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This chapter presents findings from a recently conducted process for obtaining Accounting Advisory Board (AAB) input related to Master of Accountancy curriculum of one university. Board members represent both large and small public accounting firms as well as corporate offices of Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations. AAB input includes perceptions of the relative importance of over 160 candidate topics for the courses making up the program’s infrastructure, as well as written comments noting other potential topics and pedagogical approaches to consider. Comparisons of topic rankings reveal a strong level of consistency among Board member types for the traditional accounting courses with structured content, as opposed to those courses involving more systems-related topics or having a wider range of specialized topics. Furthermore, the authors compare Board perceptions regarding topic necessity to those of faculty and note faculty reactions. Specifically, the authors find that faculty ranking consistency with the Board is weak, illustrating the importance of seeking curricular Board input on an ongoing basis. To “close the loop,” faculty incorporated many curriculum changes, involving both the topics to be covered and the overall approach to the course.

This study explores the teaching of International Accounting on both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in New Zealand in New Zealand's polytechnic and university sectors. Included in the study is an analysis of course outlines of international accounting courses from business and commerce faculties of the New Zealand tertiary sector. The paper compares the teaching of international accounting in New Zealand with that of the United Kingdom, Australia and the US. Results suggest that even though international accounting issues have been given significant prominence in accounting research as of late, there is a paucity of International Accounting education offered to New Zealand accounting students including in comparison with the UK, Australia and the US. Through our analysis and discussion we seek to engender a more critical review of international accounting education.

This study examines corporate governance and ethics (CGE) education by conducting a survey of academicians and practitioners in the United States. Results indicate that the demand for, and interest in, CGE continues to increase. More universities are planning to provide CGE education and many CGE topics are considered important for integration into the curriculum, although the degree of importance varies between academicians and practitioners. The two prevailing methods of CGE education integration are offering a stand-alone course in CGE or infusion of CGE topics into accounting courses. Results pertaining to the importance, delivery, and topical content of CGE education may be useful to universities that are, or are considering, integrating CGE into their curricula or redesigning their CGE courses. The CGE educational issues addressed in this study should help business schools design curricula to prepare students for the challenges awaiting them in the area of CGE.

This chapter examines the integration of Giving Voice to Values (GVV) into an accounting ethics course. GVV has received a great deal of interest by business educators in the past decade and, more recently, by those accounting faculty who teach accounting ethics in a standalone course or as part of another course. This chapter describes GVV assumptions and principles that are helpful for any faculty considering adopting GVV. After a brief review of different instructional approaches for teaching accounting ethics, GVV literature relating to accounting ethics is examined. The integration of GVV builds on the Kelly (2017) integration of leadership topics in an accounting ethics course and synergistically promotes moral motivation and moral character that contributes to ethical behavior. To facilitate the integration efforts, this chapter presents specific learning objectives, GVV background materials, case recommendations, and application/assessment approaches. This chapter concludes with a discussion of GVV and its possible role in assurance of learning efforts.

The purpose of this article is to identify the offering and nature (scope) of sustainability accounting courses at universities that have signed the Talloires Declaration and also at universities with prominent sustainability accounting researchers' affiliations. For this purpose a university web sites content analysis for sustainability accounting courses was conducted. This study can be replicated in order to evaluate web sites disclosures by universities across disciplines in relation to sustainability education. It can also be replicated to assess the theoretical versus implemented scope of sustainability education, and to determine the impact of prominent researchers in the area of sustainability education.

Talloires Declaration signatories' universities' web sites were searched for information regarding sustainability accounting subjects. A search was also conducted for the Curriculum Vitae and profile of prominent sustainability accounting researchers to collect data on involvement in sustainability accounting education by these researchers. The findings regarding the offering of a sustainability accounting course and its nature and scope (if found on the web sites) are presented in this article.

It is found that less than 30 per cent of the Talloires Declaration universities' web sites in Canada, USA, United Kingdom and Australia have information on sustainability accounting education in various forms including stand alone subjects (all electives) and sustainability accounting embedded in other accounting and non accounting courses, with limited scope. This percentage was found to be substantially lower or non‐existent at universities from other countries. The probability of sustainability accounting education being offered at the post‐graduate level (specifically as a PhD programme) is much higher at universities that have a prominent research profile in the area. It is also found that sustainability accounting education is not offered in majority of the cases, at the undergraduate level at universities where prominent sustainability accounting researchers are based. The focus is on post‐graduate and research education rather than on undergraduate and course work education.

A limitation of this study was the limited information available in English on universities' web sites from countries where English is not the primary language. Other technical limitations such as the absence of a search function on the university's web site were also found as a hindrance to data collection.

This paper addresses the existence and scope of sustainability accounting education, the gap between universities' expected comprehensive (including all disciplines) commitment to sustainability and the actual implementation of this commitment. It also addresses the absence of sustainability education involvement by prominent sustainability researchers and academics at the under graduate level.

We use student-level online resource usage data for students in four different introductory accounting courses to explore the impact on exam performance of both student study effort and students’ revealed preferences for reading text or watching video lectures. The online learning tool tracks student study choice (read text, watch video, or skip) on a paragraph-by-paragraph level. We match these usage data with student performance on course exams. We find that students who study more material earn higher exam scores than do students who study less material. We also find that students who self-select to do relatively more of their studying through reading text score higher on exams, on average, than do students who self-select to do relatively more of their studying through watching videos. Specifically, holding the overall amount of study constant, a student who chooses to spend the highest fraction of her or his study time watching video mini lectures earns exam scores 10 percentage points lower (six-tenths of a standard deviation) than a student who chooses to spend the lowest fraction of study time watching videos. Our results demonstrate that at least for introductory accounting students, increased study effort does indeed have a positive impact on exam performance. Our evidence also suggests that the highest performing introductory accounting students choose to learn accounting proportionately more through reading than through watching. These results are a reminder that when we talk about using “technology” to help our students learn accounting, the written word is still an important technology.

The AICPA strongly suggests that accounting educators constantly monitor existing course offerings for content and relevance. To assist in this goal, the AICPA provides a list of various “core competency” skills that are recommended for future accountants (AICPA, 2013a). We review some of these skills and discuss how we incorporate them into an accounting elective course at a private liberal arts institution. Using a series of modules specifically designed to address various core competencies, students are able to obtain both knowledge and skills that will be useful in their future accounting careers. Based on student perceptions collected at the beginning and end of the semester, the class was successful in augmenting competencies relating to aspects of research and communication.

The accelerated pace of change in the global economy and capital markets along with the complexity of transactions and financial reporting that involve applying fair value measurements (FVM) is a major third-party user concern. The 2008 financial crisis highlighted risks that investors are exposed to when making FVM-related capital allocations. Accounting estimates often involve subjective assumptions and measurement uncertainty, increasing potential management bias (Choudhary, 2011; Ramanna & Watts, 2012). FVMs are of critical importance to the reliability of the financial statements. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to inform educators of the possible need to evaluate their curriculum as to coverage of FVM topics. The support for this evaluation is based on our attempt to: (1) evaluate the extent of reported FVM-related deficiencies with reference to regulatory bodies’ findings of significant deficiencies in FVM; (2) examine the use of FVM specialists; (3) determine if colleges and universities are keeping pace with FVM demands; (4) list the Uniform CPA Examination Blueprint FVM testing areas; and (5) provide curricular FVM topic recommendations.

This paper aims to analyze the current state of integration of sustainable development (SD), in the academic curricula of Business Sciences degrees, including matters about Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability. In this way, the paper explores how Portuguese public higher education institutions (HEI) contribute to teaching about sustainable development (TSD).

The study focuses on Business Sciences degrees. The webpages of all public HEI with BSc and MSc degrees in those areas in Portugal were analyzed, to obtain curricular plans and syllabus. Content analysis was performed on each of these elements of Accounting and Taxation and Management and Business Administration courses.

There is already some concern about addressing SD in Business Sciences, inasmuch as SD-related topics are taught in Accounting and Taxation and in Management and Business Administration degrees and courses. However, the analysis shows that TSD was integrated into the academic curricula in only 95 degrees (48.5%). Additionally, in these, there are only 79 compulsory curricular units that address this theme. Given the fact that the subject of SD is increasingly relevant, the paper evidence still much room for improvement, indicating that TSD is yet a big challenge for HEI.

TSD is increasingly important because of the growing globalization that requires skilled professionals able to assess the complex and controversial issues related to the topic, to achieve and implement the SD goals in 2030. The literature evidence lack of studies addressing the integration of the SD theme in academic curricula. This paper makes here a contribution by showing what HEI is teaching in the area of business studies. It also brings good implications for society, while showing that sustainability content is becoming more apparent within certain HEI courses. This could be used to create follow up research on what type of sustainability content is being included within the courses and the learning that is happening in students in regard to this sustainability content.