Accounting Education in Russia and the USA: A Comparative Study

This study compares and contrasts the accounting education provided by Russian niversities with that given at American universities. Two typical universities were chosen for comparison purposes, one Russian and one American. Their curricula were compared and evaluated. Accounting educators at five Russian universities were also interviewed. The information gathered during the course of those interviews is also discussed. It was found that Russian accounting students spend a significantly longer amount of time studying both accounting and other subjects during the course of their university attendance. Part of the reason is because the average Russian accounting program is 5 years, compared to 4 years in the American system. However, Russian accounting students also spend more time at their studies each year.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and the other Soviet republics had a more or less uniform accounting educational program in the universities. Accounting actually formed a very minor part of the university curriculum. Students studied accounting as part of the economics major. The main emphasis was on the chart of accounts. There was also something about cost accounting, although cost accounting in Soviet times did not involve prices, since all prices were arbitrarily determined and were not used to allocate resources or measure profits. Financial statements consisted mostly of what would be called a funds flow statement in the West. There were no audit courses until the early 1990s.