Abstract The Report of the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting 1987 calls for greater emphasis on ethics in accounting education. This study examines two related issues: (1) the current status of ethics in the accounting curriculum, and (2) the factors that affect the integration of ethics into the accounting curriculum. Questionnaires were distributed to 445 accounting department chairpersons, and 145 responses were returned (representing a 33 percent response rate). Results of the survey indicate that auditing is the only accounting course in which there is a significant integration of ethics and accounting. Although accounting faculty see themselves as being competent to address ethical issues, the reward structure in academia provides few incentives for faculty to integrate ethics into courses.
Cohen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.