Newsflash - ICAEW education reform fails
English ICA members narrowly defeated the institute’s plan to introduce ‘elective’ papers into its exam syllabus at its annual general meeting on Tuesday 8 June.
The electives proposal failed by a wafer-thin majority of 8,117 votes to 8,002 – an embarrassing snub for the institute’s elective-supporting council. Salt was rubbed in the wounds as it emerged that only one in seven of the institute’s members had bothered to vote.
The Big Five firms, which provide 60% of institute trainees, supported the reform proposals, which were designed to give students the opportunity to study specialist subjects as part of their accountancy qualifications. KPMG described the vote as ‘very disappointing’.
Thousands of future institute members could now be lost to rival training bodies as leading accountancy firms gear up to carry out their threat of sending their trainees to rival institutes such as the Scots ICA or ACCA.
The Scots ICA has already signalled it could offer optional modules in its syllabus from September 2000 and will consult with Big Five firms about future training provision.