Basque visitor researches the Spanish auditing profession
Tue, 06 Aug 2013 14:20:00 BST
Visiting FEGReG for Summer 2013 is Itsaso Barrainkua Aroztegi, a lecturer at the University of the Basque Country in Spain. Her doctoral research, under the supervision of Dr Marcela Espinosa Pike, seeks to advance understanding of the Spanish auditing profession, focusing on the ethical dilemmas faced by auditors in the course of their work and the pressures placed upon them. Itsaso is hoping to propose improvements for the auditing profession in Spain, which is less developed than in the UK, with its regulation historically strongly connected to the state. Itsaso has already conducted a questionnaire survey of small and medium-sized Spanish audit firms, which she intends to follow up with a series of interviews.
She views being invited to the University of Huddersfield as a “great opportunity”’ for her research career. “I am doing a European PhD and thus I wanted to visit another European university to exchange knowledge and procedures with other researchers. Among all the options I chose the University of Huddersfield for two main reasons. Firstly, the reputation and multicultural atmosphere of the University attracted my attention. Secondly, the Financial Ethics and Governance Research Group is a well known research group throughout Europe that is closely related to my research field.” She met the Director of FEGReG, Prof. Chris Cowton, when he was giving a seminar at the University of The Basque Country and subsequently read his work on professional ethics in accounting. Prof. Cowton described himself as “delighted” to be supporting Itsaso’s work, pointing out the deepening of FEGReG’s relationship with the University of the Basque Country; Dr Leire San José is already a Visiting Research Fellow with FEGReG.
