A Call to Arms for Audit Academics: Lead as Meta-Profession or Be Left Behind
认为审计学术界的持久价值不在于与AI竞争或模仿实践，而在于作为元专业引领审计行业，通过提升审计实践、合法化审计服务、培养新审计师来服务公共利益，否则将面临被边缘化的风险。
SYNOPSIS Audit academia faces a defining moment. Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), persistent questions about research relevance, and growing scrutiny of higher education make it impossible to defer a clear articulation of audit academia’s role. This paper argues that audit academia’s enduring value does not lie in competing with AI, mirroring practice, or continuing by inertia. It lies in embracing its role as a meta-profession—one that intentionally guides the audit profession by enhancing audit practice, legitimating audit services, and instructing new auditors in service of the public interest. Drawing on professional theory, the paper clarifies how these three interdependent functions provide value that audit firms, regulators, and AI cannot fully supply. The paper concludes with a call for audit academia to lead deliberately—or risk being left behind. JEL Classifications: M42; I23; O33; M41; D83.