The Impact Of International Financial Reporting Standards On Accounting Curriculum In The United States

Abstract

According to the time line presently specified by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), business firms in the United States (US) should switch from the existing US accounting reporting guidelines of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by the year 2014.  The US business school graduates and accounting professionals have less than four years to understand the differences between the two accounting systems, and to learn how to implement the new International Accounting Standards.  But many of the business schools in the US are not yet ready to include the new IFRS standards in their accounting curriculum. In many schools, administrators do not have any understanding of how to incorporate the new standards in their curriculum. Many European countries shifted to IFRS as early as 2005.  They are ahead of the US in teaching IFRS to their students. The main problems in incorporating IFRS in the curriculum include lack of good textbooks and providing training for professors to learn IFRS procedures so that they can teach them to their students. This paper makes an effort in presenting the historical background of IFRS, and the impact of the adapting of IFRS on US business schools.