The lockdown and switch to online teaching have not discouraged NEOMA's long-standing auditing firm partners from continuing their involvement in the digital and CSR courses for Master in Management final year students.

Charles Daussy, Professor in the Accounting, Control and Legal Affairs Department and Head of the Accounting, Auditing & Advisory Specialisation, believed it was paramount for the major audit firms to be involved in his specialisation. "KPMG, PwC France, PwC Luxembourg and Deloitte are some of the School's long-standing partners who recruit a large number of our graduates. It was therefore legitimate to invite them to take part in teaching students preparing for careers in control, finance, auditing and consulting," explains Charles.

Fully aware of the major transformation the audit and finance sectors are going through as a result of digital technology and big data, Charles Daussy decided sought out a number of auditing firms to work on these themes. "These new technologies will have a considerable impact on audit, control and finance professions in the future. It is therefore with the objective of being able to anticipate market needs as closely as possible that I invited KPGM, PwC France and Deloitte to involve in the data analytics course with a focus on such data visualisation tools as Power BI, that are so essential for our students today," says Charles.

Another issue in the finance and auditing sectors is sustainable development. It is widely recognized that the new generation of students are looking for meaning and authenticity and are therefore extremely sensitive to CSR and ethical issues. Companies have certainly understood this and know that in order to attract young graduates they must include these issues in their strategic thinking. As such, the PwC Luxembourg team, who usually give lectures on finance-related topics, accepted Charles Daussy's invitation to teach a CSR course, a new but highly important theme for auditing firms.

Despite the recent crisis we have been through and the resulting problems auditing firms have had to deal with, the staff involved in the courses were nonetheless all very keen to continue providing students with fully interactive classes.

The historical ties between audit firms and NEOMA have recently been strengthened by the creation of an Audit & Consulting Unit, whose aim is to understand the profound transformations the audit and financial consulting professions are going through in an era of Artificial Intelligence and digitalisation. It is in this context and with the aim remaining as close to market developments as possible that KPMG, PwC France, PwC Luxembourg and Deloitte have been working with the 130 students Master in Management students as they approach their graduation.​​