Journal of Education for Business

ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20

The Future of the Certified Internal Auditor and

the Internal Auditing Profession

Richard G. Brody & Kimberly E. Frank

To cite this article: Richard G. Brody & Kimberly E. Frank (2000) The Future of the Certified
Internal Auditor and the Internal Auditing Profession, Journal of Education for Business, 75:4,
215-218, DOI: 10.1080/08832320009599017

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320009599017

Published online: 31 Mar 2010.

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 The Future of the Certified
Internal Auditor and the Internal
Auditing Profession
Downloaded by [Library Services City University London] at 00:02 21 April 2016
T he certified internal auditor (CIA)
credential has come a long way
since its inception in 1974. To date,
more than 25,000 individuals have
earned the CIA designation. Still the
only internationally accepted designa-
tion for internal auditors, it continues to
move toward a truly global certification
program. Many, especially employers,
view the CIA as a symbol of profes-
sionalism and credibility for internal
auditing. Recent articles in Internal
Auditor by Peterson and Reider (1997)
and Robertson (1997), reporting on the
success of the CIA program, indicated
not only that employers value the CIA,
but also that many companies now
require certification before allowing
individuals to be promoted to the senior
level. There was additional evidence
suggesting that the CIA could lead to
salary increases and greater job mobili-
ty and marketability.
Despite the success of the CIA pro-
gram, some issues still need to be
addressed. Specifically, attention needs
to be directed toward increasing the
number of CIA credential holders and
retaining them in the profession, as well
as demonstrating the value of the CIA
designation to professionals. Unfortu-
nately, these issues are not new. In Octo-
ber 1996, Anthony J. Ridley, the then
chairman of the board of the Institute of
Internal Auditors (IIA), published an
RICHARD G. BRODY
KIMBERLY E. FRANK
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
ABSTRACT. Within the internal
auditing profession, the certified inter-
nal auditor (CIA) credential has
become a symbol of professionalism
and credibility. Evidence suggests that
current internal auditing professionals
view the CIA favorably; however,
whether future professionals (stu-
dents) appreciate the importance and
value of the CIA and the opportunities
the designation provides is unclear. In
this study, students at seven universi-
ties were surveyed about their aware-
ness and perceptions of obtaining the
CIA designation. The results indicate
that perceptions of the advantages of
the CIA are lagging behind other cer-
tification programs. Suggestions for
improving the image of the CIA and
promoting it within accounting pro-
grams are offered.
article in the Internal Auditor in which
he stated that “the profession of internal
auditing is at a critical crossroad” and
that “we must look ahead with urgency
and vigor and unity” (p. 21). He sug-
gested that recruitment and retention
efforts needed to be accelerated and
strengthened, and expressed concern
that only 1% of professionals had the
credentials (the CIA designation) to per-
form their role. Robertson, too,
addressed this issue in her 1997 article,
stating, “As we move forward, it will be
vital for us to show clearly the value of
the CIA” (p. 60). Internal auditors need
to recognize that obtaining the CIA can
broaden advancement opportunities,
increase salary potential, and improve
their credibility.
In the words of Hans Spoel, chairman
of the IIA board of regents, “Certifica-
tion is an absolute requirement for the
future. If we are to enhance the profile
and image of internal auditing, we need
a certification program that will be the
hallmark of a true professional” (Robert-
son, 1997, p. 65). However, this program
can only succeed if members are aware
of the significance of the certification;
therefore, disseminating the information
will be a critical step in the process. Fur-
ther, increasing the perceived value of
the CIA will not only benefit current IIA
members, but will also help attract and
retain new professionals. Many of these
new professionals are accounting stu-
dents who are considering all of their
options for future employment.
In addition to these calls for improv-
ing the stature of the CIA, several
researchers have focused on the actual
state of the CIA among professionals.
Peterson and Reider ( 1997), reporting
results from a survey of practicing CIAs,
indicated that professionals with the cre-
dential experienced increased recogni-
tion in the workplace, greater job mobil-
ity, and more salary increases and
promotions. Annual salary surveys also
demonstrate the financial rewards asso-
ciated with certification.Carcello (1995)
surveyed directors of internal audit and
MarclVApril2000 215
 found strong support for the CIA desig-
nation. Though these findings are very TABLE 1. Demographic Information of Participants ( N = 316)
promising, they focused primarily on
practicing internal auditors. The issue Item No.
still remains as to whether future IIA
members (today’s students) appreciate Age Ws.)
and understand the importance and Mean 25
value of the CIA designation. Given that Standard deviation 5.9
Range 19-57
the CIA is considered vital to the success Gender
and continued existence of the IIA, it is Male 132
critical that new professionals under- Female 184
stand and appreciate its value. In an Degree program
effort to evaluate the impact of the state- Bachelor’s in accounting 273
Master’s in accounting 25
ments made by the leaders of the IIA Other (includes students taking classes to sit for CPA Exam) 18
(i.e., Ridley and Spoel) and, in general, Year in program
to examine the status of the CIA (by Juniors 38
itself and in relation to other certifica- Seniors 236
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tions, the CPA and the CMA), in this
study, we collected information from
potential internal auditing professionals.
The Survey
Surveys were distributed to students
in upper division accounting classes at
seven universities across the United
States. One professorkoordinator was
identified at each university, and stu-
dents were asked to complete the survey
during a normal class session (resulting
in a 100% response rate). Six of the uni-
versities were public institutions, and
one was private. Three offered Internal
Auditing as an elective course; however,
none had student Institute of Internal
Auditors (IIA) chapters. Responses
were received from 316 students. As
indicated in Table 1,58% of the respon-
dents were female. The representation
of women is fairly consistent with the
national average of women receiving a
bachelor’s degree in accounting. The
average age of the students participating
in the s w e y was 25, and approximate-
ly 75% of the respondents were senior
accounting majors. (See Table 1 for
additional descriptive information for
the participants.)
Results
As expected, all students were famil-
iar with the CPA designation. Many of
the students were familiar with the CIA
designation, but a fairly large percent-
age was not (see Table 2). Responses to
many of the other questions were not
only surprising; they were quite disap-
Graduatehot seeking degree 42
Organizational memberships
Beta Alpha Psi 88
Institute of ManagementAccountants 14
Insititute of Internal Auditors 2
Career plans
Public accounting 165
Internal auditing 10
Corporate/private accounting 99
Otherhndecided 42
pointing. Only two of the participants
(less than 1%) indicated that they were TABLE 2. Respondents’ Aware-
student members of the IIA,and only ness of Certificatlon Programs
10 respondents (3%) expressed an
interest in internal auditing as a career. Had not
These results, along with the others dis- Heard of heard of
cussed below and summarized in program program
Tables 3 , 4 , and 5, provide a clear indi- Program No. % No. %
cation that though the CIA may be
growing in stature with professionals, CPA 316 100 0
CMA 266 84 50 16
employers, and clients, many of today’s CIA 211 67 105 33
students do not share the same enthusi-
asm for the certification. This may dis-
suade students, including future ones,
from pursuing the CIA and/or a career determines the relative ranking of the
in internal auditing. certification program-even with
When asked to rank the relative knowledge of all three programs, stu-
importance of the three most prominent dents ranked the CIA last among the
certifications (CPA, CMA, CIA), the three programs.
overwhelming majority of students These rankings focus only on the rel-
ranked the CPA first, the CMA second, ative position of the certification pro-
and the CIA third (see Table 3). Howev- gram. More interesting is the student’s
er, because there are a number of stu- perception of the importance of the cer-
dents unfamiliar with the CIA program tification to specific careers. For in-
and to a lesser degree the CMA pro- stance, how important is it to have the
gram, the rankings of the students with CIA if you are an internal auditor?
knowledge of all three programs is also Overall, only 52.5% of the students
provided. The similarity in the results reported that the CIA was highly
between the two groups suggests that it important for a career in internal audit-
is not just awareness of the program that ing (see Table 4). This number

216 Journal of Education for Business

 accountants yet rank it relatively higher
TABLE 3. Ranking of Certification Programs by Order of importance than the CIA. Determining what value
is associated with certification may be
CPA CMA CIA helpful in explaining this result.
Ranking No. % No. % No. % Improving awareness and knowledge of
the CIA program will improve percep-
All students (N = 3 16) tions to some extent; however, more
First 285 90.5 20 6.3 10 3.2 effort will be necessary to elevate its
Second 24 7.7 192 61.9 94 30.3 perceived importance to approach that
Third 6 1.9 98 31.6 206 66.5 given to the CPA designation.
Students with knowledge of
all three programs (N = 191) Next, students were asked about the
First 173 90.6 13 6.8 5 2.6 importance of certification with respect
Second 14 7.4 111 58.1 66 34.6 to advancement opportunities, salary
Third 4 2.1 67 35.1 120 62.8 potential, and professional reputation.
Though approximately 95% of the
respondents felt that the CPA was high-
ly useful in each of these areas, the
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TABLE 4. Respondents Who Perceived Certlflcatlon for Careers in

Accounting as Highly Important, In Percentages overall percentages for the CIA desig-
nation were nearly 40 percentage points
lower in all cases (see Table 5). Overall
Item %
ratings for the CMA led those for the
CIA (consistent with the relative rank-
The importance of a CPA for a career in public accounting (overall) 90.4 ings), although by considerably less
The importance of a CMA for a career in corporate management accounting
(overall) 43.7 than those for the CPA. Again, knowl-
Students with knowledge of the CMA program (n = 266) 45.9 edge and awareness of the CIA and
Students without knowledge of the CMA program (n = 50) 32.0 CMA programs resulted in higher per-
The importance of a CIA for a career in internal auditing (overall) 52.5 ceptions of the value of certification
Students with knowledge of the CIA program (n = 21 1) 58.7 with respect to these advantages, but the
Students without knowledge of the CIA program (n = 105) 40.0
poor rating of the CIA is a concern. The
Note. The table indicates the percentage of students in the sample who agreed the certificationwas fact that the CIA received the least sup-
highly important for the specific career choice. port from the students suggests that a
great deal of work is necessary in terms
of marketing the advantages of the CIA
to prospective professionals.
TABLE 5. Respondents Who Perceived Advantages of Certification as Despite the positive strides made by
Hlghiy Significant, in Percentages the CIA in the past few years, these re-
sults suggest existing problems in
CMA CIA potential internal auditing professionals.
Advantage CPA Overall Aware Unaware Overall Aware Unaware Hwever, steps can be taken by both aca-
demicians and professionals to address
Advancement the problems at hand. In fact, it is criti-
opportunities 94.6 66.1 70.3 44.0 59.5 66.3 45.7 cal that academicians and professionals
Salary potential 94.9 64.2 68.1 44.0 56.3 61.1 46.7 work together to improve the reputation
Professional
reputation 94.3 64.2 67.7 46.0 56.6 62.1 45.7 of the CIA and, in general, make stu-
dents more aware of available opportu-
Note. The table indicates the percentage of students in the sample who rated these advantages of nities in the internal auditing arena.
certification as highly significant. “Aware” indicates students who had knowledge of a particular
designation;“unaware” indicates students who did not.
improving the Current Situation
Several steps can be taken to address
improves slightly when the sample is felt that the CMA was highly important immediately the lower perceptions asso-
limited to students with knowledge of for a career in corporate or manage- ciated with the CIA designation, relative
the CIA program. As a point of refer- ment accounting. This result is some- to the CPA and CMA, by today’s stu-
ence, 90.4% of the students indicated what surprising given the high ranking dents. First and foremost, involvement
that the CPA was highly important for a of the CMA relative to the CIA, and between practitioners and academicians
career in public accounting. It should does not reflect well on the CIA. must increase. The many available
also be noted that 45.9% of the students Apparently, students do not believe a opportunities for increased interaction
with knowledge of the CMA program CMA is necessary for corporate and cooperation between practitioners

MarcWApril2000 217
 and university accounting faculty can
benefit both groups.
Though some schools offer a curricu-
lum in internal auditing, many institu-
tions do not. In a random survey of 50
institutions with accounting programs,
only 11 out of 50 (22%) indicated that
they offered an internal auditing course
to accounting majors. Of the seven
schools sampled here, three offered
internal auditing as an elective. Internal
auditing is not necessarily a standard
accounting course, but most institutions
are interested in offering courses that
will benefit graduates entering the
accounting profession. If employers
indicate their interest in having the uni-
Downloaded by [Library Services City University London] at 00:02 21 April 2016
versity add an internal auditing course
to the academic program, very likely it
will happen. As students will thus be
able to receive immediate benefits from
the employers (e.g., internship/employ-
ment opportunities) and be better pre-
pared for these opportunities, all parties
involved will benefit a great deal.
Though offering an internal auditing
course is a good start, it is not enough.
For instance, there may be some
accounting departments without the
expertise to teach such a course. This
creates another opportunity for coopera-
tion between the accounting department
and local internal auditing departments.
A faculty/practitioner development pro-
gram can be instituted through which a
practitioner assumes the role of a pro-
fessor and a professor assumes the role
of an internal auditing professional. The
practitioner, by teaching what he or she
knows to an audience of accounting stu-
dents, has the oportunity to meet poten-
tial employees and provide the students
with first-hand knowledge about a
career in the internal auditing field. Of
course, the discussion would also
218 Journal of Education for Business
include the benefits of the CIA designa-
tion. The faculty member also benefits
through the opportunity to work as an
intern in the internal auditing field and
thus gain the current, practical experi-
ence that, in turn, benefits the students.
Many schools rotate both practitioners
and faculty members, and clear benefits
result from these programs.
If the creation of this type of ex-
change program is difficult, the univer-
sities can, at a minimum, invite internal
auditing professionals into the class-
room to discuss the CIA and the inter-
nal auditing profession. Though recent
surveys estimate that only 30% of
accounting graduates will enter the pub-
lic accounting profession, universities
continue to focus their efforts in this
area. Given this focus, and the fact that
many schools do not offer an internal
auditing course, practitioners might be
invited to speak in the regular auditing
course. Most auditing textbooks include
a discussion of the internal audit func-
tion and the relationship between exter-
nal and internal auditors. Thus, having
an expert speaker comment on these
issues would enhance the auditing
class, and class time would be spent on
relevant and topical issues. Further, it is
important for graduates to know that
there are employment opportunities in
internal auditing and that they should
consider this field a viable alternative in
their job search.
Many other opportunities for interac-
tion exist. For example, the local IIA
chapter can sponsor a student chapter at
local universities, or the chapter and/or
local companies can sponsor scholar-
ships and internships for students. Addi-
tionally, companies can organize pro-
fessional-student events throughout the
school year to help increase the visibili-
ty of the IIA, the CIA, and the internal
auditing profession.
Concludlng Comments
The CIA designation continues to
grow, both in number of individuals
holding the certification and in the rep-
utation and perceived value of the cre-
dential. However, the future of the pro-
gram and, arguably, the internal
auditing profession, lies with the stu-
dents of today. If students do not see the
CIA and/or the internal auditing field as
a viable alternative,the profession is not
likely to maximize its potential and
evolve into the one envisioned by the
leaders of the IIA. The survey results
reported in this article clearly indicate
that the CIA is lagging behind both the
CPA and the CMA in the minds of our
students. And as stated previously, most
schools’ curriculum continues to
emphasize public accounting even
though many graduates seek alternative
career paths.
There are many possible solutions
available. Clearly, improving the rela-
tionship between the internal auditing
professionals and the academicians is a
good first step. Each has a great deal to
offer the other, and, working together,
they can open yet another door of
opportunity for today’s students and
tomorrow’s professionals.
REFERENCES
Carcello, J. V. (1995). Professional certifications
for internal auditors. Internal Auditing, Sum-
mer, 34-39.
Peterson, B. K., & Reider, B. P. (1997). Passing
the CIA exam. Internal Auditor, June, 67-72.
Ridley, A. J. (1996). A profession for the twenty-
first century. Internal Auditor, October, 20-25.
Robertson, K. (1997). The Red Ribbon: The CIA
program enters a new era. Internal Auditor,
June, 60-65.