Deloitte has formed the IFRS University Consortium, which will develop course materials such as classroom guides and case studies to help professors and students understand the international reporting guidelines.

Accounting programmes in the US teach generally accepted accounting principles, which are the financial reporting standards used by US companies. IFRS is a single set of accounting principles that tend to be more focused on objectives and rely less on detailed rules than do US GAAP.

The international standards are rapidly gaining acceptance round the world: more than 100 countries and nearly 40 per cent of Global Fortune 500 companies already use IFRS. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator, is expected to push for allowing US multinationals to use IFRS by 2011.