ACCT20080 - Ethics and Governance

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Ethics and governance is a core component of the knowledge and skill base of today’s professional accountants. It promotes awareness of the ethical responsibilities of professional accountants, thereby enabling them to identify and resolve ethical issues or conflicts throughout their career. In this unit, you will study the role of accountants as members of a profession, and their interaction with society, and apply the code of professional ethics and a conceptual framework for ethical behaviour. You will be able to apply corporate governance principles and evaluate compliance. You will also be able to evaluate corporate social responsibility reporting for compliance with international guidelines. This unit is a capstone unit for the Master of Professional Accounting, integrating prior studies and preparing students for their future role as accountants in the community.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 9
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisites

ACCT20075 Auditing and Ethics

LAWS20059 Corporations and Business Structures

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 3 - 2024 Profile
Online
Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 3 - 2025 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Online Quiz(zes) 20%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. Project (applied) 50%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 86.67% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 39.47% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: verbal
Feedback
Students appreciated the recorded explanation of the assessment item.
Recommendation
Continue recorded explanations of both assessments.
Action Taken
Video as well as written recorded explanations of both assessments were uploaded in Moodle.
Source: Unit evaluation
Feedback
Feedback on written assignments
Recommendation
Provide clear feedback what was expected but missing in particular area of assessment because students has unrealistic expectation of marks.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Identify the characteristics of a profession, and compare the responsibility of an accounting professional to work in the public interest with the responsibilities of other careers
  2. Assess an accountant’s behaviour for compliance with the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants
  3. Resolve ethical dilemmas using a conceptual framework for ethical behaviour
  4. Evaluate a published company annual report for compliance with corporate governance guidelines
  5. Evaluate a published corporate social responsibility report for compliance with international guidelines.

This unit is aligned with the core CPA Program professional level segment - Ethics & Governance, and provides preparation for students undertaking the professional examination.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Online Quiz(zes) • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • •
3 - Project (applied) • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Knowledge • • •
2 - Communication • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • •
4 - Research • • •
5 - Self-management • •
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility • • • • •
7 - Leadership •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Online Quiz(zes) • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • • • •
3 - Project (applied) • • • •