Audit Shark Tank: Defend or Challenge
The Department of Commerce organised “Audit Shark Tank: Defend or Challenge,” an experiential learning event designed to make Audit and Assurance more practical, engaging, and professionally relevant. The activity moved students beyond textbook definitions and encouraged them to think like auditors by questioning claims, evaluating evidence, identifying risks, and defending professional judgements. The event was built around a simple but powerful question: should an auditor accept a claim, or challenge it until sufficient and appropriate evidence is obtained? Students were given audit situations involving management assertions, expense claims, supporting documents, internal controls, ethical dilemmas, governance concerns, and possible red flags. Their task was not merely to find mistakes, but to analyse whether the available evidence was reliable enough to support a conclusion. Working in teams, students examined each case from different professional perspectives. They identified the a...