Professional development

Studying for a professional accountancy qualification is usually enough of a challenge for most people.

Three-quarters of the 500 accounting professors polled in a recent survey think International Financial Reporting Standards need to be immediately incorporated into U.S. accounting curricula, and nearly half believe the U.S. should transition to IFRS to remain competitive.

CCH has launched the CCH Learning & Development Academy, a training program for accounting firms of all sizes.

The Treasury Department has proposed several improvements in Section 529 college savings plans, including the use of age-based index funds and the elimination of home-state biases.

The Accreditation Council for Accountancy and Taxation is accepting exam applications from accountants, tax preparers and students interested in earning the Accredited Business Accountant/Advisor and Accredited Tax Preparer credentials.

Yaeger CPA Review and Ellis University are offering CPA candidates a "fast-track" route to an MBA degree.

September is College Savings Month and a bill in front of Congress would give financial advisors more flexibility to help their clients who invest in college savings plans, known as 529 plans.

Yaeger CPA Review has announced a partnership with 360training.com to offer CPE online courses after CPA candidates pass their exams.

NewRiver Inc. has introduced FundPoint Desktop for 529 Plans, a desktop software product designed to manage multi-layered 529 college-savings plan information.

Touro College’s Graduate School of Business intends to offer for the first time a Master of Science degree in accounting this September.

The American Institute of CPAs has presented its Elijah Watt Sells Awards to the top performers on the CPA Exam.

Accountant training materials provider Universal Accounting reported growth in revenue this year.

One million sections of the computerized Uniform CPA Examination have now been administered, according to the organizations in charge of the exam.

The Obama administration is introducing a shorter and simpler Free Application for Federal Student Aid form that takes advantage of information from the IRS to streamline the application process for college financial aid.

CCH has signed a deal to market and distribute CPAexcel, a Web-based CPA Exam review program from Efficient Learning Systems, to CPA candidates.

Americans today are being forced to review their retirement planning goals with greater scrutiny. No one knows that more than Robert Fishbein, vice president and corporate counsel with Prudential Financial, Inc. He has now offered tips on how to get through this economic turmoil.

Barry Melancon, president and chief executive of the American Institute of CPAs, welcomed more than 350 AICPA Council members to the nation’s capital and told the state delegations to get ready to meet with legislators on pressing issues in the profession.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has started TaxWatch University, a tax staff-training program that combines the company’s AuditWatch University multi-level curriculum design with the in-depth taxation knowledge of the experts in the company’s PPC division.

Each year, approximately 140 students graduate with a Ph.D in accounting - not nearly enough to sustain the demand estimated at 500, according to research by David Leslie, chancellor professor of education at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.The Ph.D pipeline, it seems, is producing only a trickle.

The Internal Revenue Service now has a new interest in sports and entertainment - and not just as a spectator.