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Preceding the 16th Conference of CIGAR, the 11th CIGAR PhD Colloquium was held at June 7, 2017 in downtown Porto (Portugal), in the facilities of the Portuguese Institute of Certified Accountants. The PhD Colloquium was organised jointly by Ass. Professor Susanna Jorge (University of Coimbra) and Univ. Professor Dr. Dorothea Greiling (Johannes Kepler University in Linz). A special thanks goes to Professor Penelope Tuck (University of Birmingham) who supported the Colloquium in providing feedback to the PhD candidates prior to the event and in chairing a session.

Five PhD candidates presented parts of their PhD projects, which summaries can be read here.

A particular highlight of the day was a guest lecture of Dr. Jens Heiling on “Lessons to be learned for academic research and teaching by the harmonization of public sector accounting in Europe”. His suggestions were based on experiences collected during a recent project in the context of the development of European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS). Among his key suggestions for teaching were: an increase of public sector accounting study programs and paying more attention to the relevance of public sector budgeting. His central research suggestions included a call for more studies evaluating the benefits of accrual accounting from a quantitative perspective and extending the role of academics as critical counterparts of accounting reform suggestions in the standard-setting process. As an emerging avenue for research he identified big data and data analytics.

Ph.D. students were invited to submit either an extended abstract, a proposal or a full paper on any topic related to public sector accounting in its widest scope. Selected participants were expected to present their research project/paper to colleague students, assisted by two senior researchers in order to receive fruitful suggestions and valuable feedback. The seminar, chaired by Susana Jorge and Dorothea Greiling, offered the opportunity to join a growing community of young scholars interested in governmental accounting research.