This paper reports on a study aimed at exploring student perceptions of teaching and learning in the disciplines of business, accounting and economics. Twenty-three students from two Sydney-based faculties were interviewed and their responses analysed qualitatively. Their educational expectations are articulated in five major pedagogical themes including delivering and presenting a lesson, encouraging class participation, providing academic feedback, the dilemma between structured and discussion-based tutorials, and the dynamics of learning through group work. Students’ responses reveal that they have strong and clear expectations about quality teaching, although some dissonances from the educational theory were identified with respect to exam-driven learning and over-emphasis of work-readiness oriented instruction. Implications for enacting quality teaching, curriculum delivery and design are discussed.