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This paper aims to analyze the factors that influence the quality of internal audits in Brazilian federal educational institutions.

The study consisted of a survey whose target participants were members of the internal audits and members of the senior management of Brazilian Federal Educational Institutions. The analyses included descriptive statistics of the sample, exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis.

The results showed that the internal audit functions, continuous improvement practices and relationship between internal and external auditors as factors had a positive impact on the internal audit quality dependent variable. The internal audit functions and continuous improvement practices as factors influenced both models that were created (audit members and senior management), whereas the relationship between internal and external auditors was only relevant to senior management. Organizational support and internal audit autonomy, on the other hand, were not statistically significant.

Considering the recent Brazilian research on internal auditing in Educational Institutions, this study differs from others in that it covered all the Universities (63), Federal Institutes (38), Federal Centers of Technological Education (2) and Colégio Pedro II. Another relevant issue refers to the target audience, addressing both the members of the internal audits (supply side) and the Senior Management (one of the main parties impacted by the work of the internal audits).