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Introduction
Throughout 2001 and 2002, the financial scandals in the USA and some other countries, such as Australia, dramatically demonstrated how the efficiency of financial markets is based on assumptions of trust and ethical behaviour of corporate managers. The collapse of companies such as Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing in the USA, HIH Insurance and OneTel in Australia, and Parmalat in Italy has led to a loss of confidence by the investing public in the system of financial reporting and accountability. A major factor in this loss of confidence was the unprecedented implosion of one of the then "Big 5" accounting firms, Arthur Andersen, with the loss of 85,000 jobs worldwide and the loss of public trust in the accounting profession that accompanied it. These developments led to the promulgation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the USA and similar legislation such as the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Act 2004 in Australia.
The globalisation and diversification of accounting services, combined with market competition and high profile corporate collapses has drawn attention to the accounting profession and its perceived ethical standards ([43] Ponemon, 1995; [6] Ashkanasy and Windsor, 1997; [5] Armstrong et al. , 2003; [35] Leung and Cooper, 2005). Commentators are now questioning, whether the value systems of accounting professionals are strong enough to withstand client and economic pressures that potentially compromise professional judgement ([15] Douglas et al. , 1995; [31] Jennings, 2004).
Accounting education is viewed as one potential remedy to address the profession's ethical crisis. Extensive discussion about the role of accounting educators in teaching ethics has been undertaken in the US educational context, including special issues on professionalism and ethics in accounting education ([19] Gaa and Thorne, 2004). [26] Humphrey (2005, p. 342) has indicated that "there remains real scope for reviewing how the international academic accounting profession has responded to such scandals ... ". In particular, there is scope to identify the role of professional accounting bodies in providing pre qualification[1] education on ethics, as well as ongoing professional development. Regardless at what stage ethics education takes place, the post-Enron era has presented an opportunity for critical advances in ethics education and one in which professional accounting bodies ought to have a role.
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