Impact of Malaysian Institute of Accountants’ Certification on the Practice of Accounting in Malaysia

This paper identifies and reviews the impact of accounting professional certificate, obtained through Malaysian Institute of Accountants’ (MIA) membership, on the practice of accounting in Malaysia. The study is categorized into two main impact assessments: 1) The impact of MIA certificate on accounting practitioners, and 2) The impact of MIA certificate on academicians or educators. As for information and data collection, two methods are used: namely verbal interview and content analysis. Based on the results obtained from both methods, it is clear that MIA certificate yields positive impact on the practice of accounting in Malaysia in the areas of: 1) building credentials and reputation; 2) building skills, knowledge and ethical development; and 3) higher income for the holders of the certificate. These results indicate that MIA certificate holders possess better working attractions than others with background knowledge of accounting but do not hold the certificate. It is, therefore, recommended that graduates of accounting should make effort to qualify for MIA certificate, or similar internationally recognized certificates, for them to be better practitioners or scholars in the field of accounting, in the best interest of their country and beyond. It is also recommended that MIA should be regularly conducting impact assessment on the quality of the services provided by its members in both the public and private sectors for quality assurance and image safeguard.