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Current emphasis in enhancing the role of internal auditors and broadening knowledge and skills of future internal auditors have given increased impetus for the requirement of 150‐hour accounting education for future Certified Internal Auditors (CIAs). Examines why internal auditors, especially CIAs, need the additional education requirement beyond the Bachelor′s degree and how to implement the 150‐hour education programme for internal auditors.

The time period from the mid-1980s through 2002 is described in this series of research as a “pre-SOX” era of rapid deprofessionalization in U.S. pubic accountancy resulting in the loss of professional status. This was a period, however, when all professions were suffering some deprofessionalization. During the pre-SOX period it appears that leadership in public accountancy responded to a nearly perfect storm of changes confronting the profession with a corporate mentality of management by objectives, commercialization, and profit maximization resulting in constant and substantial net deprofessionalization greater than that of other professions. Starting in the late-1970s and continuing through 2001, some critics of public accountancy have asserted that leaders in the profession either lost or forgot what was required for public accountancy to be recognized as a profession. The conclusion stated in this paper is that public accountancy has lost its professional status in or before 2002. The reasons and events leading to this conclusion are presented and discussed. In the United States it appears as though once professional status is lost, regaining the elite status is more difficult. The question is if public accountancy can learn from history going into the substantial changes to be confronted in the post-SOX era of public accountancy and regain or at least make progress toward regaining professional status.

Accounting education is passing through a critical stage. In 1988 the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) voted overwhelmingly to require 150 semester hours of education, including a baccalaureate degree, for new members from the year 2000. AICPA together with the National Association of State Boards of Accounting (NASBA) is working to require the 150 hours education requirement to sit for the CPA examination. Twenty four states have passed various versions of this law; many more are in the process of passing it.

States that change is occurring rapidly in accounting education. Forces are converging to promote more educational breadth, increased emphasis on communication skills, higher quality teaching, innovative pedagogy, and more practical research. Suggests that the major developments unfolding in accounting education will, no doubt, have many effects on internal auditing. Reviews some of the major forces buffeting accounting education, illustrates how these forces are affecting curricula and faculty, outlines some of the changes that are being made and anticipated, and projects how these changes are likely to affect internal auditing. Shows that, in general, the changes should be beneficial to internal auditing but that there are some dangers inherent in the possible extent of change and some doubts as to the feasibility of early accomplishments of some of the called for reforms.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether, in the presence of the 150‐hour requirement, the image of accounting continues to deter high‐quality students from choosing accounting as a major. This study uses the cognitive theory of planned behavior as the framework to investigate the factors that limit students' interest in a 150‐hour accounting major. According to the data, while the image of accounting continues to suffer in the presence of the 150‐hour requirement, the accounting major is attracting the type of student the profession desires. This finding suggests that the profession will have to explore additional means beyond the 150‐hour mandate by which to improve the image of accounting in order to achieve its goal of attracting high‐performing, otherwise non‐accounting, students to the accounting major. On the other hand, this finding is encouraging, given the profession's concern about losing access to high‐performing students.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has established 150 semester hours as the minimum education requirement to qualify to take the CPA examination. This educational requirement is generally believed to impose additional potential costs on students, academic accounting departments, public accounting firms, and audit clients. Since a goal of the 150‐hour rule is to improve the overall quality of work performed by CPAs, it is worthwhile to examine whether an association exists between the number of semester hours of education and performance on the CPA exam. After controlling for SAT scores (verbal and quantitative), accounting credit hours, and enrollment in CPA coaching courses, this study found that first‐time candidates, on a national basis, having a minimum of 150‐semester hours of education performed better on the CPA exam. We interpret these results as indicating that there are benefits to students, CPA firms, and their audit clients from the higher education standard.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the academic research related to the certified public accountant (CPA) exam. Our review identifies several research streams in this area, including studies that examine the effects of educational requirements and institutional and candidate characteristics on CPA exam success. In addition, we describe the CPA licensure regulatory landscape and show a general trend of lessening educational requirements among the jurisdictions over the past two decades. In the meantime, the governing bodies of CPA licensure are beginning the CPA Evolution project, a project that entails evolving licensure requirements, including the CPA exam, to meet the demands of a constantly changing business environment. We call on the CPA licensure regulators to align their jurisdictions’ educational requirements to best serve the CPA Evolution project. Lastly, we provide suggestions for future research that would assist accounting regulators, academic administrators, and practitioners during this transformative period.

The globalization of businesses, the increasing complexities of business transactions, and advances in information technology that are facilitating electronic commerce and communication are challenging the relevance and usefulness of traditional accounting education. This paper deals with recent changes in accounting education needed to prepare accounting students to face the challenges of the 21st Century. In addition, this paper investigates the future of the AICPA 150‐hour requirement, with emphasis on California.

In its final report of 2008, the Treasury Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession (ACAP) made a recommendation that the American Accounting Association (AAA) and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) work together to form a commission to study the future structure and content of accounting education. The Pathways Commission is entrusted with the responsibility of fulfilling the ACAP's goals on human capital requirements. In its future course of work, the Commission will have to face the task of questioning whether the new structure and content will produce “better” accounting professionals. In management accounting, “better” means the benefits outweigh the costs. The current study addresses the cost–benefit aspect of the way the accounting profession produces its future professionals now.

In an effort to provide empirical evidence on the costs and benefits of the 150-hour education requirement of the United States, a national survey of accounting program administrators’ cost–benefit perceptions of their 150-hour program has been performed. This chapter reports on the results of the U.S. survey.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is charged with maintaining the relevance of the Uniform CPA exam to ensure that those who pass the exam and become certified have the skills and abilities to keep pace with the ever-changing accounting profession. For students pursuing the CPA designation, passing the Uniform CPA exam, and meeting the 150-hour requirement are key factors. With the launch of the latest version of the Uniform CPA exam in 2017, the question about whether educators should adapt their existing courses to meet the new CPA exam structure and focus is up for debate. This chapter contains a review of the proposed changes to the Uniform CPA exam by the AICPA and various statistics regarding historical pass rates. Further, the chapter includes the results of a survey about whether accounting faculty plan to adjust their courses to reflect the changes to the exam and whether they feel pressure from various stakeholders to improve CPA exam pass rates for their respective institutions.