PASSIFRS idea is based on two important actions of EU: The Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) which outlines the European Commission’s vision for high-quality, inclusive and accessible digital education in Europe and Enactment of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament on the application of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in Europe. By the great efforts of EU, IFRSs are currently required in more than 140 jurisdictions and permitted in many more around the world.This means that the business world almost has a common financial language. PASSIFRS highly contributes to the EU's financial reporting policies by involving comprehensive and principle based IFRS training for future professionals. On the other hand, one of the priorities of EU's The Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) is "fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem". PASSIFRS meets the two important requirements of this priority by developing the digital transformation of IFRS education in HEIs; "digitally competent and confident teachers and education and training staff; and; high-quality learning content, user-friendly tools and secure platforms which respect privacy and ethical standards". The year 2005 was a milestone in global financial reporting with the mandatory adoption of IFRS for the consolidated accounts of all publicly traded companies in the European Union (EU). Although the accounting academics and multinational companies were aware of the beneficial adoption of IFRSs much more earlier, but from 2005, with the enactment of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament, the adoption process of IFRS has become incredibly faster. The member states of the EU require the mandatory application of these standards for listed companies since 2005. After the regulation of the EU, many non-EU countries also have voluntarily entered the IFRS adoption process. IFRSs are designed to bring consistency to accounting language, practices and statements. The adoption process of companies to IFRSs was not an easy step. The accountants and auditors around Europe began to deal with a new and complicated financial reporting procedures, hence this adoption process mostly showed itself on the vocational training of accountants and auditors. The next step that should be taken now is focusing on the IFRS training of business students in higher education institutions (HEIs) as future professionals. Approximately from the year 2015, Generation Z students began to fill the classrooms, campuses, and residence halls in HEIs. For the year 2020, most of the students in HEIs are from GenZ and a little number of Gen Y seniors. The GenZ students of business classes in HEIs are the future CEOs, CFOs,accountants and auditors and they need to learn and apply IFRS effectively, in order to be included in global financial workforce. While our world is suffering from Covid 19 pandemic and education is mostly limited with distance and digital learning, the main objective of PASSIFRS is to build digital education readiness for IFRS education in HEIs by taking into account the unique characteristics of Generation Z students. PASSIFRS is built on three important pillars: Contributing to the digital IFRS education of GenZ business students is the priority of PASSIFRS. PASSIFRS will construct a flexible but structured digital learning platform. This kind of digital training will be attractive for GenZ students. PASSIFRS includes several IOs that are especially designed for contributing digital readiness of HEIs in IFRS education. PASSIFRS offers adopting a principle-based approach in IFRS education. Adopting a principles-based model of IFRS education is not simply limited to teaching the IFRS, but also includes how to apply it with real world problems. The principle-based approach emphasizes best practices with prescribed procedures, provides flexible learning and also perfectly matches with the characteristics, perspectives, and styles of GenZ students. PASSIFRS includes an on line multicultural peer learning exercise. This exercise has been specially designed to meet two important distinctive characteristics of GenZ students: Multicultural and socially progressive. After receiving tutorials from the PASSIFRS Digital Platform, Gen Z students of PASSIFRS HEIs will benefit from the Erasmus+ multicultural perspective and learn IFRS on line with their peers and enjoy the ability to get different perspectives.
While our world was suffering from Covid 19 pandemic and education was mostly limited with distance and digital learning, the main objective of PASSIFRS was to build digital education readiness for IFRS education in HEIs by taking into account the unique characteristics of Generation Z students. The sub objectives of PASSIFRS were; • Developing principle based pedagogical strategies for teaching IFRS • Promoting multicultural peer learning approach • Building new digital teaching strategies suitable for GenZ characteristics • Enhancing the digital skills of accounting educators • Promoting use of digital technology in HEIs • Creating an innovative IFRS digital learning platform • Supporting accounting educators to in adapt online learning in IFRS education • Adding value to the EU's actions on supporting IFRS
Financial reporting is the critical task of a business.Financial reporting involves disclosure of financial information to stakeholders about the financial performance and financial position of the business over a period of time.In order to provide transparency and reliability in financial markets, providing a true and fair view of financial information is a necessity. In the global financial world that we live in, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), issued by International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), are the global language for financial reporting and considered as a set of high quality standards, whose main purpose is to increase the reliability and transparency of financial statements, also providing international comparability to increase the efficiency of capital markets. The year 2005 was a milestone in global financial reporting with the mandatory adoption of IFRS for the consolidated accounts of all publicly traded companies in the European Union (EU). By the year 2020, more than 140 countries around the world require the use of IFRS and with many others permitting their use. At international level, the EU supports the principle of a common set of worldwide accounting standards for listed companies and works with competent authorities all over the world to promote the adoption of IFRS. Global adoption of IFRS among businesses makes IFRS issue an integral part of business education in HEIs which their classrooms are now filled by Generation Z students. GenZ, (born 1995 through 2010), born with technology, and are known as digital natives. Although the timing of GenZ students' admission to HEIs and the Covid 19 pandemic process and therefore the necessity of transition to digital education in almost all over the world seems to be a coincidence, this was actually an opportunity that will contribute greatly to the learning process of digital native GenZ students.This was our inspiration to develop PASSIFRS. The logic of PASSIFRS was to combine IFRS principle-based approach with the unique digital native and open-minded characteristics of GenZ students.This logic led us to reach high quality IFRS distance learning which contributed to build digital education readiness and to mitigate the impact of the Covid 19 crisis on business education.