Teaching IFRS: Options for Instructors

This paper provides a useful template for integrating the teaching of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) into the accounting curriculum.

We document the evolution of the dedicated IFRS course taught at Drexel University, sharing our department’s experiences teaching it at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

We identify instructional delivery options for teaching IFRS either as an independent course or as a supplement to an existing financial reporting, advanced accounting, or special topics course. We discuss the different approaches we have used to deliver such material and present our recommendations for best practices.

Recent surveys note that academia’s slow integration of IFRS into the classroom does not match the expectations of many accounting practitioners, particularly those with an international presence. With more than 100 countries around the world, including most of the emerging and major economies such as China, Brazil, and Germany, having already adopted IFRS, accounting firms expect job candidates to be conversant with international accounting standards and to be appropriately prepared in anticipation of an SEC decision to adopt IFRS.

This paper provides academics who intend to begin teaching IFRS with the essential information they need to keep their students current with global accounting trends.