Private Sector Accounting Education in Russia

Abstract

The Russian Finance Ministry has declared that all banks and large Russian enterprises must prepare their financial statements based on international financial reporting standards (IFRS) as of January 1, 2004, a full year ahead of the European Union deadline for EU member countries. The problem is that the majority of Russian accountants know little or nothing about IFRS and there are few educational resources they can utilize to get up to speed on the subject. Russian universities cannot provide much assistance because many of their professors are not trained in IFRS either. The private sector has risen to the challenge and is providing some of the much needed training but the quantity of educational resources the private sector is able to provide is insufficient to fully educate the Russian accounting profession in time for the deadline, and the quality of some of the education providers leaves much to be desired. This chapter reports on the private sector’s initiative to provide quality accounting education. Some of the information in this chapter was gathered from interviews conducted in Moscow, St. Petersburg and a few other Russian cities during the summer and fall of 2003.