Exploring the Implementation of Ethics in U.K. Accounting Programs

Abstract

Accounting education researchers, as well as practitioners, have identified the need for ethics in the accounting curriculum. This paper explores efforts of U.K. higher education institutions to integrate ethics into the accounting curriculum. Specifically, our survey of U.K. educational institutions suggests that ethics is widely included in the accounting curriculum and is predominantly taught in upper-division courses, especially in financial accounting and auditing. Our survey results also indicate that a substantial minority of U.K. universities see recent accounting scandals as a driving force behind the inclusion of ethics in the curriculum. Finally, our survey results suggest that, while most U.K. universities include ethics in the accounting curriculum, different factors influence curriculum design across university types.

Ethics education and accounting programmes in Ghana: does university ownership and affiliation status matter?

“…In fact, consistent with the studies by Armstrong et al (2003) and Ghafarri et al (2008), but contrary to Puxty et al's (1994) findings, results show that all institutions offer one accounting ethics course except one which had two, bringing the count of accounting ethics courses to 28. Also, results do not differ from the literature, which suggests that the majority of the ethical issues are embedded in auditing (Cohen and Pant 1989).…”

“…Empirically, recent studies show overwhelming support amongst accounting educators for embedding ethics in accounting courses (see e.g., Armstrong et al 2003;Ghafarri et al 2008;). However, a limitation highlights that this approach requires almost all educators in the programme to understand and teach ethical issues in their respective areas of knowledge (IAESB 2006).…”

“…Over the years, there have been various studies on ethics education from different perspectives: designing and teaching business ethics (Felton and Sims 2005;Sims and Felton 2006), perception of students and faculty on the importance of ethics and accounting ethics education (Adkins and Radtke 2004), implementation of ethics in accounting programmes (Ghafarri et al 2008) and many more. However, many of the existing studies are based on data from developed economies, arguably, because many of the ethical improprieties reported are said to have originated from the developed countries (see Enron, WorldCom).…”

Influence of Gender and Ethical Training on University Teachers Sensitivity Towards the Integration of Ethics in Business Studies

“…20% state that they have received some ethical training during their higher education or have taken part in academic or professional activities related to ethics, whereas the remaining 80% have not received any prior ethical training in their higher education nor taken part in any academic or professional studies related to ethics. The questionnaire, based on previous studies about the teaching of ethics in business studies (see, among others, Blanthorne et al 2007;Cowton and Cummnis 2002;EspinosaPike and Aldazabal 2010;Ghaffari et al 2008;McNair and Milam 1993), consisted of several parts that attempt to assess the importance given to ethics in the world of business and the need to include it in higher education, the current extent to which this is being done and its future.…”

“…Furthermore, according to the most recent studies on the subject, it continues to be less commonplace than expected (Wright and Benneth 2011;Larrán Jorge et al 2010;Fernández and Bajo 2010;Castillo 2010;Mitchem 2009;Blanthorne et al 2007). There continues to be a major academic debate raging about fundamental aspects related to the teaching of business ethics that focuses on issues such as where to include it in the curriculum (Hartman and Werhane 2009;Ghaffari et al 2008;Bean and Bernardi 2007;Espinosa-Pike 2001), the methodology to be used (Blanthorne et al 2007;Cooper et al 2008;Titard et al 2004), the content to be introduced (Waples et al 2009;Loeb 2007;Molineaux 2004), effectiveness in improving ethical levels of students (Langlois and Lapointe 2010;Low et al 2008) and measuring instruments (Ishida 2006;Dellaportas 2006), among others.…”