Impact of ambiguity tolerance and tertiary education on professional judgment

ABSTRACT

We examine whether tertiary accounting education enables students to develop relevant expertise to tolerate ambiguity in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and exercise appropriate professional judgment. The results show that third-year accounting students are more tolerant of ambiguity than first-year students, though the difference is insignificant. A significant difference exists between first-year and third-year students in their preference for using IFRS across ten financial reporting contexts. The findings reveal that IFRS-based tertiary accounting education programs have a positive impact on preparing accounting students to practice under IFRS regime, hence accounting standard setters and educators should focus on enhancing such programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Ambiguity tolerance
• professional judgment
• International Financial Reporting Standards
• U.S. GAAP
• tertiary education

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the useful comments of the anonymous reviewers and the editor. We also would like to thank the anonymous University which supported us to undertake the survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.