The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) have proposed changes to International Education Standard (IES) 6 which concerns the initial professional development of accountants, specifically the assessment of professional competence.

In our submission, CA ANZ commends IFAC for the excellent work done in the development of the ‘Proposed Revisions to IES 6 – Initial Professional Development – Assessment of Professional Competence’ including Appendices A to F. The updates proposed by IFAC do reflect, in our view, the shift in how assessments are delivered and the inclusion of authenticity and integrity in the principles of formal assessment are welcomed inclusions. CA ANZ also welcomes the changes to modernise the concept of equity for the purposes of IES 6 to explicitly incorporate accessibility and inclusivity.

We also recommend in our submission that, contract cheating and generative artificial intelligence, being key significant threats to the integrity of assessments, should be specified in the explanatory material relating to the ‘integrity’ principle of formal assessment (Paragraph A15 and A16) to ensure the significance of these threats and the challenges in minimising them are addressed in the assessment of professional competence.