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The world’s largest accounting body is scrapping remote exams from March, requiring candidates to sit assessments in person in a bid to curb a rise in cheating, according to the Financial Times.
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), which has about 258,000 members worldwide, will end online exams except in exceptional circumstances, its chief executive Helen Brand said.
Remote invigilation was introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic to allow students to continue qualifying during lockdowns.
However, the ACCA has concluded that online assessments have become increasingly difficult to police, particularly as artificial intelligence tools have made misconduct easier to conceal.
In the UK, the accounting watchdog warned firms in 2022 that it had uncovered multiple instances of cheating. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales said in 2024 that reports of misconduct were still increasing.
Brand told the FT that the sophistication of cheating techniques was now outpacing the safeguards that could be put in place.
She said: “We’re seeing the sophistication of [cheating] systems outpacing what can be put in, in terms of safeguards.”
The FT has learnt that the move comes against the backdrop of a series of high-profile cheating scandals in the accounting profession.
Firms including PwC, KPMG and Deloitte have been fined millions of dollars in recent years by regulators in the US, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands over misconduct linked to internal tests.
In 2022, EY agreed to pay a record $100m (£74.34m) to US regulators over allegations that dozens of staff cheated on an ethics exam and that the firm then misled investigators.
The internal assessments used by accounting firms are separate from the professional exams run by bodies such as the ACCA, which candidates must pass to qualify.
The ACCA has more than 500,000 students globally. Brand said the organisation had worked “intensively” to address cheating, but added that “people who want to do bad things are probably working at a quicker pace”.
The ACCA told the FT that it remained confident in the integrity of its exam processes but that rapid technological advances had pushed the issue to a “tipping point”.
Brand said few high-stakes examinations now permitted remote invigilation, although the ICAEW and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland still allow some exams to be taken online.
She added that cheating was not limited to remote tests. “Let’s not kid ourselves. It’s not just the technology,” Brand said. “There are other ways … formulas up your arm, things down your sock, God knows what — mirrors and everything.”
In contrast, some students have argued that the end of remote exams would make qualifying more difficult.
One candidate told the FT that sitting exams from home had been a “huge relief” while pregnant, allowing her to avoid a six-hour drive to the nearest exam centre. “At this point in my life, I genuinely don’t think I would have been able to attend exams or lectures in person,” she said.
According to the FT, the shift back to in-person exams comes as the ACCA overhauls its flagship qualification for the first time in a decade, with a greater focus on areas such as AI, blockchain and data science.
Brand said AI had “fundamentally shifted” the skills required of accountants, noting that firms including the Big Four were investing heavily in AI-powered tools.
That, she said, would make it harder for junior auditors to gain practical experience, prompting the ACCA to introduce modules that simulate real-time scenarios and test judgement rather than relying solely on traditional exams.
