Qualifications, diversity and workplace practices: an investigation of higher education internal audit departments

Internal audit is getting recognition thanks to media coverage of alleged fraudulent activities and new regulations that require the evaluation of internal controls. Given this attention, Harrington (2004) identified what organizations should look for when hiring a director of internal audit. This paper reports an investigation of college and university internal audit departments that determines if the directors hold the suggested qualifications and if the qualifications differ based on gender. Differences among the directors of internal auditor include demographic information such as salary, experience and number of staff members as well as who hires the director, and whether the institution has a governing board audit committee. Even with the differences, college and university internal audit directors are very much alike.