The center will develop curriculum and arm faculty members with time-critical learning materials focused on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which will help the next generation of accounting professionals meet the fast-changing needs of the global financial markets.

Although the Ernst & Young Academic Resource Center will initially focus on IFRS, the mission will be to address the newest, most significant developments impacting the tax and accounting profession. As regulation or laws change, the center will focus its resources on these emerging topics and develop real-time materials to support faculty.

Staffed by Ernst & Young professionals and rotating faculty in residence, the center will officially launch in September 2008, and curricula will begin to be distributed to campuses as early as January 2009.

The Ernst & Young Foundation has committed an initial investment of $1 million toward the Academic Resource Center, which will develop or co-develop teaching materials, host subject matter conferences, and provide on-campus speakers, among other activities.

"The changes that are now clearly on the horizon around International Financial Reporting Standards will create a seismic shift around the knowledge and content that U.S. students will need to learn in the coming years," said Douglas Shackleford, Meade A. Willis Professor of Accounting at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. "It is exciting that Ernst & Young is looking to work with faculty to address these issues."

The incoming 2008/2009 class of students will likely need to understand new financial reporting standards when they enter the workforce in 2012. Although a date has not been set to adopt IFRS in the U.S., most European Union countries are already required to use IFRS and the SEC has approved a change in its rules such that foreign private issuers using IFRS are no longer required to reconcile their financial statements with U.S. GAAP.

The American Institute of CPAs recently recommended that IFRS content be added to the Uniform CPA Exam.