The future of auditing and accounting education - How the auditing firms and the universities can make the requirements for education relevant

Sammanfattning: The purpose with our thesis is to describe and analyse how the Swedish universities can make their audit education relevant and in line with the requirements for the future external audit market. The thesis has an abductive approach and we use a qualitative method in our research, this to get more dept in our study. This has been done by a number of semi-structured interviews, both by phone and in person, with three Swedish universities (Linnæus, Lund and Uppsala University), three audit firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers), and five interest organisations (Civilekonomerna, Far Akademi, Högskoleverket and Revisorsnämnden).The thesis has an abductive approach and we use a qualitative method in our research, this to get more dept in our study. This has been done by a number of semi-structured interviews, both by phone and in person, with three Swedish universities (Linnæus, Lund and Uppsala University), three audit firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers), and five interest organisations (Civilekonomerna, Far Akademi, Högskoleverket and Revisorsnämnden). Our research suggests the requirements of RN is flexible and is to an advantage for the universities when they develop their audit education. The influence which the audit firms and actors in the audit profession exercise on the university education, depends on personal networks and the special knowledge which the university teachers have. According to our theory about development of knowledge which concludes the education, is it important to give the student an understanding of the complex development of auditing. Therefore the critical and sceptical thinking of the academic world is needed in the education, but also the practical elements in the audit education are necessary for the students’ competence development. The close relationship between the actors and the university will ensure the educations relevance in the future.