Purpose The main objective of the study is to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on accounting education in the higher education (public and private universities) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Design/methodology/approach The study is explorative in nature conducted with quantitative survey approach and using purposive techniques in collecting data. The sample focuses on the teaching staff at public and private universities in (GCC), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar during the COVID-19. Findings This study presumed to highlight some of the emergent issues faced during the pandemic pertaining the aspects of the COVID-19 and digitizing accounting education and its effect on future direction of digital education. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first academic paper to study the effect of COVID-19 on accounting education in the higher education in the GCC.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is considered one of the highest priorities of corporations and is one of the hottest topics in academic research, that several researchers found positive significant relationship between company’s performance and CSR activities. The current study aims to explore the clients’ awareness and perception of CSR in Islamic and conventional banks across Bahrain. The study surveyed 305 clients, 175 from the Islamic banks, and 130 from the conventional banks. The results indicated that the clients of Islamic banks are more aware of their banks CSR activities than the clients of the conventional banks. With regard to the clients’ perception of their banks CSR, it has been found that Islamic banks clients have more positive perception about their banks’ CSR than those of the conventional banks. Additionally, the results indicated that there are statistically significant differences in the clients’ awareness and perception of banks’ CSR activities when the clients are grouped according to age, income, education, and bank type.