Prem Sikka


Prem Sikka is a British accountant and academic. He holds the position of Professor of Accounting at the University of Sheffield, and is Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex.

Life and career

Sikka qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in 1977. In 1982, he earned a master's degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics. In 1991, he earned a PhD in Accounting from the University of Sheffield. In 1995 he earned a bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from the Open University.
In 1996, Sikka joined the faculty of the University of Essex, where he now holds the position of Emeritus Professor. In 2017, he joined the University of Sheffield as Professor of Accounting.

Criticism of the accounting profession

Sikka is an outspoken critic of the accounting profession, particularly in regards to its roles in auditing public corporations and helping transnational corporations avoid taxes. He has written about auditing failures, corporate governance issues, money laundering, insolvency, and tax avoidance for The Guardian since 1990. He has also written for The Independent and HuffPost.
Sikka's research has been described as being about the "dark side of capitalism." In May 2017, Sikka featured in the documentary, on the UK's relationships with tax havens.
Sikka's active use of the media as an academic to criticize the accounting profession has itself been the subject of academic research.

Selected publications

Sikka's academic research has examined problems in auditing, tax avoidance, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance.
According to Google Scholar, the following academic publications by Sikka have been cited over 100 times as of January 2019: