Accounting Educators Say U.S. at Disadvantage Without IFRS

Nearly half of accounting faculty at U.S. universities believe the United States should transition to IFRS to remain competitive, and three-quarters think IFRS needs to be immediately incorporated into their school’s curricula, according to a survey conducted by the American Accounting Association (AAA) and KPMG LLP.

The second annual KPMG-AAA Faculty Survey released on Tuesday measured responses from 500 professors collected during July and August. The AAA, whose 8,000 members are primarily university accounting professors, promotes development of accounting curricula for undergraduate and graduate students.

Seventy-four percent of respondents said that U.S. adoption of IFRS will occur through convergence of U.S. GAAP with IFRS by 2015 or later. Meanwhile, 17% said U.S. public companies will be required to adopt IFRS outright by 2015 or earlier.Nine percent said IFRS will not be adopted by U.S. companies.

Seven in 10 professors said their most significant challenge to teaching IFRS is making room for it in the curriculum. Last year respondents cited developing curriculum materials as the top challenge. Despite this challenge, 70% said they have taken significant steps to incorporate IFRS into the curriculum. Further, 83% believe IFRS needs to be incorporated into their curricula by 2011.

When asked to assess their university’s preparedness to teach IFRS, only 8% thought at least half of their school’s accounting faculty were qualified to teach it. Slightly more than half of the professors (55%) were also concerned that administrators do not understand the magnitude of the curriculum change required to respond to IFRS adoption in the United States.

For a summary of the 2009 KPMG-AAA Survey or to view last year’s survey summary, visit: www.kpmgfacultyportal.com.