Purpose – Given the calls for increased ethics education following recent corporate collapses, this paper aims to examine the significance of ethical issues that challenge the profession and, more specifically, professional accounting bodies. Design/methodology/approach – The study assesses the perceptions via an online survey of 66 professional accounting bodies worldwide in respect of ethical issues, potential causes of ethical failure and the need for ethics education. Findings – Respondents identified a number of important challenges including conflicts of interest, earnings management and whistle-blowing. The findings also demonstrate strong support for participation in prescribing the nature of ethics education by members of professional accounting bodies. Research limitations/implications – The results of this study are based on feedback from 41 per cent of member bodies of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). Despite a number of follow-up reminder notices, some regions are under-represented in the responses to the survey distributed to the (then) 160 member bodies of IFAC. Geographic isolation and language limitations contributed to the failure to gain a higher response rate. Practical implications – The findings demonstrate that professional bodies support ethics education at the pre- and post-qualifying levels of education and a willingness to take an active role in promoting ethics education to their members. Originality/value – By addressing member bodies' attitudes to ethics education, this paper fills a gap in prior literature that has been restricted to addressing the attitudes of academics, students and business organisations.

In 2006, the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB), an independent standard-setting board of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) released an information paper entitled Approaches to the Development and Maintenance of Professional Values, Ethics and Attitudes in Accounting Education Programs. The information paper stems from a global research project on ethics education in the accounting profession. The paper is designed to stimulate discussion and debate on the subject of ethics education and includes the provision of an Ethics Education Toolkit to encourage and assist accounting educators and member bodies of IFAC to implement ethics education programmes. Through a review of the literature, this paper considers why we should teach ethics, the types of ethics interventions that have been undertaken and the issues in teaching ethics to accountancy students. The paper then describes in detail the Ethics Education Toolkit and provides some evidence on the positive reaction of a group of students who are taught ethics, based on the principles and practice included in the toolkit.