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

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.