In case you missed it, read last week’s issue here

Big Four Auditing Controversy

The recent auditing controversy involving EY and Shell has put audit independence and governance back in the spotlight. EY was forced to part ways with Shell after regulators and internal reviews found that key audit partners had exceeded required rotation limits, breaching auditor independence rules. While Shell’s financial statements themselves were not restated, the violation meant the audit opinions were technically non-compliant, which is a serious issue in a profession built on trust and objectivity. As a result, four EY partners exited the firm, the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) launched a formal investigation, and Shell moved its lucrative audit mandate to PwC, dealing both reputational and financial damage to EY.

More broadly, this situation reflects intensifying scrutiny of the Big Four audit model. Regulators are increasingly less tolerant of governance lapses, even when there is no proven misstatement, signaling that process and ethics matter as much as outcomes. Combined with past high-profile failures and settlements across the industry, the Shell case reinforces concerns that long auditor tenures, commercial pressures, and complex client relationships can undermine independence.

Why this matters: For the profession, the message is clear: audit quality and compliance are becoming stricter, enforcement is real, and even the largest firms are not immune to losing clients, partners, and credibility when independence rules are violated.ting.

KPMG Partner Fined for Using AI

A partner at KPMG Australia was recently fined after being caught using AI to answer questions in a AI training exam. KPMG forced the partner to retake the test and fined them $7,000. This partner isn’t alone, more than two dozen KPMG staff members have been caught using AI to cheat on internal exams since July. The big four accountancy firms have grappled with cheating scandals in recent years. In 2021, KPMG Australia was fined A$615,000 over “widespread” misconduct, after it was found that more than 1,100 partners had been involved in “improper answer-sharing” on tests designed to assess skill and integrity.

But AI tools have introduced new possibilities for rule-breaking. In December, the UK’s largest accounting body, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), said it would require accounting students to take exams in person, because otherwise it was too difficult to stop AI cheating.

KPMG said it had adopted measures to identify the use of AI by its staff and would keep track of how many of its workers misused the technology.

Andrew Yates, the chief executive of KPMG Australia, said: “Like most organizations, we have been grappling with the role and use of AI as it relates to internal training and testing. It’s a very hard thing to get on top of given how quickly society has embraced it.

Student Takeaway: This whole situation is particularly funny to me, since literally two weeks ago I was talking about how KPMG is on the rise and how they are going through rapid reforms to change how they are perceived in the eyes of the industry (you can read that issue here). But don’t misunderstand it, I still think KPMG gets a bad rap, but this definitely does not help their case.

For accounting students, the KPMG AI incident sends a clear signal: AI is welcome in the profession, but integrity and judgment matter more than ever. Firms are actively encouraging students and staff to learn AI tools because they genuinely increase productivity in audit, tax, and advisory work. At the same time, this case shows there are hard ethical boundaries around how AI can be used, especially in assessments, certifications, and professional judgment.

Definition: Materiality refers to the significance of a financial misstatement or omission that could reasonably influence the decisions of users of financial statements. In accounting and auditing, information is considered material if leaving it out or misstating it would change how investors, lenders, or other stakeholders view a company’s financial position or performance. Materiality is not a fixed dollar amount; it depends on context, including company size, financial metrics (like net income or revenue), and qualitative factors such as regulatory sensitivity or fraud risk.

In practice, auditors use materiality to decide what matters enough to audit deeply and what can be reasonably tolerated without affecting overall financial reliability. For example, a $50,000 error might be immaterial for a Fortune 500 company but highly material for a small private firm. Importantly, even small dollar errors can be material if they hide a trend, help management meet earnings targets, or affect compliance with debt covenants.

Mistake: Blaming Others for Past Mistakes

Blaming professors, teammates, managers, or “bad leadership” for past mistakes signals a lack of accountability and maturity, even if your criticism is valid. In interviews, firms aren’t just evaluating your technical ability; they’re testing whether you can own outcomes, learn from setbacks, and operate professionally under pressure. When a candidate deflects responsibility, interviewers often worry: If something goes wrong here, will this person point fingers instead of fixing the problem?

What strong candidates do instead is reframe failure as growth. They briefly acknowledge the challenge, take responsibility for their role in it, and focus on what they learned and changed going forward. For example, instead of saying “my team didn’t communicate well,” a better answer is: “I realized I needed to take more initiative in clarifying expectations, so I started scheduling check-ins and documenting next steps.” This shows self-awareness, adaptability, and leadership — traits firms value far more than a perfect track record.

Key takeaway: Interviewers don’t expect perfection; they expect ownership. How you talk about failure often matters more than the failure itself.

Waiting until senior year or after starting full-time to think about the CPA exam is one of the most common (and avoidable) mistakes accounting students make. Building a CPA timeline early helps you understand credit-hour requirements, exam eligibility, and realistic study windows, which can shape your course load, internship choices, and even which job offers make the most sense. Students who plan ahead avoid last-minute surprises like missing credits, rushed exam prep, or having to study during peak busy season.

Just as important, your CPA timeline shouldn’t be static. Revisit it every semester as your schedule, internships, and personal commitments change. Many successful candidates adjust plans to take one or two sections before starting full-time, or immediately after graduation, when study time is more flexible. Employers notice this level of planning — it signals discipline, long-term thinking, and commitment to the profession. In accounting, the CPA isn’t just a credential; it’s a career accelerator, and treating it like a multi-year project pays off.

🏆 Campus Capital’s Top 10: The Top 10 Schools Hired by EY

These schools are known for strong accounting/business programs and significant EY presence in campus recruiting, either through career fairs, internship pipelines, or placement outcomes:

University of Texas at Austin (McCombs)

Brigham Young University (Marriott)

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Gies)

University of Notre Dame (Mendoza)

Georgetown University (McDonough)

Wake Forest University

Fairfield University (Dolan)

Boston College (Carroll)

University of Michigan (Ross)

Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)

It's important to note that these aren’t necessarily the ‘Top 10’ schools recruited by EY, but more so, the schools with a strong EY campus and alumni presence.

EY’s recruiting footprint also includes top business and accounting programs outside the U.S., especially in Europe, Canada, and Asia, and expands into graduate MBA/masters programs depending on role and practice area. The patterns above reflect trends and placement data rather than an official employer “rank.”

Thank you again for helping The Campus Capital Newsletter pass the 100 subscriber mark, read the full 100 subscriber special issue here.

I think this week is a good time to remind each of you to start early. Whatever it is in life, start early. Whether you’re working toward getting your CPA, or grinding to land a banking role on Wall Street, start early. The definition of starting early is obviously different from person to person and case to case, but I think it’s important to build your knowledge on something as early as possible — whatever that may be. For example, we talked about building a CPA tracker. But if that’s not your thing, start preparing for technical investment banking interview questions or building financial statements.

And if you don’t happen to start early, adapt. We as humans are biologically engineered to adapt to extreme circumstances in order to survive, this is possible in almost every aspect of your life.

Invest in yourself.

Welcome to Campus Capital. Each week, we’ll break down the finance world in 5 minutes or less.
Got feedback or questions? Hit reply and let us know what you want to learn.

Share with a friend: Know someone interested in finance? Forward this to them!

My name is Braunsen Bax, I’m a honors finance and accounting student-athlete at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois (45 mins outside of Chicago). I graduated from Walton High School in Marietta Georgia. Outside of the classroom I compete in the throws events for the Track & Field team, 35 time NCAA DIII national champions. I’ve had a love of finance and the business world since my sophomore year of high school and started Campus Capital to share that love with my community and like minded individuals in a similar position, with similar goals. My mission is to help people like me shape their futures to ensure they reach their goals while being up to date and educated in the Finance industry.