WEAKNESSES IN ACCOUNTING EDUCATION RELATED TO OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD DETECTION

Mohamad Majdi Sahloul
American Accounting Academy

Stanley W. Self
Purdue University Global

Michael Mason Simmons
American Accounting Academy

ABSTRACT

There is a strong correlation between undergraduate courses in accounting fraud and graduates’ abilities to detect fraud and to appropriately respond to internal control material weaknesses in work environments. However, many scholars have indicated a failure in academic education because external auditors usually detect only about 5% of fraud cases. The authors of this study review and analyze certain “weaknesses” in academic educators, academic institutions, literature, internal control topics, and contents/relevance. The latter includes: topics related to internal control, educational topics about fraud and forensic accounting, weak content related to ethics education, current ethics education that instill core ethical values, ethics integration among academic institutions, relative decline in the quality of accounting education, differences between academic and professional education, frustration with information technology, lack of topics related to data analytics, and the weakness in teaching forensic accounting.

Keywords: Occupational fraud, internal control, detection, prevention, academic education, topics, methods, content, courses, forensic, accountants’ perceptions