Conformance of Accounting Education in Saudi Arabia Universities to the International Accounting Education Standards: An Exploratory Study

The goal of this research is to see how closely accounting programs in Saudi Arabian colleges comply with the International Accounting Education Standards (IESs). Further, it aims to assess the level of awareness and knowledge of IESs among accounting academics and to examine the possible explanatory factors for their variation. A structured questionnaire was sent to accounting faculty members at 37 Saudi universities. Out of 541 distributed questionnaires, a total of 102 usable responses were received from 26 universities. The findings show that accounting programs in Saudi universities are partially compliant with the guidelines of IESs and accounting academics in those universities are moderately aware of IESs. High variation in the level of academics’ knowledge of IESs was detected and was significantly influenced by industry work experience, academic ranks, and professional qualification. The findings of this study suggest that Saudi Universities should work closely with the local and international accounting professional bodies, i.e. the Saudi Organization for Chartered and Professional Accountants (SOCPA) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) to improve accounting programs based on the guidelines of IESs to cope with the recent changes in the capital market of the kingdom and the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards.