QUESTIONING MIND IN ACCOUNTING STUDENTS – AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

In the ongoing auditing debate on professional skepticism, ‘questioning mind’ has focused a respectable attention. With questioning mind, auditors are not satisfied with simple answers and look deeper until their beliefs are formed. It is even stated that: “professional skepticism requires an ongoing questioning of whether the information and evidence obtained suggests that a material misstatement due to fraud has occurred”. The purpose of this study is to examine whether university accounting programs shape the questioning mind of the students to a greater extent comparing other university programs in the field of economy. For this purpose I conducted an experimental study using one of the skepticism measures, the Hurtt Professional Skepticism Scale – HPSS.  It involved 432 students of Poznan University of Economics following accounting program and management program (control group). The results showed that only ACCA accredited program in accounting increased the level of ‘questioning mind’ significantly comparing to standard academic program in accounting and management program. The robustness analysis showed that gender of subjects and length of professional experience had no statistically significant impact on results. On the contrary, the experience itself had an impact on results

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