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Dr Rasha Kassem

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Financial Management
  • The Faculty of Business & Law
  • The Open University Business School
  • Department for Accounting & Finance
  • rasha.kassem

Web links

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:

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

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

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))

CSR, Credibility, Employees Rights, and Legitimacy During A Crisis: A Critical Analysis of British Airways, WizAir, and EasyJet Cases (2022)
Kassem, Rasha and Salama, Aly
Employee Relations ((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)

Resilience during the covid-19 pandemic. The Alstom Bombardier transportation acquisition’ in Managing and Strategizing Global Business (2022)
Petratos, Pythagoras and Kassem, Rasha
In: Gupta, Ashish; Gupta, Suraksha and Kumar, Jitender eds. Crisis Resolve, Resilience, Return, Re-imagination and Reforms (R’’s) ((In Press))
Publisher : Taylor and Francis

COVID-19 and the impact of tourist perception of fraud risk on the tourism, travel, and hospitality sectors (2022)
Kassem, Rasha and Santamaria, Daniel
In: Xie, Philip ed. Handbook on Tourism Planning ((In Press))
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd | Published : Cheltenham, UK

Tourists Travel Motivations during Crises: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic (2022)
Kassem, Rasha and Ganepola, Chanaka
In: Dube, Kaitano ed. COVID-19 and tourism destinations: Impacts and prospects for recovery ((In Press))
Publisher : Springer

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

Reinforcing Integrity in Professional Football by Understanding and Mitigating Fraud Risk (2022-06-14)
Kassem, Rasha
In : 11th Counter Fraud and Forensic Accounting Conference Issues in Economic Criminology (14 Jun 2022, University of Portsmouth)

Countering Asset Misappropriation: A Practical Framework (2022-05-12)
Kassem, Rasha
In : Fraud Network Meeting (12 May 2022, Department for Education, UK)

Using Forensic Accounting to Counter Fraud in Policing (2021-09-01)
Kassem, Rasha
In : Policing Studies [Workshop] (1 Sep 2021, Coventry University, UK)

The Use of Technology in Countering Fraud (2021-09)
Kassem, Rasha
In : 21st European Conference on Knowledge Management (Sep 2021, Coventry University)

Countering Fraud and Supporting Fraud Victims (2021)
Kassem, Rasha
In : Counter-Fraud Conference 2021: Engaging and Supporting Victims of Economic Crime (Sep 2021, Cabinet Office, UK, Online)

Insider Fraud and New Ways of Learning (2021)
Kassem, Rasha
In : Insider Threat Virtual Conference (Mar 2021, Cifas, Virtual)

Fraud Risk and COVID-19: Implications & Challenges (2020)
Kassem, Rasha
In : Oxford Fraud Investigation Conference (12 Nov 2020, Oxford City Council)

The Future of the Audit Industry (2020)
Kassem, Rasha
In : Addressing Corporate Failure (Oct 2020, Virtual breakfast meeting at the UK Industry and Parliament Trust)

The psychology of cyber-criminals (2019-07)
Kassem, Rasha
In : Oxford Investigation Service Annual Fraud Conference 2019 (Jul 2019, Oxford City Council)

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)

Countering Fraud in the Public Sector (2019)
Kassem, Rasha
In : 1st Counter Fraud Profession Conference, Cabinet Office (Oct 2019, Manchester)

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)

Bringing stakeholders together: Addressing human and legal factors in tax compliance and enforcement in the EU and beyond. The Role of Professionals in Tax Compliance.
Kassem, Rasha
In : Horizon 2020 Project Virtual International Conference (Jul 2021, Virtual)

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