教育部藉由會計師查核簽證監督各私立學校之財務報表，但因會計師是由各校自行選任，若長期由同一會計師查核可能損及審計工作之獨立性，是以，主管機關乃針對私立大專院校制定強制更換會計師的規定，卻未規範前任會計師經過強制更換後，再度回任原查核學校之間隔時間。本研究發現，查核私立大專院校之會計師經過強制更換後，短期內回任原本查核學校之情形相當普遍。而影響查核私立大專院校之會計師是否於短期內回任之主要因素，為學校是否於過去曾發生過違法事件，以及查核簽證會計師是否屬於產業專家會計師。有發生過違法事件之學校由於查核風險較高，會計師較不願回任，以減少審計失敗帶來之損失。產業專家會計師由於較能提供良好之審計品質，故學校較傾向使產業專家會計師回任。另外，本研究發現，有多所學校未遵守規定，連續查核同一所學校達三年，故建議應制定罰則，以維持會計師與學校間之獨立性。同時，會計師短期內回任原本查核學校之樣本占總樣本比例達到八成，因此，本研究建議私立大專院校之會計師強制更換制度可將連續簽證之年限放寬，但須增設回任間隔年限規定，如此，不僅能增加會計師對客戶之熟悉度，亦能維持會計師與客戶間之獨立性。

Private colleges and universities are non-profit organizations in Taiwan. Although the Ministry of Education (MOE) has drawn up accounting principles and mandatory auditor rotation policy, no restriction has been imposed on the length of auditor return interval. One major finding of this study is that in private colleges and universities, auditor return interval tends to be short. Main factors that affect the length of auditor return interval include whether the school has illegal records and whether the auditor is an industry specialist auditor. Private colleges/universities that have illegal records have high audit risk; therefore, to avoid audit failure, auditors are unwilling to return to such schools. Industry specialist auditors are believed to be able to provide better audit quality; therefore, private colleges/universities incline to invite them to return after a short interval. This study has also found that many private colleges/universities violate the MOE’s mandatory auditor rotation policy in that their auditors audit them consecutively for as long as three years. This study suggests that, to maintain the necessary independence between private colleges/universities and their auditors, there should be penalties for the violation of the mandatory auditor rotation policy and restrictions on the length of auditor return interval.