Making our students more 'fit for purpose': A commentary on 'a role for the compulsory study of literature in accounting education'

Zeitgeist: ideas and spirit of time: the ideas prevalent in a period and place, particularly as expressed in literature, philosophy, and religion. (MSN Encarta Dictionary)
Lister, in his 2010 paper, questions whether The Arts—surely The Liberal Arts?—and, in particular, Literature (from the ‘modern’ as opposed to the classical Liberal Arts) can ‘… make our graduates truly “marketable” people and less impoverished human beings.’ He proposes that we incorporate a separate liberal arts component into accounting degrees because students will become more questioning and more realistic in their perceptions and more capable of handling ambiguity. I have some problems with this, not in the concept but in its application. Firstly, Lister does not consider whether accounting belongs as a separate discipline in the undergraduate curriculum. He assumes it does. I would argue that it does not, and will address this point later in this Commentary.