The Open University

Professional biography

Dr Kassem is an internationally oriented academic with more than sixteen years of experience in Higher Education. Rasha is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Certified Management and Business Educator in the UK. She is a winner of three teaching excellence awards and an enterprise excellence award. Her expertise and research interests are in Forensic Accounting, Fraud, Financial Crimes, Economic Crimes, Corporate Governance, Audit, Policing, Risk Management, Business Ethics, and CSR. Rasha is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Open University Business School and a member of three research Centres at the OU, including PUFIN, CPRL, and CVSL. She is also a Certified Fraud Examiner, a consultant at Cifas, a Cross-Sector Fraud Advisory Board member at the Cabinet Office and the ACFE Fraud Advisory Council, and an editorial Board Member at the Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal. Rasha has authored several publications in Fraud, Auditing, and Corporate Governance and reviewed several manuscripts for a wide range of international peer-reviewed journals. Her research is multidisciplinary, tackles real business and societal issues, and has policy and practice implications. Rasha is continuously engaging in knowledge exchange with Law Enforcement, the UK government, professional and regulatory bodies, and anti-fraud professionals to counter fraud and unethical behaviour, and restore trust in external audits and corporate governance.

Research interests

Forensic Accounting
Fraud
Financial Crimes
Economic Crimes
The psychology of fraud criminals and cybercriminals
Audit & Assurance
Corporate Governance
Accountability
Policing
The Use of Technology
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Business Ethics
Financial Reporting
Pedagogy

Teaching interests

Audit & Assurance
Corporate Governance
Forensic Accounting
Fraud, Financial Crimes, and Economic Crimes
Business Ethics
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Financial Accounting
Research Methods
Study Skills
Dissertation/thesis supervision: MSc, MBA, PhD, DBA

Impact and engagement

Knowledge Exchange

2021/2022:

I presented one of my research findings at the Department for Education, UK Government. The topic discusses countering asset misappropriation in the public sector
I joined the UK government's Department for Education Fraud Network. Members of the network include the government internal audit agency, representatives from the Education Skills Funding Agency, counter fraud specialists with investigation backgrounds and close ties to their investigation team, student Loans companies, fraud leads for the UK Government Arms Length bodies including the Construction industry training board, and the Institute for Apprentices.
I joined the Editorial Board of the Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal, the Cabinet Office
I joined the Evidence and Partnerships Hub to collaborate with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to discuss research that could be useful to MoJ
I joined the academic research network at the College of Policing to share the findings of my policing research
I Chaired and spoke at several regulatory and academic conferences on fraud and governance

2019/2020:

I engaged in UK government consultations, see Sir Donald Brydon Report on Audit Quality in the UK (Independent Review into the Quality and Effectiveness of Audit (publishing.service.gov.uk) & the FRC consultation on ISA 240 (News I Financial Reporting Council (frc.org.uk)
I spoke at the Industry and Parliament Trust about the role of auditors in enhancing accountability and detecting fraud (Event blog: Addressing Corporate Failure: The Future of the Audit Industry | IPT)
I joined the Cross-Sector Advisory Board of the Counter Fraud Profession, Cabinet Office to help counter fraud in the public sector
I spoke at several regulatory conferences about fraud, including Oxford Fraud Investigation Unit Conference, the Cabinet Office Counter Fraud Conference, and Cifas Fraud Conference

Research Funding

2021 - Current:

Leading an internally funded research project by the OU exploring fraud risk in the football industry
Leading an internally funded research project by the OU investigating governance issues in the UK policing to enhance public accountability
Leading an internally funded research project by the OU exploring and comparing the impact of Covid-19 on academic and professional staff in Higher Education (HE) across the four UK nations and conducting a comparative policy analysis of how the effects of Covid-19 on HE staff were addressed across the four UK nations

2019 - 2020

I collaborated on a funded research project by the European Union to explore the use of Forensic Accounting in countering Fiscal Corruption and Tax Fraud (RESEARCH ASSOCIATES | VIRTEU
I led a funded project by the City of London Police to develop two online fraud courses based on research for law enforcement (Fraud Investigation Online Course - FutureLearn)

External collaborations

2021-Current

Member of the UK government's Department for Education Fraud Network
Academic Advisor, Public Sector Fraud Authority
Member of the Fraud Advisory Panel
Editorial board member at the Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal.
Member of the National Investigation Officers Group

2019 - Current

Board member, Cross-Sector Advisory Board, Counter Fraud Profession, Cabinet Office, UK
Board member, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Advisory Board, US
Consultant in Counter Fraud, Cifas, UK

2019 - 2022

External Examiner, MSc Accounting and Finance, Durham University, UK

Publications

Journal articles

It Is Not All About Money: Understanding the Motives of Cybercriminals (2022-08-19)
Kassem, Rasha
Fraud Magazine ((In press))

Elucidating Corporate Governance's Impact and Role in Countering Fraud (2022-05-09)
Kassem, Rasha
Corporate Governance ((Early access))

Elucidating Corporate Governance's Impact and Role in Countering Fraud (2022)
Kassem, Rasha
Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society ((In press))

Managing Insider Fraud Risk in the Pandemic (2021-05-16)
Kassem, Rasha
Fraud Magazine, 36(3)

How could auditors assess the rationalization of fraud? (2021)
Kassem, Rasha
Journal of Financial Crime ((In press))

Coronavirus, Fraud Risk, and the Use of the Term “Scam" (2020-06)
Kassem, Rasha and Betts, Mike
The Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal(5) (pp. 18-19)

Is the language of 'fraud' failing its victims? (2019-12)
Betts, Mike and Kassem, Rasha
The Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal(3) (pp. 6-7)

Understanding Financial Reporting Fraud in Egypt – Evidence from the Audit Field (2019)
Kassem, Rasha
Third World Quarterly, 40(11) (pp. 1996-2015)

Exploring External Auditors' Perceptions of the Motivations behind Management Fraud in Egypt – A Mixed-Method Approach (2018-01-19)
Kassem, Rasha
Managerial Auditing Journal, 33(1) (pp. 16-34)

Assessing Management Integrity: Insights from Big 4 Auditors in Egypt (2018)
Kassem, Rasha
Current Issues in Auditing, 12(1) (A29-A39)

Accounting Research: Relevance Lost (2016)
Higson, Andrew and Kassem, Rasha
Financial Reporting, 11(1) (pp. 59-76)

Detecting Bribery: A Guide for External Auditors (2016)
Kassem, Rasha and Higson, Andrew
Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences, 7(2) (pp. 97-105)

External Auditors and Corporate Corruption: Implications for Audit Regulators. (2016)
Kassem, Rasha and Higson, Andrew W.
Current Issues in Auditing, 10(1) (P1-P10)

Combating fraud: is Egypt ready? Insights from the literature (2015)
Kassem, Rasha and Higson, Andrew
Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences, 6(5) (pp. 290-298)

Detecting asset misappropriation: a framework for external auditors (2014)
Kassem, Rasha
International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, 10(1)

Earnings Management and Financial Reporting Fraud: Can External Auditors Spot the Difference? (2012)
Kassem, Rasha
American Journal of Business & Management, 1(1) (pp. 30-33)

Financial Reporting Fraud: Are External Auditors and Standards’ Setters Doing Enough? (2012)
Kassem, Rasha and Higson, Andrew
International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(19) (pp. 283-290)

The New Fraud Triangle Model (2012)
Kassem, Rasha and Higson, Andrew
Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences, 3(3) (pp. 191-195)

Fraudulent financial reporting: Do red flags really help (2010)
Hegazy, Mohamed and Kassem, Rasha
Journal of Economics and Engineering, 4 (pp. 69-70)

Book chapters

Role of Public Auditors in Fraud Detection – A Critical Review' (2021-01-18)
Kassem, Rasha and Turksen, Umut
In: Grima, Simon and Boztepe, Engin eds. Contemporary Issues in Public Sector Accounting and Auditing
ISBN : 978-1-83909-508-5 | Publisher : Emerald Publishing Limited

Corporate Fraud Risk Management (2021)
Kassem, Rasha
In: Zopounidis, Constantin; Benkraiem, Ramzi and Kalaitzoglou, Iordanis eds. Financial Risk Management and Modeling
ISBN : 978-3-030-66691-0 | Publisher : Springer | Published : Switzerland

Conference items

What Matters in the Assessment of Financial Reporting Fraud Risk? (2019)
Kassem, Rasha
In : 9th Counter Fraud and Forensic Accounting Conference (5-6 Jun 2019, Portsmouth, United Kingdom)

An Examination of the Fraud Triangle Model: Implications for External Auditors and Audit Regulators (2016)
Kassem, Rasha and Higson, Andrew
In : 26th BAFA Audit and Assurance Conference (AAC) (5-6 May 2016, Oxford, United Kingdom)

Other

Addressing Corporate Failure: The Future of the Audit Industry (2020)
Kassem, Rasha
Industry and Parliament Trust, United Kingdom.