The UK’s accounting body, which has almost 260,000 members, is planning to halt remote exams amid a surge of students cheating with AI.
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has said that from March it will no longer allow students to take online exams, except in exceptional circumstances.
Remote testing, like in many universities and institutions, was introduced during the Covid pandemic to allow students to continue qualifying at a time when lockdown orders were in place and prevented students from in-person examinations.
However, the accountancy body has concluded that online tests have become too difficult to police, given the rise in AI tools available to students.
ACCA’s chief executive, Helen Brand, told the FT, “We’re seeing the sophistication of [cheating] systems outpacing what can be put in, [in] terms of safeguards.”
She added that the rapid rise of technology, led by AI tools, had pushed the issue of cheating to a “tipping point”, and as a result, its exams will switch back to in-person testing.
“There are very few high-stakes examinations now that are allowing [remote invigilation],” Brand added.
Last year, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) said reports of cheating were still increasing, but it still permits some exams to be sat online.
Cheating scandals
Back in 2022, the UK’s accounting regulator said that cheating in professional exams was a “live” issue at Britain’s biggest companies.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) ‘s probe found that instances of cheating also included some of the giants, including KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY, along with Mazars, Grant Thornton and BDO.
As a result, the watchdog called on the seven auditors to strengthen the measures in place to prevent cheating on exams.
In the US, the accounting regulator, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, fined the Dutch arms of Big Four firms Deloitte, PwC, and EY $8.5m (£6.2m) in June for ‘widespread exam misconduct’.
This followed its other sanctions in April 2024 against the Dutch arm of KPMG and its former head of assurance over exam cheating.
While Big Four giant EY reached an $100m (£82m) settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2022 over claims its auditors cheated on accounting exams and later misled the watchdog’s investigators.