Search results

To provide evidence on the establishment of the internal audit function in the higher education institutions in Malaysia and also to obtain the perceptions of the management of the higher education institutions towards the role and scope of the internal audit.

Sample consisted of 17 public universities and 49 private universities in Malaysia and variables used by Gordon and Fischer were adopted for this study.

The findings revealed that a substantial number of private institutions of higher education do not have an internal audit function. The study also indicates that the management of both types of institutions have similar perceptions on the role of internal auditors and the important audit areas as there are no significant differences between public and private institutions of higher education.

The main limitation of this study is that it only examines whether the scope of internal audit covers the areas mentioned by treasury circular or the IIA Guideline. It ignored the extent to which the higher education institutions comply with both guidelines. It is, therefore, suggested that future research could consider the degree of compliance to the above guidelines. The difference in the role of internal auditing between the education sector and other industries represents an interesting area for further research. Also, since this study only focuses on the perceptions of the management and the internal auditor themselves, the perception of other parties such as regulators and the audit committee on the role of internal audit in institutions of higher education will be an interesting area to explore for future research.

The failure to establish an internal audit function in the private universities calls for government intervention to ensure the existence of an internal audit function in the private sector higher education institutions.

The findings of this paper will be important in further refining the scope of the internal audit function in the higher educations institutions in Malaysia, especially to policymakers concerned with regulations governing the internal audit function.

There is limited research that utilizes the consequential‐conflictual (CC) approaches, which utilized radical orientation of double loop, second order and reorientation of organizational learning strategies. Both the functional‐institutional (FI) and CC approaches are integrated with the sustainability and ecological resources management literature. The aim of this paper is to fill this research gap.

The paper applies FI and CC sociological approaches.

This paper's contribution to the managerial auditing education literature is based on the proposition that ethics education can improve the moral and ethical reasoning of auditors, when the educational processes incorporate both the FI and CC sociological organizational learning strategies. The paper suggests that ethics education in auditing could benefit from experiential teaching methods utilized in allied applied disciplines of medicine, engineering, and educational psychology.

Sociological approaches have been commonly applied in behavioral managerial accounting and control systems research. This paper extends the FI and CC framework to ethics education in managerial auditing research.

The subject of accounting ethics education is important to auditors. When accounting ethics education utilizes both the FI and CC teaching approaches, the managerial auditing education processes become interactive and cooperative by bringing experiential organizational experiences to the classroom.

Accounting ethics education is shaped by ecological and environmental sustainability concerns. Recently, business school interest and growth in sustainability management has contributed to the integration of ethics education in managerial auditing and accounting contexts, overcoming the shortcomings accounting programs experienced from stand‐alone ethics courses.

The purpose of this paper is to test the validity of the curriculum auditing tool Sustainability Tool for Auditing University Curricula in Higher Education (STAUNCH©), which was designed to audit the education for sustainability and global citizenship content of higher education curricula. The Welsh Assembly Government aspires to incorporate sustainability across all sectors and required an audit of all higher education curricula within Wales. The paper also discusses responses to the auditing process, findings at an institutional and national level and proposes recommendations for improvements.

The University of Wales, Newport, provides the case study to test the validity of the STAUNCH© software.

The quality and effectiveness of the curriculum content was not identified by the audit. The audit identified what the curriculum offered but did not necessarily reflect that studied by students. Modules offered on more than one course were awarded credit within the “cross‐cutting” criteria of the audit and this distorted the final results. The audit enabled curriculum managers to identify programmes of study which exhibited strengths and limitations in this area. Utilising a common auditing tool across the Welsh higher education sector allows for future developments to be collective and collaborative.

A general consensus of opinion from a network of Welsh higher education institutions regarding any future use of this auditing tool is currently one of uncertainty as far as any validity the tool may bring to driving the sustainability agenda forward. Alterations to the STAUNCH© software and auditing process are proposed if possible future audits are to be more effective. Nevertheless, within a relatively short time span education for sustainable development and global citizenship within Welsh higher education is gaining momentum. Amendments have been made to university documentation, staff‐training initiatives developed and the potential impact of curriculum development in this area is beginning to be realised.

This paper discusses the application of a new sustainability curriculum‐auditing tool and the validity of the tool in progressing sustainability within the higher education sector.

A rationale for including operational auditing as a major component in the primary auditing course, as well as in subsequent courses, in the auditing curriculum is developed. Reports and statements from professional groups and commissions, together with accounting education literature, provide a primary resource. Problems in the auditing curriculum are identified, learning style theory and the education of accountants is explored and the objectives to provide support to achieve the educational goals identified by the various constituencies are presented.

Society′s recognition of the importance of internal auditing has increased in recent years. This has resulted in an increased recognition of the need for improving and formalizing the manner in which internal auditors are educated. Suggests some of the forces that have led to this increased awareness of the value of internal auditing and discusses historical changes in internal auditing education. Explores recent literature on the programmes of internal auditing education in several countries and how these programmes differ from institution to institution and from country to country.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the existence of a professional oversight body and certain country‐specific education regulations in auditing are associated with a country's perceived level of corruption.

Drawing on data from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) database, the authors used the Mann‐Whitney U analysis technique to test the difference between countries' perceived level of corruption based on whether they have or have not developed professional oversight bodies and licensing regulations.

Results suggest that countries that have established an audit profession oversight body are, indeed, perceived to be less corrupt. Similarly, countries that require practical experience, academic study, and a licensing examination in order to practice auditing are perceived to be less corrupt. On the other hand, the analysis shows that requiring auditors to fulfil continuing education requirements is not significantly related to a perception of lower levels of corruption.

The paper provides important insights for policy makers, business leaders, education and the audit profession as a whole.

This paper provides some of the first empirical support for the relationship between corruption and the use of oversight bodies and licensing regulations in professional auditing at a country level.

Internal audit is getting recognition thanks to media coverage of alleged fraudulent activities and new regulations that require the evaluation of internal controls. Given this attention, Harrington (2004) identified what organizations should look for when hiring a director of internal audit. This paper reports an investigation of college and university internal audit departments that determines if the directors hold the suggested qualifications and if the qualifications differ based on gender. Differences among the directors of internal auditor include demographic information such as salary, experience and number of staff members as well as who hires the director, and whether the institution has a governing board audit committee. Even with the differences, college and university internal audit directors are very much alike.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the auditors’ and accounting educators’ perceptions of accounting education gaps and their impact on audit quality in Egypt.

Data were collected using a survey of auditors and accounting educators in Egypt.

The findings indicate a significant negative relationship between deficiencies in specific skills – namely, decision making, information technology, critical thinking, legal knowledge, problem-solving skills, ethical behavior, ambiguity tolerance, presentation skills, written communication, and cost and managerial accounting skills – and audit quality.

The results provide an auditing professionals’ market perspective of the development of students’ skills in the Egyptian higher education system. Specifically, this research provides insights into what skills auditing firms look for and how much these skills differ from those currently developed by public business schools in Egypt.

The results help auditing firms that want to work in the Egyptian market to identify the training needs for entry-level positions. Specifically, accounting graduates from public schools will need training in critical thinking skills, information technology, and writing and communication skills.

This study extends the accounting literature on the relationship between attributes of accounting graduates and audit quality by examining the impact of accounting graduates’ skills development and audit quality in Egypt.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the maintenance of the process‐based quality assurance system in a higher education institution.

The paper introduces the process management as the essential element of quality assurance in higher education and discusses the external quality audit of the quality assurance agency, extends the study to the quality management between the external audits and presents the procedure of internal quality audits. Finally, the results of the study are discussed and summarised. Action research methodology was adopted in this study. The paper shows that the process‐based quality assurance system makes the organisation responsive, agile and enables the achievement of strategic objectives.

The audit group must first evaluate the necessary improvements in the process. If no improvements are found, the quality deviations must be reported. The audit helps the institution take corrective actions to amend the process descriptions or maintain the processes.

The paper shows that the necessary processes of a higher education institution can be systematically described and audited.

South East Asia is the area for challenge, opportunities and expansion. An overview of the opportunities in various SE Asian regions is given, together with a commentary of how these opportunities can be seized and capitalised upon.