Professional scepticism and the accounting classroom

Professional scepticism forms an integral part of a professional accountant’s skill set and is fundamental to their training. Recent revisions to IESs 2, 3, 4 and 8 reflect changes in the market expectation in relation to professional scepticism. In this paper, we answer calls for additional research into professional scepticism by investigating its role and training beyond audit. We also consider the important role that education can play in developing the trait professional scepticism. Through semi-structured interviews of academics, employers and the professional bodies, we find that professional scepticism is not considered a specific learning outcome nor is its development specifically evaluated. Despite being relevant across different accounting roles, educators do not consciously embed professional scepticism within accounting units other than auditing. We provide examples of how professional scepticism is addressed in the accounting curriculum and consider whether employers’ expectations are being met.