Sydney at the epicentre of global accounting education

The University of Sydney Business School will host two of the meetings, the 13th World Congress of Accounting Educators and Researchers (IAAER) and the powerful International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) Research Forum between 8th and 12th November.

Both the meeting of accounting educators and the IASB will coincide with the International Federation of Accountancy’s World Congress of Accountants to be held at Sydney’s Darling Harbour.

The influential IASB operates under the auspices of the IFRS Foundation and is backed by the G20, the Financial Stability Board and the World Bank.

Standards set by the Board underpin the practice of accounting in more than 140 jurisdictions including Australia, member countries of the European Union and many Asian jurisdictions such as China and Japan.

“The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation which works to develop a single set of high-quality global accounting standards,” explained the Business School’s head of Accounting, Professor Stewart Jones.

“The Foundation’s mission is to bring transparency, accountability and efficiency to financial markets around the world in a way that serves the public interest by fostering trust, growth and long-term financial stability,” he said.

Professor Jones, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious international journal ABACUS, says that papers to be put to the IASB’s Research Forum will, amongst other things, look at intangible assets, extractive activities and accounting practices in China. These papers will form a Special Issue of ABACUS to be published in early 2019.

Around a hundred leaders in the accounting field are expected to attend the IASB Research Forum including accounting academics representing universities in China and the United States.

The 13th World Congress of Accounting Educators and Researchers is expecting about two hundred delegates from around the world. The Congress is organised every four years by the International Association of Accounting Educators and Researchers.

“IAAER’s mission is to promote excellence in accounting education and research on a worldwide basis and to maximise the contribution of accounting academics to the development and maintenance of high quality, globally recognised standards of accounting practice,” says the Association’s President Professor Katherine Schipper.

Commenting on the venue for this year’s World Congress of Accounting Educators and Researchers, Professor Schipper said that “accountancy has a long and distinguished history in Australia, including exemplary global contributions by Australian accountants to accounting theory, research, education, practice and standard setting”.