Accounting is necessary course for petroleum engineers: Based on descriptive study on Knowledge and attitude of petroleum engineering students at Tehran University, Tehran, Iran, 2012

Introduction: The underlying purpose of accounting is to provide financial information for decision making about an economic entity. The accounting system is the most extensive and important component of a management information system because it is used by the entire business entity and by outsiders as well, therefore business executives and managers need the financial information provided by an accounting system to help them plan and control the activities of the business. With respect to above and attention to these facts that Petroleum organization is an important and extended large organization in Iran that affect on Country Economy, so, accounting has very important role in this huge organization, and current students are future managers, this study was carried out to determine Knowledge and attitude of petroleum engineering students at Tehran University regarding accounting and its necessity for their future performance. Methods: Participants in this cross-sectional descriptive study were 43 students of petroleum engineering students at Tehran University, Tehran, Iran who were selected by convenience sampling. In this study, data gathering tools was investigator made questionnaire regarding knowledge and attitude about accounting ,its principles and applications that completed by object after having given informed consent. The data were analyzed by SPSS software version 19 using descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, standard deviation, etc. and inferential statistics such as independent T test and Chi-square test. Results: Finding showed that the mean score of petroleum students’ knowledge about accounting is 3.37±1.01 from 20. In this study, 87 % of objects believed that accounting, its principles and applications is necessary course for petroleum engineering students. Conclusions: According to result, it may be conclude that adding accounting course to petroleum engineering curriculum is best feedback to this essential educational need that policy makers of education must attend to it in future planning for improvement of petroleum engineering curriculum.

Petroleum engineering; Students; accounting; Knowledge; Attitude