Abstract

Basic accounting subject can benefit those entering organizations where decision makers use accounting information. Students have negative stereotypical perceptions of accounting especially students from non-accounting majors. This study intended to investigate the perceptions of the hospitality students towards the Principle of Accounting and the effect of the changes towards students’ performance in the subject. Two hundred and eight (208) students enrolled in Hotel and Tourism Faculty, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) between November 2004 until March 2005 from UiTM Shah Alam, UiTM Melaka and UiTM Dungun, participated. There is a significant difference of students’ expected grade (p-value =0.037; p-value <0.05) at the beginning and the end of the semester. At the end of the semester, 70.0% of the student’s perception towards the subject changed. The actual performance of the students is positively correlated with the perception that the course will help them do well in their career (r=0.165), they gained a lot of knowledge (r=0.253), they like the subject (r=0.389), doing well in the subject was rewarding (r=0.247) and the lecturer has influence their opinion of the usefulness of the course (r=0.210). In conclusion, achieving good result in the subject is related to the positive perceptions towards the subject at the end of the semester.