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The purpose of this study is to address the generalised lack of guidance on ethical treatment of corporate (e.g. non-research) data in higher education institutions, by focusing on the case of the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia). No actionable framework is currently available in the country to govern the ethical usage of corporate data. As such, this research takes a stakeholder-centred approach to data ethics; the lived experience of the stakeholders involved coupled with a theory-based ethical framework allowed the authors build to build a framework to guide ethical data practice.

Adopting a revised canonical action research approach focused on intervention on the context, the authors conducted a review of the literature on ethical usage of data in higher education institutions; administered one survey to university students (n = 168); and facilitated three workshops with professional staff (two) and students (one).

Collected data highlighted how, among other themes, the role and ethical importance of transparency was the dominant claim among all stakeholder groups. Findings helped the authors develop an Enhanced Enterprise Data Ethics Framework (EEDEF) emphasising transparency and stakeholder-centricity.

Legislation is the driver to regulate the use of corporate data in higher education; however, this can be problematic because legislation is retrospective, lacks normativity and offers scarce directions for cases that do not exactly follow within the legislative mandate. In light of these regulatory limitations, the authors’ EEDEF offers operators guidance on how to ethically manage corporate data in the higher education environment.

This study fills gaps in praxis and theory; that is the lack of literature and guiding ethical frameworks to inform data practice in higher education. This research fosters a more ethical data management by virtue of genuine and authentic engagement with stakeholders and emphasises the importance of strategic decision-making and maturity of data culture in the higher education sector.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a counter-narrative to accounts of specific species extinction. The authors place humanity’s ways of organising at the core and recognise that only fundamental re-appraisal of humanity’s taken-for-granted narratives offers hope for biodiversity and sustainability. The authors challenge producers of accounts of all sorts to reconsider the context and level of resolution of their accounts. The authors argue that humankind is the root cause of most (if not all) current species extinctions; that such extinctions represent one reason why humanity might itself be threatened with extinction; and why human extinction might be a good thing. The authors need to imagine other, better, futures.

The piece is an essay which assembles a wide range of literature in order to support its contentions.

There are many individual accounts of species which explore the (albeit very serious) symptoms of a problem without, the authors maintain, examining the systematic source of the problem. The source problem is western mankind’s organisation and somewhat taciturn conception of humanity. There is a lack of accounts offering new possibilities.

The piece is an essay and, consequently, limited to the quality of the argument presented. The essay suggests that the principal implications relate to how producers of counter-accounts frame their construction of accounts and how accounts of species extinction need to be more cognisant of underlying causes.

Without substantial change, planetary ecology, including humanity, is very seriously threatened. Imagining a plausible future is a most practical act of faith.

The essay suggests that as accountants the authors might think to approach the counter-accounts with a lower level of resolution: one that is directed towards a more challenging notion of what it is to be human.

Whilst building upon the growing sophistication in the understanding of (new) accounts and responding to the emerging literatures on biodiversity, species extinction and utopian vision the authors offer what the authors believe to be a unique suggestion in the accounting literature about the extinction of mankind.