ASSESSING THE RELEVANCE OF ACCOUNTING ETHICS AS A COURSE IN BUSINESS RELATED PROGRAMME IN TERTIARY EDUCATION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
During the last two decades of the twentieth century, many studies have been devoted to the teaching of accounting, particularly to the development of the ethical and moral capacities of accountants (Alam 1998, Armstrong 1993, Ponemon 1993, Mintz 1995). ) and the relevance of university accounting programs for the industry (Pan and Perera, 2012, Awayiga et al., 2010, Kutluk et al., 2012, Marthandan and Yusoff, 2013, Akimov et al., 2014). Some said such studies were motivated by financial disasters such as Enron and WorldCom in the United States (Pan & Perera, 2012). Others also say that studies of skills development for accounting graduates have been motivated by the criticisms that university education in accounting has faced over the last two decades for its inability to respond to skills needs in the field of accounting. current dynamic business environment (Awayiga, et al., 2010). Others have also argued that this is due to the rigor of the employment challenge posed by recent graduates (Shamsuddin et al., 2015).
Other researchers believe that the level of global competition and international integration means that employers expect a lot from accountants after university. Accountants must therefore meet the needs of employers with university education in order to make them relevant to employers and thus to be usable (Celik and Ecer 2009, Kutluk et al., 2012). Globalization and the integration of world economies, combined with the development of global treaties (ie the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs – GATT) and regional financial blocs, have all added call to improve the teaching of international accounting (Rezaee, Szendi and Elmore, 1997). To complement the many calls for accounting education worldwide, the accounting profession has worked at different levels to develop international standards to guide accounting education. One of these attempts is the requirements developed by the International Accounting Standards Standards Board (IAESB) under the auspices of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and its affiliated agencies and agencies involved in the development of accounting standards. .
In addition to the above, other studies (Pan and Perera 2012, Awayiga et al., 2010, Kutluk et al., 2012, Marthandan and Yusoff 2013, Akimov et al., 2014) have all contributed in a variety of ways establish the need for ongoing studies in accounting education. For example, the Pan and Perera (2012) study found that there were discrepancies between university-level certified accounting programs and industry-specific skills for accounting graduates. To eliminate these differences and to find common ground between universities and the market, the study suggested further research, particularly in the design of the required teaching and learning modules (Biggs, 1999, Biggs and Tang, 2007, Pan and Perera, 2012). The overall discussion of changes in accounting education has been documented in the relevant accounting literature (Albrecht and Sack, 2000, Deppe, Sonderegger, Stice, Clark and Streuling, 1991, May, Windal and Sylvestre, 1995). These studies have led to new studies in developed and developing countries (Awayiga, Onumah and Tsamenyi, 2010, Kutluk, et al., 2012 and Fouché, 2013).
The above calls for institutions to improve learning and maintain standards in undergraduate accounting education, quality assurance, evaluation of learning outcomes and program evaluation, and has been adopted by educational institutions in the United States, Europe, and many other developed countries (Lusher, 2006). Although the literature shows a growing importance of the evaluation and evaluation of undergraduate programs in different parts of the world (Lusher, 2006), it is very infrequently found in higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa ( Adaboh, 2014).
Ghana, as a country, has also taken steps to train quality accounting graduates who meet the needs and expectations of the international market. In this regard, government agencies such as the National Accreditation Board, universities and other stakeholders take pragmatic steps to ensure that university programs meet the accreditation criteria established before these programs are taught at the university. However, the use of professional accreditation by universities cannot be used as a criterion to promote their accounting programs (Jackling and Keneley 2009, Lightbody 2010). It should be noted that, in practice, the market determines the fate of the accountants with respect to their hours, functions and professional career (Carnegie & Napier, 2010, Jackling & De Lange, 2013, Sauser, 2010).
Universities should ensure that accounting graduates are well prepared and equipped with the basic competencies that best reflect market practices within the accounting profession (Johns 2006, Hancock et al. Global competition and international integration allow expatriates to be recruited all over the world, both for local and multinational companies, this phenomenon, as well as the difficulties encountered by accounting graduates in finding a job and the difficulties they encounter in meeting the expectations of their employers motivated this study. was motivated by the fact that the nature of the accounting roles that employees must assume is changing rapidly (Bond, Spronken-Smith, McLean, Smith, Frielick, Jenkins and Marshall, 2017), which requires: leadership studies like this to identify gaps in order to find a strategic solution.
1.2 Statement of Problem
The teaching of accounting has been criticized by some researchers who have been slow to match recent progress with the dynamism of business ethics and the environment (Albrecht & Sacks, 2010; Chua and Perera, 2016, Courtis & Zaid, 2012 , Mohamed & Lashine, 2013). With this in mind, it has become increasingly important to study the relevance of accounting ethics as courses related to business in higher education, as well as the market relevance of these academic accounting programs. .
To this end, Mbawuni (2015) focused on interviewing undergraduate and graduate students; Asonitou (2015) also used the responses of accounting professors regarding the introduction of professional skills in Greek higher education institutions. Similarly, Kutluk and. Al. (2012) examined the opinion of public accountants only with respect to the current situation of university accounting training. Therefore, it is difficult to generalize the results of such studies because the point of view of the final consumer was largely absent.
Other studies such as Akimov, Bianchi and Drew (2014) have used a single company to examine what they called “university-industry cooperation“, while Pan y Perera (2012) and Awayiga et al. (2010) used only one university and one large city for their studies. To add to this, Awayiga et al. (2010) suggested that the study be replicated in other institutions of higher education to provide more detailed and better information to support or refute their findings. Therefore, this study has used a tertiary institution which facilitates the generalization of the topic. It should be noted, however, that with the exception of Awayiga et al. (2010) all other studies are conducted in Western countries, which makes it necessary to continue studies in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Ghana, to complement the existing literature and fill in some of the gaps in the current literature. Given the need to increase ethical education worldwide, there is controversy about whether the learning of ethics has any value. This debate took place because the ethical decisions are related to the formation of individual personalities, which can be influenced by environmental and environmental factors. The collapse of moral values in the global community fosters interest in assessing the relevance of the teaching of accounting ethics in tertiary education.
1.3 Research Objectives
The general objective of this study is the assessment of the relevance of accounting ethics as a course in business related programme in tertiary education, Ghana. The specific objectives of this study are:
- To ascertain the perception of accounting educators and students on the relevance of accounting ethics in Ghana tertiary education system
- To determine the relationship between teaching accounting ethics and the level of academic performance in accounting education of students in Ghana
- To find out if there is any difference in the perception of higher institution lecturers and professional bodies’ lecturers on the relevance of teaching accounting ethics to accounting students in Ghana.
- To explore the best forms of pedagogies and strategies for teaching accounting ethics to accounting students and trainee accountants.
- To ascertain the reality of teaching accounting ethics and the influence of culture in shaping the ethical behavior of accounting students in Ghana
