International Emergence of Forensic  Accounting Education and Practice

Danny Lo,Michael Ha,Zabihollah Rezaee

doi:10.4236/jss.2014.212001

Abstract

Forensic accounting practice has emerged in the areas of litigation support consulting, expert witnessing, and fraud investigation. Although forensic accounting practice is viewed as one of the most rewarding and secure career choices, there is a gap between forensic accounting practice and education. Thus, this study gathers opinions of international students regarding the importance demand, relevance, benefits, coverage, and delivery of forensic accounting education to international accounting students. Results indicate that: 1) the demand for and interest in forensic accounting education and practice will continue to increase worldwide; 2) forensic accounting can be integrated to the business curriculum by either offering a stand-alone forensic accounting course or through infusion into several accounting and business courses; and 3) many of the suggested forensic accounting topics should be integrated into business and accounting curricula in universities worldwide. The findings can be of great benefit to business colleges and accounting schools worldwide in redesigning their curricula by providing coverage of the emerging area of forensic accounting.

Highlights

Forensic accounting practice has emerged in the areas of litigation support consulting, expert witnessing, and fraud investigation [1]
Senior Chinese and international students from these universities were selected because: 1) Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is a Sino-British university offering 24 degree programs in the fields of Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Business, Management and Culture; 2) the language of instruction is English; 3) two of the authors are the instructors at Xi’an JiaotongLiverpool University; 4) one of the authors was the instructor of a Year 4 Financial Risk Management offered in the Fall semester of 2013 when the survey was conducted; 5) one of the authors was the instructor of Corporate Finance at SKEMA Business School
Results show that both groups of respondents agreed that Corporate governance plays an important role in preventing and detecting fraud, forensic accounting education and antifraud policies and procedures should be integrated into the accounting curriculum

Summary

Introduction

Forensic accounting practice has emerged in the areas of litigation support consulting, expert witnessing, and fraud investigation [1]. The extant literature in the United States (Rezaee et al, 2007) provides evidence of the importance of forensic accounting education and practice and its integration into the business curriculum. The evidence of forensic accounting practice and education in other countries China is rare. The primary purposes of this paper are to: 1) describe areas of forensic accounting practices from a global perspective; 2) examine the demand for and interest in forensic accounting practices and education worldwide: and 3) present the most relevant forensic accounting topics to be. (2014) International Emergence of Forensic Accounting Education and Practice.

Methods

Results

Conclusion