It used to be one of the safest career choices. But while Australians are deserting the accounting profession, an avalanche of foreign accounting students has hit our universities, prompting a fight between the government and big firms about how many accountants we actually need.

The number of Australians studying accounting has fallen 20 per cent since 2001, with foreigners now vastly outnumbering local graduates.

Source: AFR

The number of international graduates finishing undergraduate accounting degrees skyrocketed by 500 per cent between 2001 and 2012.

Indeed by 2012, there was just one local graduate for every 2.5 international graduates, The Australian Financial Review’s analysis of university course data shows.