Abstract

In view of the consequences of the unethical behaviour of accountants as witnessed in the collapse of banks and near collapse of the capital market in Nigeria, the study examined the knowledge, awareness, and perceived importance students attached to accounting ethics education. The curriculum content of the Bachelor of Science degree programme in accounting of the selected federal universities was also examined to assess whether accounting ethics was offered as a standalone course or not. The survey method was used to solicit responses from 113 third and final year accounting students of two Federal Universities in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The result of the independent samples t-test conducted showed no difference in the importance attached to accounting ethics education by the respondents. Also, results indicate that some students are aware of accounting ethics as part of an auditing course but more than half of the sampled population of students got the knowledge elsewhere other than the classroom. The results also suggest that the teaching of accounting ethics has potentials of producing ethically sensitive future accountants for the Nigerian economy. The paper, therefore, recommends that accounting ethics should be taught as a separate course unit at an appropriate level of the Bachelor’s degree programme, preferably from the first year of entry. This would go a long way in preparing them on how to respond to ethical dilemmas in the future.