IFRS Ready

The globalization of business and finance has led to the successful mass adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by over 12,000 companies in over 100 countries. Whether or not, as individuals, each of us support the concepts of ultimately attaining use of a single set of high quality accounting standards globally or the possibility of moving to use these standards in the United States, IFRS is in use in most capital markets around the world. IFRS already significantly impacts U.S. companies because it:

• Influences the direction of convergence,
• Is used by foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies,
• Stimulates questions from investors comparing U.S. companies to foreign competitors, and
• Influences the transaction structuring by foreign counterparties (customers, vendors, and capital providers) who report under IFRS.

Beginning to prepare accounting students for this new environment will be important to their long term professional success without regard to whether the US, itself, adopts the standards. PwC seeks to assist faculty who choose to introduce IFRS in the curriculum.

Because IFRS is new content for students, professors and business schools, PwC is providing learning opportunities for use by students and faculty. Through PwC's IFRS Ready program

• Faculty have access to instructional materials (which are not available to students) that may be embedded in existing courses. The instructional materials include teaching notes to supplement the student materials described above for faculty who wish to utilize these items in the classroom. In addition, we have developed presentations with accompanying teaching notes to address the following topics: 1) Introduction to IFRS; 2) Inventory; 3) Revenue Recognition; and 4) Impairments. Our instructional materials are available now on the AAA Commons in the PwC IFRS Hive or through this request link. Faculty submitting a request through this link will receive an email reply with materials attached in pdf files.
• Faculty will have on-going access to educational and technical resources as they implement our IFRS materials please send any requests here.
• Faculty and students will have on-going access to IFRS training available through PwC Open University

The PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc. has provided over $1 million to the IFRS Ready grant program. Over 2009 and 2010, these resources provided competitive funding for 38 proposals to support faculty as they build IFRS into their courses.

Each year, PwC employs several thousand new campus hires and interns. Recognizing that some knowledge of IFRS and its impact will help students in the future, PwC is providing materials for faculty to use in their classes; opportunities for candidates to learn independently; and has funded $1 million for curricular change. Building on our long tradition of collaborating with professors, we hope these resources will be useful to faculty who wish to introduce IFRS in the classroom. Working together, we can create an awareness of this new topic area for students.