Guthrie, JamesEvans, ElaineBurritt, Roger2025-12-172025-12-172049-372XORCID:/0000-0001-5156-5376/work/189023800https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733796365Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a thought-provoking, attention-directing diegesis about the quality of the experience for those working as academic accounting scholars. Design/methodology/approach - Using storytelling by the authors as narrators and a literature review, this paper examines challenges to, and possibilities for, accounting academics. Findings - The study reveals a number of possibilities for the sustainability of the accounting academy in Australia, all of which rely on the symbiotic relations between the three elements of the profession - practitioners, policymakers and academics - to prepare accounting and business professionals for the future.18en© 2014 The Authors201410.1108/MEDAR-09-2013-003884927166333