This cross-cultural study examined the career choices of Asian, black and white students at the University of Pretoria to identify the factors motivating Accountancy students to become chartered accountants (CAs), as only 2.5% (609) of 24 308 registered CAs in South Africa in 2005 were black, and only 6% (1573) were Indian. Understanding the attitudes and the perceptions of CA first-year students (identifying key career choice factors) can help course administrators/curriculum designers (the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the Public Accountants and Auditors' Board (PAAB)) to align marketing and recruiting strategies with specific personal occupational preferences of different racial groups enrolled for local CA courses.Factors such as decision time-frame of career choice, socio-economic background, students' perceptions of the benefits/constraints of the CA profession, and other jobrelated factors, were analysed. Students attributed their career choice to their school Accounting performance. Most chose this career in Grades 8 to 11. All three groups like the availability of employment as a CA. Constraints were the cost of qualifying (according to black students), and the difficulty of qualifying (Asian and white students).

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Users of annual reports require an extensive range of financial and non-financial information, whether mandatory or voluntary, in order to assess the fair value of an investment. The extent and quality of voluntary information is dependent on company policy, and companies need to make decisions in favour of or against the disclosure of certain informative items. A survey was conducted to examine the perceptions of the compilers and the users of annual reports on the price-informative value of voluntary disclosures in annual and interim reports. The rankings awarded by compilers and users to the various voluntarily disclosed items were compared in order to determine the significance of the differences between the perception of the two groups. Significant differences were identified and suggestions are made for the improvement of corporations' voluntary disclosure strategies.