The world's largest body for professional accountants is ending its remote examination system, declaring the rise of artificial intelligence tools has made online tests too vulnerable to cheating.
In-Person Exams Return as Safeguard
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has announced that, from March 2024, students will no longer be permitted to sit exams remotely except in exceptional circumstances. The decision reverses a policy introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, which allowed over half a million students globally to continue qualifying.
Helen Brand, the chief executive of the ACCA, told the Financial Times that the sophistication of cheating systems is now outpacing the safeguards that can be implemented. "People who want to do bad things are probably working at a quicker pace," she stated, adding that the rapid rise of AI technology had pushed the issue to a "tipping point."
A Global Problem for the Profession
The move comes against a backdrop of increasing exam misconduct scandals within the global accounting and auditing industry. In 2022, the UK's Financial Reporting Council (FRC) identified cheating as a "live" issue at Britain's biggest firms.
The scale of the problem is underscored by significant regulatory fines:
- In 2022, EY agreed to pay a record $100m to US regulators after dozens of its employees cheated on an ethics exam and the firm misled investigators.
- The FRC's probe found instances of cheating involved tier-one auditors, including the Big Four – KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, and EY – as well as Mazars, Grant Thornton, and BDO.
The ACCA's decision highlights a sector-wide struggle. While the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has also reported increasing cheating, it still permits some online exams.
London Exam Centre Sees Thousands of Candidates
The shift back to in-person assessment was evident as almost 4,000 aspiring accountants recently sat their ACCA exams at the ExCeL London centre. The ACCA, which boasts almost 260,000 members worldwide, will now require the vast majority of its candidates to attend such physical venues.
Brand emphasised that the ACCA had worked "intensively" to combat dishonesty but concluded that remote invigilation for high-stakes professional qualifications is no longer tenable. "There are very few high-stakes examinations now that are allowing [remote invigilation]," she noted, signalling a broader industry retreat from the practice.
