Changes To The Intermediate Accounting Course Sequence

Abstract

There is an ever-growing amount of information that must be covered in Intermediate Accounting courses. Due to recent accounting standards and the implementation of IFRS this trend is likely to continue.  This report incorporates the results of a recent survey to examine the trend of spending more course time to cover this additional material. Two-hundred universities throughout the United States were surveyed during the last two months of 2008 and the first two months of 2009 in order to gather the  data used in this report .  Eight questions were asked of the respondents ranging from accreditation of the program to the faculty attitudes and perceptions.  The results indicate that forty percent of the universities surveyed required more than the standard two (3 credit hour) courses in Intermediate Accounting.  Some of the universities that have made changes in their program now offer a three course Intermediate Accounting sequence while others are requiring two courses of four credit hours rather than the traditional three hours. There does not seem to be a direct correlation between AACSB accredited programs verses non- accredited.  Both types of institutions did not statically differ in their course delivery methods. Several universities indicated that even though a change had not been made, it was being considered.