The study examined the status and impact of audit education on the audit expectation gap, as existence of such a gap is noted to be harmful to the accounting and auditing profession. Accordingly, undergraduates of a regional national university in Sri Lanka (in three categories as: undergraduates who had not followed an auditing course, who had followed a basic auditing course, and who had followed an advanced auditing course) and professional auditors were selected and a questionnaire survey that included statements on the duties of the auditors was administered. The results of the independent sample t-test indicate the existence of an audit expectation gap in the Sri Lankan context; and that audit education had an effect in reducing such a gap. However, further analysis indicated that only an advanced auditing course had resulted in minimizing such expectation gap (particularly in reducing the unreasonable expectation gap) compared to who had followed a basic auditing course. These findings are expected to have significant educational policy implications.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.