Universities Not Planning for IFRS Education

Comparatively few universities will be educating students in international accounting standards this academic year, despite plans by the Securities and Exchange Commission to impose the new standards on U.S. companies.

Only 22 percent of 535 accounting professors surveyed by the American Accounting Association and KPMG said they would incorporate International Financial Reporting Standards into their curricula in any significant way in the 2008-2009 academic year. Sixty-two percent admitted they have not taken any significant steps toward doing so.

Last week, the SEC announced a proposed roadmap for requiring U.S. companies to file financial statements in accordance with IFRS beginning in 2014, with some large companies moving away from U.S. GAAP in 2010 (see SEC Proposes IFRS Roadmap). The survey found that the first class of graduating seniors likely to have a substantial amount of IFRS education would be the class of 2011, followed by the class of 2012.

Forty-two percent of the professors felt that textbooks would not be ready until the 2010-2011 academic year. Only 23 percent of the professors surveyed indicated that the administrators responsible for allocating resources understand the change very well. Seventy-nine percent of the respondents said the key challenge for them is developing curriculum materials, and another 72 percent said it would be making room for IFRS in the curriculum.

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