Swinburne accounting student Taekhyun Ji selected for prestigious graduate program
In Summary
Every year one outstanding accounting graduate, who has completed their honours or postgraduate studies, is invited to participate in the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) Graduate Program.
Taekhyun (David) Ji, Swinburne Business (Honours) graduate, was excited to learn he was the one selected for the 2015 AASB Graduate Program.
“After finishing my honours year I was offered a tutoring role at Swinburne to teach accounting theory, and that’s when I started looking at accounting standards - I was instantly hooked,” Taekhyun said.
“As an academic it’s rare that you would find people reading into industry standards, but it got me interested. I continued to read more on this area and started networking with people in the standards setting environment.”
Both Swinburne and accounting are a common thread in Taekhyun’s family - his father owns a tax agency and is also a Swinburne Bachelor of Business graduate.
Taekhyun recently began his PhD studies at Swinburne which he will postpone while he completes the AASB Graduate Program.
“My PhD topic came about because I really wanted to undertake research from a standard setting perspective. I’ve chosen to look at the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption, which took place in Australia back in 2005,” he said.
“When we (Australia) adopted the international accounting standards as our own, accounting numbers changed. I’m keen to see the impact of such changes.
"What makes it interesting is that these numbers changed without companies doing anything different, that is to say, in the absence of any change in firm economics. I'm hoping to find out whether this made a difference to the perception of specific groups of investors who are known to rely heavily on financial reports.”
Taekhyun said his teaching and postgraduate research at Swinburne has offered the perfect training ground to develop his research and presentation skills.
“One of the things I'll be doing is delivering memorandums of relevant accounting issues in board meetings to help board members make informed decisions.
“I'm hoping that my academic rigour and skill set will add value to the board, while I get to delve more into the technical aspects of accounting standards and learn from the technical team. I'm also hoping it will lead to many more research ideas.
“2015 will be a huge year for me," he said.
Find out more about Swinburne's Bachelor of Business (Accounting) and Bachelor of Business (Honours).