Teaching of ethics on accounting undergraduate programmes from the student perspective

This paper reviews the use and effectiveness of the teaching of ethics in accounting undergraduate programmes. Using a survey and interviews, it obtains the views of second year undergraduate students as to their perceived importance of ethics and their preferred means of teaching delivery. It also asks them what the aims of ethics teaching should be. The results appear to show that students regard ethics teaching as important to them and that a stand-alone ethics course is preferred by them rather than integrated teaching across the curricula. In particular, students describe the benefits of a compartmentalised approach to their learning with ethics “all in one place.” Possible reasons for student choices are given and discussed and it is also concluded that ethics should be treated as part of a wider employability agenda for students to help them in their future careers.