Identifying Variables of Performance Audit in Universities of Iran

Societal evolutions originate from universities. Due to the scarcity of resources to achieve economic goals, the need to improve the operations and performance audit in order to regulate universities’ activities is critical. Performance audit refers to an independent examination of a program, function, operation or the management systems and procedures of an entity to assess whether the entity is achieving economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the employment of available resources. In this study we have investigated the feasibility of performance audit establishment in universities of Iran using questionnaire. The population included all auditors who have experience in performance auditing especially in educational sectors. The sample size is 185. Sixteen performance audit system factors have been identified in the universities according to three elements: ability, authority and acceptance. To prioritize factors the Friedman test was used. All variables had equal effect on establishment of the performance audit.