Accounting Ethics in the Undergraduate Curriculum and the Impact of Professional Accreditation

One of the key barriers to incorporating ethics in the undergraduate accounting curriculum is alleged to be professional accreditation, because it promotes a narrow curriculum focused on technical material, with ethics and ‘soft’ skills largely squeezed out. In this chapter, it is argued that there is evidence that some room for ethics can be found, but that if ethics is ever going to become well established in the curriculum on a widespread basis, it is going to require a considerable impetus to make it happen. Whereas accreditation is currently widely seen as a problem, it is proposed that its powerful influence means that it could also provide the solution. The requirement of a significant presence for ethics in the curriculum in order for programs to gain accreditation would be consistent with professional bodies’ status claims and the enhanced ethics agenda that they have been pursuing in recent years. It is time for such a development to occur.