Seven Secrets to Success with Students

June 4, 2018

A university’s mission includes educating students and one way to promote the growth of students is through an internship program. In 1992, the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) hired their first student intern. At the time, the university did not have a good internship structure or process in place, so the internship was not a success. After the first intern left, the program did not continue.

Eleven years later, an interest again rose for the internship program. The university’s internal audit department began to work with a professor at the institution, who was in the process of establishing an internal audit course at UT Dallas and wanted his students to gain some practical audit experience. Two students, who were the leaders of the first internal audit class at UT Dallas, participated on a Key Shop operations audit that the university initiated based on a hotline call received. The students described their experience as wonderful and encouraged their professor to continue this practical experience for future classes.

Since that first class, the Internal Audit department provided opportunities to over 300 student interns on over 100 audits. The program at UT Dallas is recognized by the IIA as one of the top graduate programs in the world for internal auditing excellence. The program’s success is due, in part, to the practical audit experience the students receive from various organizations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As part of the internal audit course, about six students intern in the department during a semester and work on audits as part of their course grade. During the summer, given the availability of resources, one or two students hold a paid internship position. Through the department’s experience, students gained the most value when on teams of two, with a senior-level auditor as the lead. Examples of audit areas that work well with this program are departmental-focused audits, information technology basic audits, and purchasing card audits. UT Dallas also had students help on some investigations.

There are several successful internship programs out there, and UT Dallas networks with fellow ACUA members to leverage materials from various universities to help enhance, and continually improve, their own program. Below details how the university’s program is set up, as well as ideas to either help you start working with students or help you enhance your existing program. Although the focus is primarily on the internship program UT Dallas has with the internal audit course, this will also apply to how you work with any student interns.

SECRET #1: COLLABORATE WITH YOUR SCHOOL/COLLEGE

UT Dallas is fortunate to have a Center for Internal Auditing Excellence. The IIA’s Internal Auditing Education Partnership Program (https://na.theiia.org/about-us/about-ia/Pages/Internal-Auditing- Education-Partnership-Program.aspx) schools teach internal auditing to prepare students for the internal auditing profession. If your school is not involved, check out the list of schools to see if there is one near you. If not, talk to your Career Center, business program, or other program that might be beneficial to your audit plan. For example, if you are doing an audit in Environmental Health and Safety, consider a student studying that area. Planning an audit of cybersecurity? Consider students with related degrees.

Also, consider being a guest lecturer at a class and talk about internal audit. Consider attending student organization meetings and getting involved at that level. Or maybe consider starting your own internal audit class!

SECRET #2: GET THE RIGHT STUDENTS

Getting the right students is just like getting the right staff. Make sure you interview them just like a staff auditor. Ask questions that will bring out their competencies in communication skills, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, technology, involvement in the university, availability, and other skills you feel your department needs. One year UT Dallas had an audit of dining services on the audit plan, and the university was fortunate enough to have a student intern that had experience in managing his family restaurant. He brought a lot of insight into dining operations that helped improve the value of the audit.

SECRET #3: EDUCATE THE STUDENTS

When students begin working in the university’s Internal Audit office, whether for a paid or unpaid internship, they attend an orientation. Discussions center around nondisclosure, confidentiality and independence statements, which the student intern signs. The students also take IT Security and FERPA compliance training, as well as any other compliance training that might be relevant to the audits they will be assigned. For example, UT Dallas conducted an audit of gifts and those students took gifts training. The students also sign a statement of expectations, which details what they need to do to receive a particular grade. For the students in the internal audit course, their grade makes up 25 percent of the class final grade. Typically, a 95-100 grade is given to students that the department would like to hire. Over the years, the department only gave out a few 100s and two of those students currently work in UT Dallas’ Internal Audit office!

The department also created a student intern manual, which is a condensed, student-specific version of the audit manual, consisting of topics such as the audit process. The manual also includes information about TeamMate, the IT environment, data analytics, and other administrative topics.

SECRET #4: HOW TO CONDUCT THE AUDIT

Because most of the university’s student interns work for a semester, a typical project timeline is 15 weeks, with weekly team meetings held to discuss the status. The university customized TeamMate’s standard programs to incorporate the Standards and Governmental Auditing Standards and students sign off on working papers to document their review of various standards relating to planning, etc. The goal is to have them participate in the entire audit process, from planning to reporting.

While most internal audit departments take a more traditional approach by having students work like a
staff auditor on audits, there are also other opportunities for student interns. One way would be to have them shadow the Chief Audit Executive (CAE), audit managers, seniors, or staff auditors to give them a real sense of what they do as a full-time employee. You can also hire them for specific projects. For example, one summer a very good IT student was used as an intern to help develop and set up the website. Another summer a student helped document data analytics processes. Other larger audit departments do not have their interns work on specific audits, but instead give the students exposure to many different audits. At the end of the semester, the students give class presentations in front of the class and the audit departments that worked with the students are invited to attend.

SECRET #5: HOW TO BENEFIT THE STUDENTS

Based on discussions with former and current interns, there are several reasons why student internships are a win-win for students:

They get real-life internal audit experience, sometimes getting to participate in the entire audit process–from planning through final reporting.
They have the opportunity to develop their professional skills, such as communication, organization, and time management.
They get to apply what they learned in the classroom.
They gain a new perspective on organizational operations.
High-quality performance on the project helps build their resumes.
They get to audit their alma mater! Did they even know there were auditors?
They are provided with a foundation for success.

SECRET #6: HOW TO BENEFIT THE INTERNAL AUDIT DEPARTMENT

Audit departments also benefit from working with students:

Maintain relationships for future recruiting.
Staff development of supervisory skills.
Help completing the audit plan.
Alignment with the university’s mission.
Board/Audit Committee interest and recognition.
Different backgrounds and perspectives from the interns.
Little or no cost.
Enhance the future of the internal audit profession.

SECRET #7: LESSONS LEARNED

The past 15 years working with students, faculty, and other universities who use student interns, taught UT Dallas a lot! Here are some notable things found along the way:

Be Prepared: Keep in mind that you will spend time training the students and that they have limited to no audit experience. Their communication skills may be lacking and their workloads are heavy with schoolwork and employment.
Train: Provide upfront training, orientation and guidelines.
Educate your staff: They may be reluctant to give responsibilities to students. Students are the same as new staff members; they can do the job, just let them.
Plan: Create a project plan with milestones.
Involve: Involve students in all phases of the audit.
Buy-in: Get 100% buy-in from Audit Committee and management. Report results in Audit Committee meetings.
Match: Match students to audits and play to their particular strengths.
Non-disclosure: Have students sign non-disclosure agreements for sensitive audit areas. There is always a risk of non-disclosure, whoever your staff is. Educate them on what could happen to their career if they jeopardized that.
Freedom/Control: Give students the freedom to develop programs and execute work, but meet often (preferably weekly), and keep control of the audits.
Timely: Complete audits timely and do not get too far behind, especially when it comes to reviewing the students’ work. Do not wait until the end to review or else you may end up redoing their work.
React: React to those who are not performing and adjust teams as needs arise. Provide them with coaching.
Start Small: Do not try to do too much from the start and do not try to work with too many students at the beginning.
Database: Maintain a database of student interns. This may come in handy for future recruiting.
Network: Network with former students using LinkedIn.
And most importantly, have fun! Create an environment of excitement. Here are some ideas:
- Food is always good; take the students to lunch, have a potluck breakfast/lunch, or consider having everyone bring a dish from their country of origin.
- Hand out fun award certificates at the end of the internship. For instance, “Achievements Made by a Group in Very Cramped Quarters” or “Lost Lunch Award–for Working During Too Many Lunch Hours!”
- Give a thank-you note as a sign of appreciation. Have the Internal Audit department team sign a thank-you note and include a gift bag. One year, the department had gift bags with lifesavers, a Take 5 bar, a 100 Grand bar, Tylenol, Band-Aids, and Hershey’s Hugs. The note said: “Thanks for all the hard work and hours you gave. You are Lifesavers! And it was the audit plan you saved! Tylenol for the headaches you got, Band-Aids for the wounds hard fought. You are worth 100 Grand for a job well done, now it is time to Take 5 … we hope you had fun! Hugs, Internal Audit.”
- Use your own creativity and Pinterest for more ideas!

About the Author

Toni Stephens

Toni Stephens, CPA, CIA, CRMA, is the UT Dallas CAE. She received her accounting
degree from Texas A&M University and has over 30 years of higher education audit experience. Toni’s professional activities include serving as the ACUA president, board member, faculty member, and on many PEC activities, including Chair. She also serves as a board member and Audit Committee member for the Dallas Chapter of the IIA and has held several leadership positions within the Chapter. She served as president and board member of the Texas Association of College and University Auditors. Honors include receiving service awards from both ACUA and the Dallas IIA. Toni is an advisory board member for the UT Dallas Center for Internal Auditing Excellence. For the past 14 years, she conducted presentations on risk assessment and audit planning for internal audit students and mentored them on audits, providing them with actual audit experience.

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Seven Secrets to Success with Students