Pioneering in Ethics Teaching: The Case of Management Accounting in Universities in the British Isles

Relatively little is currently known about thecoverage of ethical issues in the accountingcurriculum. This paper reports on the resultsof a questionnaire survey of universityacademics in the British Isles which found thata significant minority of management accountinglecturers do claim to address ethical issues intheir teaching. In addition to reporting theextent of such provision, the paper exploresthe reasons for the coverage of ethics. Bothpersonal interest and a belief in theimportance of ethics are found to besignificant, and lecturers who do addressethical issues tend to express stronger beliefsin the responsibility and ability ofuniversities to improve the ethical attitudesand behaviour of their students. Some evidenceis found that personal interest is positivelyrelated to number of years of practicalexperience, which would appear to be a topicworthy of future research in accounting andbusiness ethics.