Students CFE News 2019

CPA Canada releases September 2019 CFE statement

CPA Canada to launch independent, comprehensive review of Common Final Examination delivery, integrity

Author: Canadian Accountant

TORONTO, September 19, 2019 – The Chartered Professional of Accountants of Canada has provided an update on the writing of the Common Final Examination (CFE) in September 2019:

During the administration of the three-day Common Final Exam (CFE) there were technical delays resulting in a challenging exam writing experience for many students. We extend our sincere apologies to everyone who was affected as we know how much work goes into preparing and writing this important examination and how stressful it has been for our students. 

In response to issues caused by technical problems with the CFE, CPA Canada is retaining a third-party expert to conduct an independent, comprehensive review. The mandate includes evaluating the integrity and reliability of the September 2019 examination process. 

To inform our review, we are actively gathering information from students, proctors, and others to understand what happened and how it impacted the exam-writing experience. We are committed to maintaining the integrity of the profession and the Common Final Examination. 

An independent board of examiners oversees the CFE evaluation process. Over many years, they have developed a robust system for taking into account extenuating circumstances that affect exam-writers. Given what occurred during this year’s exam, this CFE evaluation process will be supplemented by the third-party review. 

We will proceed as quickly as possible, but our main priority is to provide the time necessary for a fair, accurate and equitable outcome. 

At the same time, we are also immediately reviewing the technical issues that arose across the country and are working with our service providers to do everything possible to avoid a future reoccurrence. 

We recognize what a difficult time this has been for many and we want to reassure exam-writers we have the people and processes in place to resolve the situation as quickly and effectively as possible.

The CPA Canada statement was provided to Canadian Accountant by Tobin Lambie, director of corporate communications, CPA Canada. Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay.

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(2) Comments

Ricky
Ricky Sep 20, 2019 -- 1:50 PM
The technical issues experienced before and during the recent CFE exams are just more compelling reasons why our experts in education, colleges and universities, should replace CPA Canada as the educators and examiners of Canada's next generation of CPA's.
CPA Canada has allowed large international accounting firms and corporate Canada to dictate who becomes a CPA and when. If the employment status of a CPA student ends for whatever reason, their CPA education is also interrupted. If an employer decides that one of its CPA student accountants can do the tasks they require without a CPA, their support of the education/study time of that student accountant may be affected. (I have been told that seeking an alternate student accounting position just doesn't "fit the HR progression model" of most accounting firms). That is just too much control to leave in the hands of private interests. One can complete a degree in medicine, dentistry, law, engineering, architecture, teaching, nursing (and nearly all other professions) at various universities and colleges across Canada. It's time for CPA education to be taken away from the self-serving business world and given to Canada's impartial colleges and universities.
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Tuggs
Tuggs Sep 20, 2019 -- 7:02 PM
CPA Canada needs to be replaced as an organization. They have fixed and manipulated the pass rate to such an extent that people who studied for ages are still failing. Here is an organization telling companies to have back up controls in place in their audits and CPA itself does not have one. What a disaster. I am not sure CPA can recover from this. The damage is done due to their lackadaisical attitude. Give the universities control of accounting education. I have ZERO confidence in the CPA program. There is no way I can now trust CPA. I envision a HUGE decline in membership and students writing future exams.
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