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The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of academic and professional institutions in promoting the awareness and knowledge of Islamic banking and finance in Nigeria.

The data were generated through a documentary research method by examining the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) for Nigerian universities and Nigerian university curricula for the relevant undergraduate programs, as well as examination syllabi and training brochures for the relevant professional associations.

The study found that universities do not promote significantly the awareness and knowledge of Islamic banking and finance. Similarly, the relevant professional associations through their examinations and training programs contribute little or nothing to the promotion of awareness and knowledge.

This study solely relied upon documentary evidence upon which the findings were based. In addition, for academic institutions, only undergraduate BMAS and curricula were examined.

There should be collaborations between the National University Commission of Nigeria, relevant Islamic and non-Islamic professional bodies and Nigerian Universities to ensure that courses (subjects) that could promote the awareness and knowledge of Islamic banking and finance are fully integrated into academic and professional curricula and training programs.

The integration of an adequate number of relevant courses/topics into academic curricula and professional institution examination syllabi and their Mandatory Continuing Professional Development programs would greatly contribute to the production of competent and skillful employees to work for the growth and development of the Islamic banking and finance industry.

This study provides better ways of ensuring that knowledgeable and qualified employees are produced to work for the sustainability of the global Islamic banking and finance industry.

The recent collapse of Enron and revelations of unethical behaviour by members of the board of large corporations in the USA have reopened the debate about the credibility of the auditing profession and their usefulness in establishing confidence in the capital markets. In the case of Nigeria, the promulgation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act No. 1 in 1990 provided the opportunity for the government to register its dissatisfaction with the performance of auditors in Nigeria. The act contained provisions that challenged the credibility of the accounting profession in Nigeria and almost threatened its very existence. This paper examines events and environmental factors which led to the “crisis of confidence” and how the profession has attempted to re‐establish public confidence in its members. Other developments in the regulatory framework for accounting and auditing in Nigeria are also examined. The paper suggests that any response by the profession must be relevant and give due cognisance to the peculiarity of the Nigerian socio‐economic, political and cultural environments. It also suggests that the accounting profession in Nigeria must not rest on its oars, but must constantly remain proactive by keeping abreast of developments in the internal and the external reporting environments and respond appropriately.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of ethical ideological orientation (moral idealism and moral relativism), work sector and types of professional membership on the ethical decision-making (EDM) process of professional accountants in Nigeria.

The study obtained primary data from 329 professional accountants with the aid of a structured questionnaire containing four scenarios of ethical dilemmas. The data were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis, independent sample t-test, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression techniques.

The results revealed both idealistic and relativistic moral orientation among the accountants surveyed with a higher mean score (>4.0) recorded for moral idealism. Moral idealism was found to have a positive influence, while moral relativism a negative influence on the three stages (ethical recognition, ethical judgement and ethical intention) of EDM examined. Professional accountants with idealistic orientation showed a higher disposition towards making ethical decisions in situations involving ethical dilemmas than those tending towards relativistic orientation. The results also revealed that work sector (private or public) and types of professional membership play significant roles in predicting the EDM process of professional accountants in Nigeria.

The study provides empirical evidence that could be used to support educational and legislative efforts in enhancing the moral ideological orientation of professional accountants, which will, in turn, enhance their EDM processes. The findings could be used to enhance ethics instructions and training of current and prospective professional accountants in educational settings, especially in countries such as Nigeria where there is yet to be a discrete ethics course in the curriculum for accounting undergraduate degree programmes. Professional accounting bodies in Nigeria and other developing countries could use the evidence in this study to strengthen the ethics code for professional accountants.

The study is unique in focussing on professional accountants in developing countries using Nigeria to represent developing countries with high corruption profile and weak institutions and governments and, as such, it contributes to the scarce research output on accounting ethics in developing countries.

Investigations into professional accountancy education gathered impetus with the publication of The impact of globalisation on accountancy education by Karreman in 2002. This publication provided a comparative analysis of professional accountancy education in 25 countries worldwide, using a model developed for the classification of accountancy education systems. The rationale behind such an exercise is to promote educational exchange and facilitate educational development. The Karreman study only covered two countries in Africa, namely South Africa and Kenya. This study expands the Karreman study by comparing and benchmarking the professional accountancy education programmes in six member countries of the Eastern, Central and Southern African Federation of Accountants (ECSAFA) using the Karreman methodology. This study reports the results of a questionnaire survey to which seven accountancy bodies located in six countries responded. The results of this study revealed mostly agreement with the Karreman model. All the countries could be categorised as developing countries with common law/Roman‐Dutch legal systems and with a strong British influence. Thus similarities in regulation, education and practical experience are expected. The professional bodies tend towards professional selfregulation with low to medium membership regulation. All countries require practical experience before qualifying, and a theoretical approach to the final examination predominates. The study also shows that there is co‐operation in the region.

This paper describes studies of the ICAN Intervention and their implications.

We adapted the ICAN intervention to support the science interest and learning of at-risk, middle-school-age youth, who were participants in entry-level, out-of-school, inquiry-informed, science workshops. The intervention is a brief ungraded writing assignment that is integrated into science activities on a daily basis in order to encourage workshop participants to reflect on science: what participants understand, the skills they have acquired, and what they still want to figure out.

Findings indicate that the use of the ICAN Intervention in science inquiry supports the development of science interest and science problem solving that is sustained 5 weeks following the workshop. Moreover, participants who write more responses to the ICAN probes are more likely to evidence changes in science learning, regardless of their initial level of interest in science. Participants with less-developed and with more-developed science interest at the beginning of the workshop all progress. The findings further suggest that when the intervention is coupled with an inquiry-informed integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) curriculum, it provides an additional boost for the development of science interest and learning.

The ICAN Intervention as adapted provides a solution to questions raised about whether inquiry-based instruction can promote learning. Our findings indicate that it can. Our findings also demonstrate that when undertaken in a concept and idea-rich environment, the structure of a motivation-based intervention is open-ended enough that all participants will progress, continuing to develop their interest and their learning of disciplinary content.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of personal and moral intensity variables on specific processes, namely, ethical recognition, ethical judgment and ethical intention, involved in the ethical decision making (EDM) of accounting professionals.

A structured questionnaire containing four vignettes of ethical dilemmas is used in the paper to obtain data from 329 accounting professionals. The data are analyzed using Pearson correlation matrix, independent sample t-test, one-way analyses of variance and multiple regression estimation techniques.

The findings of the paper suggest that age, economic status, upbringing, moral idealism and relativism, magnitude of consequence and social consensus are significant determinants of the EDM process of accounting professionals.

The paper provides evidence to guide accounting regulatory bodies on ways to strengthen extant measures that ensure strict compliance with ethics codes among accounting professionals in Nigeria.

The paper provides support for Kohlberg’s cognitive reasoning and moral development theory and Rest’s EDM theoretical model, which will aid the development of a structured curriculum for accounting ethics instruction in Nigeria, as hitherto, there is yet to be a provision for a stand-alone ethics course in the undergraduate accounting programs in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to assess Nigerian students’ level of awareness of the tripartite accounting (TA), unmask the ills of the propaganda for professional practice as the core of the accounting profession and emphasise the TA. Awareness of the fact that the frontiers of accounting is increasingly expanding beyond professional practice is inchoate in Nigeria. The role of accounting extends further to research and policy formulations for governments and corporate organisations, as it assumes a multi-dimensional sine qua non for reporting, budgeting and budgetary control, environmental impact measurement, forensics and other socio-political and economic policy measures.

Questionnaires were administered to 100 final-year students from the Department of Accounting in Bowen University, Iwo.

There is unilateral stereotype of the profession always tending to practice as the core of the accounting profession; there is little awareness of the benefits of undertaking research and/or policy-based accounting, limiting students’ focus to becoming only professional practitioners, which results in low number of senior academics in the field of Accounting evident in most tertiary institutions and the evident inadequacies of Nigeria’s standards-setting and policy-making systems and mechanisms.

Tertiary institutions should be the “place of orientation” for the TA, nurturing and developing students’ interest, hence, the strong proposal for balancing TA through clamour for institutional interrelationship to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, progress and sustainability of the profession.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of selected sociodemographic variables in the ethical decision-making (EDM) process of professional accountants in Nigeria.

The study obtained data from 329 professional accountants with the aid of a structured questionnaire containing four dilemmatic ethical vignettes. The data were analysed using Kendall correlation, Kruskal–Wallis and Jonckheere–Terpstra tests.

The results revealed that upbringing, especially parental discipline, and education are significant sociodemographic determinants of EDM. Religion and experience played little or no significant role in predicting accountants’ EDM in the face of ethical dilemmas.

The study used a questionnaire to measure its variables, which may bias and somewhat inflate the findings. Hence, caution should be applied regarding its conclusion.

The evidence in this study could stimulate policy change and review to include a separate ethics course in the accounting education curriculum, which could enhance the ethics training of future accountants. This is important for countries like Nigeria, where no provision is made for a discrete ethics course in the curriculum for accounting under-graduate education.

The study draws attention to the fact that ethical conduct among professionals and in society could be enhanced through proper upbringing and formal education.

The study adds some uniqueness in focusing on professional accountants in Nigeria, a developing country with high corruption profile and weak government institutions, and, as such, contributes to the limited research output on accounting ethics in developing countries.