic performance as they contribute to an adequate professional practice of a graduate in Accounting and Auditing. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, graduates in the Accounting and Auditing major from 2007 to 2017 from the Politécnica Salesiana University, an Ecuadorian university, are analyzed. Variables such as: autonomy, marital status, province of origin, family environment, salary, experience and work area, among others are studied. The information collected was obtained through the application of telephone surveys and data extracted from the university computer system; subsequently, this information is evaluated through contingency tables or crosstabs and the case-control study method. Among the main results, it is observed that most graduates do work in their profession, but with a modest remuneration, except for those who work in the banking sector. It is also observed that the quality of the professional practice of a graduate has a direct relationship with their student academic performance and that this academic performance has a relationship with the economic conditions, time availability, study days and marital status that they maintained during their student life. Most graduates do work in the area related to their profession. Open Science Journal Research Article Open Science Journal – December 2018 2

Universities play an important role in society.Through them professionalization is achieved in different areas that, in one way or another, contribute to the development of a nation.The professional life of a graduate depends in part on the effectiveness, efficacy and efficiency of the university processes and the performance presented during their student life.This study analyzes the variables that characterize student academic performance as they contribute to an adequate professional practice of a graduate in Accounting and Auditing.Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, graduates in the Accounting and Auditing major from 2007 to 2017 from the Politécnica Salesiana University, an Ecuadorian university, are analyzed.Variables such as: autonomy, marital status, province of origin, family environment, salary, experience and work area, among others are studied.The information collected was obtained through the application of telephone surveys and data extracted from the university computer system; subsequently, this information is evaluated through contingency tables or crosstabs and the case-control study method.Among the main results, it is observed that most graduates do work in their profession, but with a modest remuneration, except for those who work in the banking sector.It is also observed that the quality of the professional practice of a graduate has a direct relationship with their student academic performance and that this academic performance has a relationship with the economic conditions, time availability, study days and marital status that they maintained during their student life.Most graduates do work in the area related to their profession.

Introduction
Today's society has transformed into a knowledge society, so it is essential "to have an effective higher education that promises the creation and distribution of knowledge and technologies that society and the economy demanded"1.Higher education institutions act as providers of access to greater job opportunities when they offer a complete and suitable training to their graduates."It is evident that the labor inclusion processes of university graduates are characterized mainly by their high level of heterogeneity since there are several academic, social and personal factors that can have a significant impact on their job opportunities"2.In recent years, in Ecuador, profound changes have been evidenced in higher education.The Council for the Evaluation, Accreditation, and Quality Assurance of Higher Education (its initials in Spanish CEAACES) in the Generic Model of Evaluation of the Learning Environment of In-site and Semi In-site Majors of the Universities and Polytechnic Schools of Ecuador suggests that higher education institutions respond "to the expectations and needs of society, to national planning, and to the development regime, to the prospective of scientific, humanistic and technological global development, and to cultural diversity"3.Being aware of the job destination of graduates is becoming increasingly important for institutional accreditation systems, and therefore for universities.Having relevant and reliable information on the skills and abilities students acquire in the university to face the world of work is a very useful input for the continuous improvement of university processes in their intention to offer society excellent professionals.
For all these reasons, it is important to analyze the academic, social and economic aspects that contribute to an adequate professional practice of graduates, who in this study correspond to the Accounting and Auditing major.The importance of this major is evident in its contribution to knowing the financial situation of a company to make decisions.
Considering the importance of knowing the job destination of a graduate, De Vries, Vásquez and Ríos mention that defining the success of the graduate from the monthly income has complications.The salary and its distribution may depend on the economic situation of the country, the region or the behavior of a specific economic sector.Not always a high salary is equivalent to job satisfaction4.Results of such investigations share the idea that the salaries are determined by both as the educational level of the individual job characteristics5.Job satisfaction, according to Angulo, Quejada and Yánez, occurs in elastic labor markets where the population adapts to the circumstances of their jobs6.
Through this research, the perceptions and causality of academic performance and professional practice of graduates in accounting and auditing are determined.The perception of graduates is of vital importance to determine the demands in the labor market to establish improvement processes that contribute to future graduates.

Materials and methods
This study analyzes the academic, social and economic factors that affect the academic performance and professional practice of graduates in the Accounting and Auditing major.It includes the analysis of variables such as marital status, province of origin, autonomy, academic schedule, family environment, work experience, salary, work area, graduation age, among others.These variables are subjected to an analysis using contingency tables and the Case-Control study method."Case-control studies represent a sample strategy, in which the population under study is typically selected based on presence (case) or absence (control or referent) of a specific event of interest"7.
Students graduated at the Accounting and Auditing Major from 2007 to 2017 at Politécnica Salesiana University, one of the 10 most representative universities in Ecuador in webometrics, Cuenca headquarters are chosen as the study population.This specialization was created in 2002 and has been offered during 18 academic periods, with a total of 445 graduates.A sample of 59 graduates is extracted.This sample confirms the existence of 49 graduates with an average lower than 90 points.They will be called the "case" group and represent the 83% of the sample.Also, there are 10 graduate students with an average higher than 90 points which will be called the "control" group and represent a 17% of the total sample.
The sample was extracted with the statistical formula for sampling finite populations [8].
The surveys were applied by telephone.The questions of the survey were related to general data and work performance such as province of origin, marital status, employment status, financing of university studies, age of graduation, family environment, and area of the company in which they work, average salary, among others.
The data obtained is analyzed with the case-control method without matching.The model is based on the traditional 2x2 table, which allows calculating the odds that help "express the possibility of occurrence of an event of interest or the presence of an exhibition" [9].
According to Lazcano [10] if the odds ratio is equal to 1; the exposure is not associated with the possibility of developing the event; if the odds ratio (OR) is lower than 1, the exposure is inversely associated with the event, that is, the exposure decreases the possibility of developing the event.If the odds ratio (OR) is higher than 1, the exposure is directly associated with the possibility of developing the event, and will be interpreted as follows: Graduates of group case non-exposed to the affirmation.c.
Graduates of group control exposed to the affirmation.d.
Graduates of group control non-exposed to the affirmation.

m1:
Total graduates exposed to the affirmation.m0: Total graduates non-exposed to the affirmation.n1: Total students graduated from the case group.n0: Total graduate students of the control group.N: Total graduate students.

Results
The results of the analysis are presented in two sections: a) Descriptive analysis, b) Application of the Case-Control Method.

a) Descriptive analysis
In this section, the variables grouped under different approaches are analyzed, to get a general idea of the factors that affect the academic performance and employment situation of a graduate.Source: Surveys applied to graduates and data from national academic system (SNA) It can be seen in the chart that most graduates (64%) studied in the evening, from this group 69% had a very good academic average.19% of the graduates were financed all their studies, while 10% were financed only a portion of it.The outstanding students with an average of 72% studied during the daytime and 28% studied in the evening, in both cases their families financed their studies.Students who financed their studies, 14% studied in daytime and 86% in the evening, concluding that they studied in the evenings because they worked during the day.This demonstrates that 45% of the graduates work directly in their profession area, from this group the majority receives a remuneration that ranges between $300.00 to $800.00.The highest salaries are received by professionals who work in the banking area, their salaries exceed $ 1,800.00.Only 4% of graduates have decided to perform the auditing, most graduates work in the accounting area.Source: Surveys applied to graduates and data from national academic system (SNA) Table 4 shows that single people have greater access to higher education, however, the salary they receive after they graduated, does not differ much from the salary reached by married people at the end of their studies, in both cases approximately 14 % earn over $ 1200.00.The highest salaries are received by graduates with an average of Very Good.
Table 5 describes the time it took the students to find employment who already had work experience while studying, this information is contrasted with the academic average.Source: Surveys applied to graduates and data from national academic system (SNA) 54% of the students did not have any work experience while attending university.75% of the students who did have some work experience while they worked got a job in 3 months, unlike those who did not have any work experience with the same percentage got a job in 8 months.The students who did not have any work experience, with an Outstanding average got a job immediately, while the students who already had some work experience, with a Very good average also obtained a job immediately.

b) Application of the Case-Control method.
In this section, the stated statements are detailed and will be confirmed by means of the Case-Control method.
Affirmation 1: The graduates who pay their university studies are those who presented an academic average lower than 90 points.Table 6.Matrix of the Case-Control method with academic average and financing of university studies.6 excludes students who pay only part of their university studies.The higher result than 1 reflects that the affirmation is accepted, the students who pay their university studies are more likely to have an academic grade of less than 90 points.This affirmation indicates that the students who work to finance their university studies do not always belong to the group of those who graduated with an academic average of Outstanding because they dedicate great part of their time to labor activities.

Students who did not pay their university studies
Affirmation 2: Graduates who had a scholarship while studying obtained an academic average lower than 90 points.The odds ratio of 0.21 shows that the relation of the affirmation is inverse to the manifested, the graduates who had a scholarship, while studying, have greater possibilities of obtaining an academic average higher than 90 points, which indicates that the scholarship students strive to have an outstanding performance.
Affirmation 3: Graduates who had less than 90 in the accounting subjects' average are those with an academic average lower than 90 points.The higher result than 1 determines that the affirmation is accepted, that is, the students who presented a positive use in the subjects related to the accounting are those who present an academic average of Outstanding grade, demonstrating that the students have greater possibilities of obtaining a grade of outstanding at the end of their career if they dedicate themselves in the subjects directly related to their profession.
Affirmation 4: Graduates who had no work experience while studying have a grade below 90 points.Odds ratio shows results lower than 1, which indicates an inverse relationship, that is, graduates who did not have any work experience are more likely to obtain an academic average of degree greater than 90 points.This situation arises because students who are focused on obtaining good grades are rarely interested in looking for a job.The table extrudes the graduate students that were not working now of doing this research.The odds ratios superior to 1 demonstrates that effectively the graduate students who work into the countable area presented an academic average inferior to 90 marks.This fact confirms that the excellent students no always work in the same area.
Affirmation 6: The graduate students, who earn more than $ 1200, got an academic average inferior to 90 points.The Odds Ratio inferior to 1 shows that the relationship of the affirmation is inverse, this means, that the probability that a graduate student earns more than $1,200 is greater than for the ones who obtained an average higher than 90 marks.

Conclusions
Nowadays, the study of the graduate follow-up is one of the most useful tools at higher education levels.According to most of the results, the graduate students from the majors of Accounting and Auditing have studied in schedules during the night and present a graduation academic average of Very Good.Regarding workability, most of them did not have any working experience now of getting their degrees.Their salary fluctuates between $300 and $800 dollars, and it is higher than the ones working in banking.They work in areas directly related to their majors.The professionals who are nowadays earning a salary higher than $1,800, according to this research, are the ones who work in banking as finance managers.Additionally, an 11% of these professionals are the ones working in teaching who get a salary, which fluctuates between $1,200 and $1,500.Also, it can be observed the following relationship among variables: The graduate students who obtained a graduation academic average of Outstanding correspond to the morning schedule.None of these students worked to pay for their university studies.Their probability to obtain a salary higher than $1,200 is greater than the rest of their classmates, and their average in accounting subjects were superior to 90 marks.In addition, the following results were found: Most of the students who pay for their university studies took night schedules and graduated with an academic average of Very Good.The salary that these graduate students received while they were single is practically the same that the married students got.The graduate students who had working experience while they were studying, got a job in five months less than the ones who did not have any experience.
The results of the investigation allow to determine that the students that work do not obtain an average of Outstanding degree because they are busy in the development of their work activity.Students who had work experience prior to the graduation date obtain employment much earlier than students who lack some work experience.A good academic performance if it increases the possibility of obtaining a good remuneration.For Lin y Flores the verbal persuasion from family, faculty, and colleagues/friends also contributed significantly to the enhancement of the job search self-efficacy in this sample12.
The university should make a constant effort to maintain a quality standard, which guarantees the effectiveness, efficiency, and efficacy of the unemployment impact in the Accounting and Auditing major; and above all, to pursue the accomplishment of all the requirements needed by the businesses to offer the students better working possibilities, such as the development of abilities, aptitudes, skills and knowledge.All of them tools that contribute to the acquisition of new knowledge to help them manage situations related to the modern world.Education is in constant changing and evolution; therefore, it must be improving all the time.Higher education institutions should guarantee the reduction of breaches regarding inequality among students to be able to minimize the risks of having lagged professionals, provide with the necessary confidence to the society to generate a conscience of the importance that the order has concerning accounting matters.All this process is transcendental to improve, not only the government, but also, the citizens under equal conditions.

Affirmation 5 :
The graduates who work in the accounting area presented an academic average lower than 90 points.

Table 1 .
Matrix for the evaluation of odds ratio.
Source: Classical analysis model of a case-control study without matching to evaluate the odds ratio11.

Table 2 .
Academic schedule, economic autonomy and academic average.

Table 3 .
Labor area and salary.

Table 5 .
Work experience (student), time it took to get their first job and academic average.

Table 7 .
Graduates who had scholarships, academic average

Table 8 .
Qualification in the subject of accounting, academic average.

Table 9 .
Graduate work experience, while studying, and academic average.

Table 10 .
Graduates who work in the accounting area or in other areas, academic average.

Table 11 .
Graduate students who earn a salary higher than $1200, academic average.