ASSESSING THE RELEVANCE OF ACCOUNTING ETHICS AS A COURSE IN BUSINESS RELATED PROGRAMME IN TERTIARY EDUCATION

ABSTRACT

Education in Ghana has undergone numerous changes and has adopted different forms. This has affected so many professions accounting profession inclusive. In line with that, this work tried to assess the relevance of accounting ethics as a course in business related programme in tertiary education, Ghana using the University of Cape Coast. The work analytically and hypothetically tried to ascertain the relationship between accounting ethics and students performance in accounting education. The work also tried to evaluate the perception of both the higher institution lecturers and the professional bodies’ lecturers regarding the relevance of teaching accounting ethics on the level of performance of accounting students. With a descriptive case study survey methodology, the data was collected using questionnaire instrument and analyzed in tables and frequencies. The data was collected from a sample of 47 drawn from lecturers in higher institution and professional bodies. A further analysis was done employing the regression tool and the student’s t test statistical techniques. The work discovered that accounting ethics affects the performance of accounting students. The lecturers’ perception on the relevance of teaching accounting ethics on the level of performance of accounting students was same with the professional bodies lecturers. The null hypothesis was rejected in the first hypotheses, since accounting education impacts on the academic performance of students. However, in the second hypothesis the alternate was rejected while the null was accepted indicating that there is no difference in the perception of the two categories of respondent on the performance level of students. This work summarily concluded that teaching accounting ethics is relevant and affects on the performance of students and recommended that government should invest in accounting ethics and education, support contentious training for accounting lecturers and review the accounting education curriculum in-line with global demand to facilitate efficient and laudable performance on the international market. 

ASSESSING THE RELEVANCE OF ACCOUNTING ETHICS AS A COURSE IN BUSINESS RELATED PROGRAMME IN TERTIARY EDUCATION