So far, just a few universities have been educating students in IFRS, which poses a potential problem – if colleges and universities don’t modify their curriculum it could impair the value of these students when they reach the job market, according to “Bridging the GAAP:

Understanding & Updates on IFRS” a newsletter published by Mazars LLP, Weiser LLP and Moss Adams LLP, all members of Praxity, a global alliance of independent accounting firms.

Apparently, only 22 percent of 535 accounting professors surveyed by the American Accounting Association in 2008 said they would incorporate IFRS into their curricula in any significant way during the 2008-2009 school year – and perhaps even more concerning is that 62 percent admitted they have not taken any significant steps to do so.

The survey also found that the first class of graduating seniors likely to have substantial amount of IFRS education would be the class of 2011.

One key incentive for getting colleges and universities moving on this issue, according to the newsletter, is that IFRS will be part of the CPA examination – most likely by 2012, if not earlier.