Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic period on internal audit practices: A research on universities

During the pandemic period, business models have been changed. In this period, the process was tried to be managed with different measures units at the universities. Internal audit units, which are an important mechanism in universities, were also affected by these working styles and different internal audit practices were carried out. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effect of the pandemic on internal auditing in universities. In the qualitative research method, in-depth interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview form and the data were subjected to content analysis with the phenomenology study. Within the scope of the research, the participants were reached by snowball sampling and purposeful sampling methods. Face-to-face and virtual meetings were held with internal auditors from 11 different universities. By categorizing the data, the data were analyzed, and the main themes and sub-themes were created. During the pandemic period, five main themes emerged in internal audit at universities: "communication", "process management", "technology use", "bureaucratic situation", and "psycho-social situation". As a result, it has been observed that different practices in internal audit processes in universities within the scope of the measures taken during the pandemic period cause communication barriers, alternative process management, use of technology, alternative bureaucratic functioning, and psycho-social effects. It has been concluded that the remote audit mechanism should be used as a complement to the traditional audit, except in times of crisis that threaten public health, such as a pandemic, when information technologies are used extensively in working life.