Examination of professional values, ethics and attitudes component of public tertiary institutions’ accounting curricula

Abstract

This study examined the accounting curricula of tertiary institutions in Ghana with a focus on the professional values, ethics and attitudes (PVEA) component. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of accounting education of a Ghanaian public university in preparing students in addressing ethical issues. Grounded in the International Education Standards (IES) and the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model, it adopts a positivist paradigm and a cross-sectional survey methodology. For the 2023–2024 academic year, the study focused on accounting faculty and final-year undergraduates at public tertiary institutions in Ghana. Sixty-nine faculty members participated through a census method, and multiple sampling techniques were used to choose 307 accounting students. Inferential (multiple linear regression) and descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) were used in the data analysis. The findings show that 70% of accounting curricula conform to IES 4 criteria. Faculty members showed a high level of ethical knowledge, which was mostly impacted by their religiosity, with age and sex having less of an impact. Participatory methods of teaching ethics were found to be rarely employed. The study also found that students' perception, which was significantly influenced by their age and religiosity, were that the accounting curricula did not adequately meet their professional ethical needs (concerns). The study recommends that programmes for continuous faculty development, such as seminars and workshops, should also be put in place to improve the ethical knowledge and teaching strategies of faculty members.