World’s largest accounting body to scrap online exams as AI fuels cheating fears

The world’s largest accounting body is pulling back from online examinations, citing growing concerns that advances in artificial intelligence have made remote assessments too easy to exploit, The Guardian reported.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) said students will largely be required to sit exams in person from March, bringing to an end a practice introduced during the Covid pandemic. Remote exams will only be permitted in limited and exceptional cases.

The decision follows what the ACCA describes as an escalating challenge in maintaining exam integrity. According to its chief executive, Helen Brand, the methods used to cheat have become increasingly sophisticated, overtaking the effectiveness of existing monitoring systems.

Online testing was originally adopted to ensure continuity during lockdowns, allowing students to progress towards qualification when exam centres were closed. Since then, however, regulators and professional bodies have raised repeated warnings about misconduct in high-stakes professional exams.

In 2022, the Financial Reporting Council, the UK’s audit and accounting watchdog, described cheating as an active concern across major firms, including top-tier auditors such as the Big Four. That year also saw EY fined $100m (£74m) by US regulators after employees were found to have cheated on ethics exams and the firm was accused of misleading investigators.

The ACCA, which has nearly 260,000 members globally, said it has invested significant effort in tackling dishonest behaviour but acknowledged that those intent on cheating are adapting rapidly, driven in part by easy access to AI tools.

Other professional bodies have reported similar pressures. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales said last year that reports of cheating continued to rise, although it still allows some exams to be taken online.

Brand said the wider trend across professional qualifications is clear, with fewer high-stakes exams relying on remote invigilation as concerns about credibility and trust grow.