Gonzaga University Joins IDEA Academic Partnership
HOUSTON – July 6, 2016 – Gonzaga University has joined the IDEA Academic Partnership to offer students the opportunity to learn hands-on data analytics techniques used by professionals to identify internal control weaknesses and anomalies within data.
The in-kind software donation of 138 CaseWare IDEA licenses is valued at $69,000.00. Gonzaga University will begin using IDEA in the fall through McGraw-Hill Connect, a digital teaching platform that helps connect students to their coursework and improve performance. The University also plans to incorporate IDEA into audit courses offered in the spring, which gives approximately 80 students direct experience using data analytics technology to import data, perform various audit tests, extract and join data sets, and write scripts to automate repeatable processes.
“It is no longer enough for accounting students to just have a basic understanding of how to use a spreadsheet,” said Sara Kern, Associate Professor of Accounting, Gonzaga University School of Business Administration. “Increasingly public accounting and private sector firms are using sophisticated audit technology tools such as IDEA to increase their audit efficiency and effectiveness. It is important to provide our students with experience using IDEA so that they are better prepared to enter the current work environment.”
Gonzaga University is a private Roman Catholic university located in Spokane, Washington, United States. Founded in 1887 by the Society of Jesus, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. The University is ranked by USA Today as a “Top 10 School to Study Business” for 2015-2016.
“The IDEA Academic Partnership has grown to nearly 500 participating universities, mainly due to the increased interest from educators to give students more hands-on experience before they enter the workforce,” said Cory Windham, IDEA Academic Partnership coordinator. “Donations like this help students develop their critical thinking skills and apply the knowledge they gain to real-world cases using both IDEA and the IDEA Workbook.”
IDEA is a powerful and user-friendly tool designed to help accounting and financial professionals extend their auditing capabilities, detect fraud and meet documentation standards. It allows users to quickly import, join, analyze, sample and extract data from almost any source, including reports printed to a file, such as PDFs. With unlimited file size capabilities and an intuitive user interface, IDEA has the ability to analyze large volumes of data in seconds. IDEA is used in more than 90 countries, by major accounting firms, government, corporations in all industry sectors and by nearly 500 universities as a teaching tool.
The IDEA Academic Partnership is sponsored by Audimation Services, Inc., the U.S. distributor of CaseWare IDEA, CaseWare Monitor™ and SmartExporter. Participation is offered at no cost to U.S. accredited college and university educators. Additional information is available at www.audimation.com/academic.