A new threshold in fraud examination education

WILLIAM KRESSE SUCCEEDS MARY-JO KRANACHER
William Kresse, J.D., M.S., CFE, CPA, a professor at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Ill., is the new chair of the ACFE Higher Education Advisory Committee and Fraud EDge columnist. Kresse assumes both posts created by Mary-Jo Kranacher, M.B.A., CFE, CPA, who has moved on to other professional challenges. "I am honored by the appointment and look forward to this opportunity," Kresse says. "I also realize that it will not be easy to succeed Mary-Jo Kranacher as chair of this committee. I join many other educator members of the ACFE in wishing Mary-Jo all the best in her new and exciting professional opportunity. Her inspired leadership in this post will be difficult to duplicate, but with the assistance of the ACFE membership, along with the ACFE's wonderfully competent staff, I am confident that I will do my very best," Kresse says. "I look forward to hearing the comments and suggestions of educators and practitioners alike. Please feel to e-mail me at kresse@sxu.edu."

We stand at a threshold.
Like other disciplines that have traveled this path before, fraud examination stands at the threshold of recognition in academia as a discipline worthy of degree status with the commitment of appropriate resources for research and curricular development.

Many colleges and universities now offer a course in fraud examination, and the numbers are growing. The ACFE has spearheaded this growth. Through the Anti-Fraud Education Partnership, the ACFE has, and continues to, address the need and demand for fraud examination education at the college and university level. And higher-education institutions from around the world have responded by participating in the Anti-Fraud Education Partnership.

But as we approach the goal of establishing at least one fraud examination course at all major colleges and universities, it's not too soon to consider the next plateau in the continuing evolution of fraud examination education: the establishment of fraud examination as an academic discipline and the development and growth of dedicated, multiple-course degree programs in fraud examination.

This column has featured some of these innovative programs before. (See, for example, "Pioneers in the World of Masters of Forensic Accounting," in the March/April 2006 Issue.) Fraud examination degree programs - both bachelor's and master's - are springing up in various forms. Criminal justice, accounting, or business departments are constructing them as specialty, concentration, or dedicated programs. The programs are diverse and imaginative but there's one common denominator - these exciting opportunities are growing to meet the hunger of budding fraud examiners.

As an example, my university, Saint Xavier University in Chicago, has acknowledged the development of the fraud examination profession, the evolution of fraud examination as an academic discipline, and the growing demand for fraud examination professionals by organizing a Master of Business Administration concentration in Financial Fraud Examination and Management. Let me give you some background about my school and about the development of our program. (Obviously, I'm a bit biased but the program that I helped develop, and in which I teach, is probably a good example of a program centered on fraud examination.)

Saint Xavier University can trace its history back to its founding by the Sisters of Mercy in Chicago in 1846. Saint Xavier is a Catholic, coeducational, comprehensive university offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 5,700 students in its four colleges. The Graham School of Management is the business college of Saint Xavier University. In 1998, the Graham School formed a "Partnership in Education" program with the Chicago Police Department, the nation's second largest police department with more than 15,000 employees, including more than 13,000 sworn police officers.

The mission of the Partnership in Education is to combine the talents of both the Chicago Police Department and the Graham School of Management in a number of progressive endeavors. Included in these endeavors is the Graham School's commitment to develop both graduate and undergraduate programs for Chicago Police Department employees and offer these programs at the Chicago Police Academy. It was from this partnership with the Chicago Police Department that the MBA concentration in Financial Fraud Examination and Management evolved.

Since 1998, the Graham School has offered graduate business classes to Chicago police personnel at the Chicago Police Academy. When we surveyed the officers in these classes we realized that they desired a course of study that combined their law enforcement training and experience with the academic disciplines of accounting, law, economics, management, information technology, and criminal justice. Based on this demand, the Graham School developed the new MBA concentration in Financial Fraud Examination and Management.

Students matriculating toward this MBA are required to take the nine MBA core courses along with the four new Financial Fraud Examination and Management concentration courses. (Those courses are: Fraud Examination, Ethical Issues in Financial Fraud Examination and Management, Identity Theft and Computer-Related Fraud, and Financial Statement Fraud.) The concentration courses are based on the body of knowledge developed by the ACFE as contained in the Fraud Examiners Manual. Additionally, the Graham School of Management faculty designed the program with input from professionals in accounting, law, management, information technology, and law enforcement including officials from the Chicago Police Department Financial Crimes Investigations Section. The Graham School also offers a graduate certificate in Financial Fraud Examination and Management for those students choosing to take just the four fraud examination concentration courses.

The MBA concentration in Financial Fraud Examination and Management was initially offered only to students involved in law enforcement in classes conducted at the Chicago Police Academy. The response was overwhelming. The program attracted many new MBA students, and the initial classes filled to capacity.

With such strong response from the law enforcement community, the program was quickly expanded. Fraud examination classes, open to all students, were added to the schedule of courses offered at the Graham School's main Chicago campus. Like the program offered at the Chicago Police Academy, the program at the main campus was immediately successful. But unlike the law enforcement students at the Chicago Police Academy, the student constituency at the main campus was far more diverse.

While a number of the students in the fraud examination classes at the main campus are involved in law enforcement, including students employed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, the students in these classes are involved in a number of different professions. There are students from accounting, consulting, and auditing firms. And there are those who work in insurance; health-care; financial services; communications; and federal, state, and local government agencies and departments.

Recent graduates with bachelor's degrees in accounting are particularly attracted to this program. These students are interested in an exciting and innovative way of earning the credit hours needed to sit for the CPA examination while also preparing for CFE certification.

The Financial Fraud Examination and Management classes may soon be added to the course offerings at the Saint Xavier University campus in Orland Park, Ill. Additionally, new classes for the financial fraud examination concentration are continuously considered for development.

The Saint Xavier MBA in Financial Fraud Examination and Management is just one bright light in a growing constellation of dedicated, multiple-course degree programs in fraud examination.

In future columns, I'll highlight other programs as well as examine other higher education issues.

William J. Kresse, J.D., M.S., CFE, CPA, is assistant professor in the Graham School of Management at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Ill.