Effects of exposure to the International Education Standards on perceived importance of the global harmonization of accounting education among Japanese accounting academics

a r t i c l e i n f o This exploratory study empirically examines the degree to which the Japanese accounting academics is exposed to the IESs and explores their perception of the importance of global harmonization in accounting education in terms of ensuring quality global control of the accounting profession. Responses from 76 questionnaires found that accounting staff, particularly in the post graduate Accounting Schools, have a basic understanding of the IESs and view this global harmonization as favorable whereas staff who teach at undergraduate level or at ordinal postgraduate level in tertiary schools have a much lower understanding and perception. This is of concern to the accounting profession as it is in these undergraduate schools and ordinal postgraduate schools from where the majority of successful CPA examinees graduate each year. The findings also indicated that the IESs can be effectively used as a benchmarking tool within the Japanese accounting academics. In December 2009, the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB) publicly released the amended " Framework for International Education Standards for Professional Accountants " (Framework). The primary purpose of this revised Framework was to update the International Education Standards (IESs) for Professional Accountants. These standards were originally prepared and released by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) in 2003 and they were taken over by the IAESB in 2008. The desired IESs outcomes of this new Framework were to (1) increase the global mobility for accountants and (2) reduce international differences in the requirements of becoming a professional accountant together with his/her ongoing professional development (IAESB, 2009). Against this latest IESs exposure it has been noted that significant gaps exist between the IESs and the actual development of education programs across a number of countries. To address this concern, Karreman, Ahern, Kuijl, Marrian (2007) investigated the outcomes of accounting education programs that 32 professional accounting and auditing bodies from around the world had instigated in the previous five years and their perceptions for the ensuing five years. The collected data was analyzed in terms of initial education, training and assessment procedures, and the mandatory continuing professional development for each country's members. With the survey results based on educational standards and other issues from each country, the authors found limited influence of the IESs with regard to the development of pre-and post-qualification programs. According to the results, direct linkages only appeared, on average, in four out of …