Accounting Ethics Education In Developing Countries: The Extent Of Accounting Ethics Education In Turkey

In this global world, after the USA corporate accounting scandals (e.g. Enron, Tyco, etc.) the awareness of ethics education spreaded worldwide. Over the last few decades, an increasing number of studies has highlighted the need to incorporate ethics into business education. Further, the corporate accounting scandals and failures in Turkey (e.g. Imarbank, etc.) triggered the interest of people in the subject of ethics in accounting in Turkey. Thus, one of the objectives of this study is to identify the extent of ethics present in accounting education in Turkey. In order to achieve this objective, websites of public and private universities in Turkey were visited and content analysis was conducted. According to the results of the study, the number of ethics courses in accounting in undergraduate, graduate and doctorate programs are respectively three, nine and two, respectively. So, it is concluded that even though the education of ethics in accounting has been progressing drastically in developed countries, it still needs further awareness in developing countries like Turkey. Another purpose of the study is to provide an example of syllabus for ethics in accounting course at master’s level. The study is valuable to administrators who make strategic decisions about university programs and curricula. Additionally, this study provides a basis for Turk academics to discuss and assess contents of ethics in accounting course.