The Impact of Audit Education on Perceptions of Deficient Auditor Performance

Abstract

There is now considerable evidence available as to the role that audit education can play in the reduction of the audit expectation gap. The majority of this evidence is directed at the unreasonableness element of the gap and has focused on reducing user misunderstanding regarding the audit process through education. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding the impact of audit education on the deficient performance gap. This gap has been defined as the difference between the existing duties of auditors and the performance of those duties as perceived by society. This study attempts to address this weakness by investigating whether exposure to auditing modules influences students’ perceptions of the performance of duties by auditors. Results indicate that those respondents exposed to the greatest amount of audit education were also the groups most sceptical of the duties performed by auditors. Education is seen as removing a certain level of professional mystique surrounding auditing by providing students with the necessary skills to scrutinise and evaluate the audit process.