The Effect of IFRS Adoption on Financial Reporting Pedagogy in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa has for many years been involved in and supported the work of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) (formerly the International Accounting Standards Committee [IASC]). Accordingly, South Africa was an early adopter of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This paper highlights two significant effects that the adoption of IFRS has had on accounting education in South Africa. First, both ''English'' and ''Afrikaans'' universities have faced, to varying degrees, the challenge of shifting from rule-based pedagogy to framework-based teaching of financial reporting. Second, the Afrikaans universities' primary source of reference for their financial reporting students, namely the financial reporting standards, is no longer available in Afrikaans and as a result introduces the risks and complexities associated with the translation from English into Afrikaans.

South African financial reporting students' reading comprehension of the IASB Conceptual Framework

“…Higher education is, however, only available in English or Afrikaans. 6 This introduces the complexity of reading comprehension in a second language (Coetzee & Schmulian, 2013;Coetzee, Schmulian & Kotzé, 2014;Melby-Lervåg & Lervåg, 2013;National Institute for Literacy, 2008;Shuttleworth-Jordan, 1996). This paper explores differences in the reading comprehension of the Framework between various language and racial student groups.…”

Docencia de contabilidad internacional en el sistema universitario español. Metodologías docentes y sistemas de evaluación

“…Desde el punto de vista del profesorado, la docencia de contabilidad internacional constituye un fuerte desafío: es una materia que requiere mucho estudio y actualización constante, sin que ese trabajo muchas veces pueda servir para cuestiones de investigación. A la falta de experiencia profesional concreta en esta materia, se suma la falta de manuales y de recursos didácticos (Coetze y Schmulian, 2013;Jackling, 2013;Zhu et al, 2011), en comparación con otras asignaturas de naturaleza contable. La metodología docente a seguir exige un alto nivel de preparación, dado que el desarrollo de las capacidades de análisis y juicio a alcanzar por parte del alumno difícilmente se consigue con una única metodología.…”

Auditing in the BRICs

“…These policies resulted in their placement in the South Africa has been extremely progressive in the implementation of IFRS, and has required IFRS adoption for all listed companies since 2005 (Ames, 2013). South Africa has been involved with the IASB and its predecessor since 1976, and original South African generally accepted accounting principles closely mirrored IFRS (Coetzee & Schmulian, 2013). Full transition in 2005 thus was fairly smooth, with no significant changes in earning quality post-implementation (Ames, 2013).…”

“…Full transition in 2005 thus was fairly smooth, with no significant changes in earning quality post-implementation (Ames, 2013). One concern does exist related to the availability of educational accounting materials in the Afrikaans language used by many South African universities; the absence of translated materials has negatively affected the ability of those colleges to ensure their students are adequately prepared for the accounting profession (Coetzee & Schmulian, 2013). This contributes to the overall shortage of qualified accounting professionals.…”