Search

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the transformation disclosures in the publicly available annual reports of South African public universities and to establish the extent to which universities account to their stakeholders about how they have discharged their transformation obligations. Design/methodology/approach: This exploratory qualitative study involves a thematic content analysis of publicly available annual reports using ATLAS.ti software to identify and categorise transformation interventions disclosed by South African public universities. Findings: This empirical study identifies several interventions that universities have introduced to facilitate access to and successful completion of tertiary studies by students. Some of the disclosed mechanisms include the provision of financial aid, student support and counselling, tutoring and mentoring and ICT enhancements and the introduction of language policies. The results also highlighted several challenges to sustainable transformation including funding, social and academic barriers and infrastructural challenges experienced by universities. Originality/value: According to the authors' knowledge, this study represents one of the first studies to use the public disclosures in the annual reports of public universities to identify interventions introduced to facilitate transformation of the student body. Despite its South African orientation, the observations have implications for universities worldwide experiencing similar challenges, especially in developing countries.

Responding to calls to incorporate biodiversity matters into accounting research, we attempt to provide a balance by moving away from the conventional focus on the reporting of biodiversity impacts and activities by public and private sector organisations, by focusing on how non‐governmental organisations active in the conservation space (CNGOs), interact with the public sector. In particular, we confine our study to explaining how South African state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) and CNGOs active in South Africa, report on their collaboration engagements. To explain the engagements between SOEs and CNGOs, we use their publicly available reports (annual/integrated) to explore the extent which these entities interact and collaborate. However, although several CNGOs operate in South Africa, we documented little evidence of formalised engagements between these SOEs and CNGOs, with Eskom being the notable exception. Notwithstanding the observed scant formalised reporting on engagements, we suggest that the reporting of CNGOs engagements could be harnessed to indirectly serve as alternative credibility enhancing mechanisms. In this way, it could contribute by attesting to the veracity of organisational biodiversity disclosures, and may provide a basis to hold these organisations to account for their contribution to environmental conservation, or degradation. In this context, we conclude by calling for a research agenda to investigate the relationship between CNGOs and their funding organisations, irrespective of whether they operate in the public or private sectors, as well as the potential of CNGOs to serve as advocacy and activism agents, thereby improving organisational biodiversity accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declining audit fees represent a worldwide phenomenon which draws particular attention and concerns in the audit profession. The study explores the guiding reasons of public interest entities (PIEs) in Europe when electing a particular auditor, and investigates whether these reasons are reflected on audit fees. Further, it considers the impact of the prevailing macroeconomic conditions on these reasons, and accordingly on the cost of the audit. To this end the study intends to investigate whether these guiding reasons represent a declining factor on audit fees and under which macroeconomic conditions. To achieve the study objectives, a pragmatic mixed methods research approach is adopted, comprising surveys of respondents at audit firms and PIEs, and semi-structured interviews with participants at purposively selected PIEs, in Europe. The study finds that the guiding reasons are associated with the macroeconomic conditions, and reflect PIEs' expectations from the external audit. Ultimately, these expectations impact the cost of the audit depending on the current trends in the economy. The study proposes that the audit regulatory authorities should take actions to regulate PIEs' expectations from the external auditors and regulate the reporting requirements of auditors and audit firms, to achieve a proper balance between the scope of the audit procedures and the cost of the audit. In this view, the study recommends audit regulatory authorities adopt guidelines for determining the cost of the audit based on the assessed audit risk and scope of audit procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]