Keith Boocock Doctoral Scholarships

KEITH BOOCOCK DOCTORAL SCHOLARSHIPS

Summary

In February 2009 the Board of the Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) decided to honour the memory of Keith Boocock, CEO from 2006 until his sudden death in 2008, through the funding of an annual $10,000 scholarship for a PhD student at a Canadian university.

Keith had a deep interest in improving audit quality, and he believed passionately in CPAB’s mission:

To contribute to public confidence in the integrity of financial reporting of reporting issuers in Canada by promoting high quality, independent auditing.

Funding Criteria

The Scholarships are based on a review of dissertation proposals that have been approved by the student’s PhD committee. The prime criterion for selection is the likelihood that the student’s dissertation will lead to improvement in the quality of auditing of public companies. Dissertations on auditing topics are most likely to meet this criterion, but those on a broad aspect of financial reporting are considered. The student must be enrolled in a PhD program at a Canadian university.

In any year in which no suitable application is received, no award will be made; the Scholarship for that year is not “carried forward” to the following year.

Application Guidelines

Applicants are to submit to CPAB, by March 31, a copy of their dissertation proposal, together with an abstract of the proposal (not exceeding two pages) and a letter from their supervisor or committee chair, stating that the proposal was accepted by the university between April 1 of the preceding year and March 31 of the current year. No other letters of support are required. Dissertation proposals may be in English or French. Applications are to be addressed to Dr. Alister Mason ().

CPAB will make the selection by April 30. CPAB will cover the costs of the successful applicant attending the annual conference of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association (CAAA) in late May/early June, at which the presentation is made.

Role of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association(CAAA)

The CAAA has agreed to publicize the Scholarships, and to permit their presentation at its annual conference. The Scholarshipsare publicized in the CAAA’s newsletter, Canadian Accounting Education and Research News (CAERN), which is published in both English and French.

Selection of Scholarship winners

Each year CPAB establishes an independent SelectionCommittee,whose membership is kept confidential. The Committee provides a brief reason for selecting the winner; for example, in 2010 the Committee stated:

We are agreed that the scholarship should be awarded to Miguel Minutti-Meza for his dissertation proposal “Using a Peer-Based Measure of Accounting Quality in Tests of Audit Quality, Analytical Procedures and Detecting Earning Management.” In particular, we believe that his proposal for using economically comparable firms as a basis for measuring accounting and audit quality has significant promise for furthering understanding of the effects of auditor specialization on audit quality, and has potential implications for improving analytical auditing procedures.

Doctoral Programs from which Applications Have Been Received to Date

Applications have come from eight universities:

Concordia University, John Molson School of Business
Queen’s University, School of Business
Universite Laval, Faculté des sciences de l'administration
University of Alberta, School of Business
University of British Columbia, Sauder School of Business
University of Toronto,Rotman School of Management
University of Waterloo,School of Accounting and Finance
York University, Schulich School of Business

Four Scholarships have been awarded to date, to students from Queen’s, Toronto and Waterloo.

Alister Mason

December 2014