Initiatives

The need for well-prepared STEM graduates, equipped with data analysis and computational skills, has increased in both modern academia and industry. This has been reflected into attention on computation in Mathematics (Lockwook et al., 2019), and consequently undergraduate maths education has been adapted in different ways. One strategy has been the development of collaborative learning environments, making use of problem-solving and tailored computational activities where students solve complex problems in a realistic context through computation. In this setting, Computational Finance is a relatively new highly interdisciplinary subject taught in Financial Mathematics pathways.

New technology is expected to have major implications for the future of audit and accounting work. Frey & Osborne (2017) highlight a high probability of accounting and auditing clerk (0.98) and tax preparer (0.99) roles being computerized in the next 10 to 20 years. Espinel, O’Halloran, Brynjolfsson & O’Sullivan (2015) state 30% of corporate audits may be performed by artificial intelligence by 2025. Data manipulation, data visualisation, artificial intelligence and robotic process automation are important skill sets for future accountants and auditors.