ACCA Puts Integrity First With Global Return To In-person Exams
By Nurunnasihah Ahmad Rashid
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) returned to in-person examinations worldwide after seeing indications of changes in examination behaviour that could pose risks to the integrity of its qualification.
Chief executive Helen Brand said ACCA monitors patterns of behaviour during every examination session and had seen sufficient indications of change to warrant action.
“The most important thing that we can protect from a reputational point of view is the integrity of ACCA’s examinations. We will always put that at the top of any consideration.
“We had enough indication of changes that we wanted to eliminate any risk to the integrity of our examinations, so that is why we took the decision,” she told Bernama in an exclusive interview recently.
ACCA largely returned to in-person examinations in March 2026, with remotely invigilated examinations now permitted only in exceptional circumstances.
Brand said employers and the public must be confident that ACCA members worldwide had obtained their qualifications with integrity and that the same standards were applied consistently across markets.
“Ultimately, whether those who qualify are in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing or London, employers and the public need to know that the qualification has been gained with integrity and is the same as every other ACCA qualification in the world,” she added.
She said ACCA has an independent regulatory board and examinations board that monitor its examination processes and systems.
“We are not going to take risks around integrity,” Brand stressed.
She said the policy was applied consistently worldwide to ensure no particular group of students was placed at an advantage or disadvantage.
However, Brand emphasised that the return to in-person examinations did not mean ACCA was reducing the use of technology in its qualification.
“I would like to emphasise that we are not diminishing at all the technology content of the qualification itself. This is about the running of the examination process, which is a separate matter.
“We will still be testing technology competence through our employability modules and examinations, and integrating it into the examinations in the ways we anticipated,” she said.
Brand said ACCA would continue reviewing available technologies and could reconsider its examination arrangements if technological advancements provided sufficiently strong safeguards.
“Perhaps in the future there will be advances that help us with this, but for now, this is the way to protect the integrity of the qualification,” she said.
AI Will Change, Not Replace, Accountants
Meanwhile, Brand said artificial intelligence (AI) was already changing the nature of accountancy work by automating routine tasks, including the collection and extraction of information.
However, she said AI would not replace accountants, but would instead become a tool that accountants must use effectively and with sound professional judgement.
“The machines are never going to be held to account, but human beings will. It is absolutely critical that humans stay in charge of the decisions.
“AI does not replace accountants. It becomes a tool that accountants have to use with good judgement and use effectively for the business,” she said.
Brand noted that demand from employers for professional accountants remained strong despite the rapid development and adoption of advanced technologies.
Nevertheless, she said the profession needed to consider how automation was reshaping entry-level jobs and the traditional route into accountancy.
Closing the digital skills gap
Citing the Enabling Finance Insight report jointly produced by ACCA and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, she said 72 per cent of finance professionals had only basic or no generative AI proficiency, including 34 per cent who had no proficiency at all.
“There are gaps in knowledge at the moment which people need to fill quite quickly,” she said.
Brand said ACCA was redesigning its qualification, with technology integrated throughout the programme and the first students under the redesigned qualification scheduled for 2027.
The redesigned qualification includes essential employability modules aimed at making students work-ready, including a module on digital technology and innovation.
ACCA is also introducing a data science option at the Strategic Professional level, which will be made available to existing members seeking to strengthen their data science capabilities.
“We cannot have accountants on one side and technology on the other. They need to be integrated, and we have done that in the qualification,” Brand added.
-- BERNAMA