Abstract:

Information technologies’ evolution brings challenges to the accounting profession requiring a new set of skills that the professionals must gain aiming at improving the quality of their work and creating more value. The practitioners have to continuously adapt their knowledge and practice to the requirements of the organizations and profession aiming to support efficiency goals.
As our research has identified emerging information technologies, such as cloud computing and Big Data along with the increased need for information security, as the main challenges of the profession. To identify whether aspiring professional accountants gain sufficient knowledge and develop the necessary IT skills, we have conducted an empirical research by analyzing the current curricula of 21 Romanian universities from the accounting field, having a total of 67 study programs.  
The authors’ research has shown that the accounting study programs from Romania are part of an ongoing process that focuses on aligning the students' competencies with the current needs of the economic environment. However, the universities should also consider the possibility of introducing more courses on topics like Big Data, cloud computing and information security with the purpose of creating a solid knowledge in the IT area for the future accountants.