Faculty Welcome and Advice

The School of Accountancy faculty warmly welcomes the freshman class of 2011.

As you begin the next stage of your education, we would like to share with you our combined wisdom on what it takes to be successful at university in general, and SMU in particular. As you read through the following, remember that this advice is based on our many years of teaching experience (many of us have been teaching at SMU since the university started, and some of us – no names mentioned – have been teaching at university since before most of you were even born :) ).

Understanding the “Higher” in Higher Education

Your 12 (or more) years of education to date have honed your knowledge and recall abilities well, but at university just knowing and remembering facts are not enough (please note carefully, we are NOT saying knowledge and recall are not important – just NOT ENOUGH).

University is referred to as “higher education” for a good reason – you are expected to learn to use your higher thinking abilities. You learn to apply what you know and remember; you learn to analyse facts and evaluate situations. And based on what you have analysed as being relevant (or not), and evaluated as being desirable (or not), you learn to develop your own solutions to real-world problems.

If you’re not quite certain what this means, let us put it another way: please abandon your ten-year series mentality at the door. DON’T EXPECT solutions to past year exam questions (some instructors will not even distribute any past year exam questions); DO EXPECT to read, do your own searches for relevant information, think, apply, share, discuss and think again. This is what it takes to be a true scholar in the most un-ivory tower sort of way.

Faculty Responsibilities : We Help You to Pack for Life’s Journey

SOA faculty know, through direct experience, consulting work and research, that in today’s world business situations constantly evolve and can change very quickly. We believe that we are preparing you as best as we can for academic success in your time at SMU, and professional success through your life’s journey. Such success is not determined by how many past exam papers you practice and how many model answers you memorise. Instead, you must learn your facts AND you must learn how to use the facts you know to derive new solutions.

This is the toolkit we help you to pack – how to learn to learn, and how to learn to do.
 

These are Your Responsibilities

SMU gives its students considerable freedom, but with this freedom comes responsibility.

Before you come to class, students should do all the assigned pre-class readings and exercises. The readings are the content knowledge; the assignments enable you to apply the knowledge. Deriving your own solutions, even when they don’t tally with your instructors’ solutions, helps you to learn much better than going through a model solution. It’s a cliché, but true, that we learn more from making mistakes.

In class, SOA faculty prefer to treat students as mature adults.  That means you are expected to behave with common courtesy and decorum, for example by coming to class on time, NOT chatting or causing distractions when the instructor is teaching or another student is speaking, NOT using crude language during class discussions, NOT surfing the Internet, emailing or facebooking when a class discussion is going on.
In class, students should participate actively.  This does not mean speaking up all the time every week (faculty are also concerned with the quality of class participation).  But active participation means you CANNOT not speak at all throughout the entire term.  For the quiet students, here is an important tip to remember: speaking up is just a skill like playing chess or learning to ride a bicycle. Some people are naturally better than others, but EVERYONE, with practice, can become better at it.
Pre-class preparation, paying attention in class and class participation are examples of learning engagement. Education research indicates that higher levels of learning engagement is associated with significantly better exam results.
In project work, you should aim to win the respect of your team members by being responsible and committed. Students are expected to contribute equally when working on group projects. In other words, you should not engage in "intellectual theft" by representing other people's work as your own work.
Throughout the term, you should ensure you keep up with whatever is being taught in all your courses. DON’T leave your learning to the revision week, because one week is too short to catch up on all the material you would have covered in all your courses over the term. DO ask your professors to clarify points or material that are not clear to you as the term progresses.

Remember the Bigger Picture

With class preparation, tests and quizzes, projects, presentations and reports, students will invariably find that there’s always too little time to do too much work.  So you must learn to be a good time manager. For example: don’t spend too much time on any one assignment, project, task or commitment when there are other equally important assignments, projects, tasks and commitments that are also demanding your attention. Prioritise, plan and don’t procrastinate. If necessary, find people (your classmates, project mates, professors or even your family) to help you keep on schedule.

SOA faculty don’t deny that some of our courses are more difficult than others, and some of our courses are heavier in terms of workload than courses in other schools in SMU. Don’t take the ostrich route and delay these courses to your final year, just because your seniors tell you that these courses are tough.  Some students take Corporate Reporting (ACCT222) in Year 3 Term 2 or Year 4 Term 1, then fail the course and have to repeat it.  Then, they move on to Advanced Financial Accounting (ACCT333), again failing it and having to repeat it.  Then, they realize they are into their 5th year!  It’s better to pace difficult courses appropriately over your four years to ensure you have sufficient breathing space each term.

SMU CIRCLE

SMU sits on top of the Circle Line, but the CIRCLE we are referring to are the fundamental values that we hope to develop in every SMU graduate – Commitment, Integrity, Responsibility, Collegiality and Excellence. We believe these values will distinguish SMU graduates in the working world and enable them to forge successful careers and lives.
 
SMU has a basic Code of Academic Integrity that underlies all our courses. Cheating, dishonesty and plagiarism are viewed as very serious offences. Such offences will be penalized. You must learn to respect the intellectual property rights of others and observe the copyright rules. Depending on the circumstances of the offence, possible penalties include severe disciplinary action like an F grade for the entire course, or even expulsion from the university. Thus students are strongly advised NOT to trade their integrity for success under any circumstance.

On the other hand, students should not hesitate to stand up for what is right. If you ever learn about actions that are contrary to CIRCLE and/or the Code, don’t feel bad about "whistle blowing".

Support

As you begin and move through the SOA programme, you may face all kinds of issues from time to time. For example, you may need

• Pointers and help for writing reports

• Advice on how to sequence your courses and bid on BOSS

• A listening ear and practical help if you find university life very different from JC or the army.

Within SOA and SMU, we have many formal and informal ways of helping. The most important thing is for YOU to take the initiative to approach – ASOC, your seniors, your professors, the Student Affairs Committee or the Associate Dean of Student Matters, the SMU Centre for Counselling and Guidance, or the SMU Peer Helpers. We are all interested in your well-being.

We look forward to interacting with you over the next four years!