Including ethics in banking and finance programs: teaching “we shouldn’t win at any cost”
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify whether ethics is incorporated into the curriculum in postgraduate banking and finance programmes. There is growing concern that moral failure preceded the global financial crisis with waves of ethical scandals overwhelming the global banking industry highlighting a lack of integrity. Consequently, banking and financial institutions have received much criticism for focusing on higher financial returns that bring personal rewards with significant costs to the majority of society.
Design/methodology/approach
The population for this study is Australian universities offering banking and finance postgraduate programs. The data for this study were collected from information available on university websites. The study uses content analysis to examine course content in 897 courses offered within banking and finance programmes.
Findings
Findings reveal that 809 (90 per cent) out of 897 courses do not incorporate ethics into banking and finance programmes. Most of the 88 courses incorporating ethics as include the course as “core”, with a relatively small number offering ethics as an “elective”. Only a few courses were offered as stand-alone ethics courses. It appears from the information available that little focus is given to assessment of ethics.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explore whether ethics is featured in postgraduate banking and finance programmes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the journal’s editor and the anonymous referee(s) for their in-depth and thoughtful comments that significantly improved this paper. In addition, the authors acknowledge the invaluable comments and guidance from Professor Niamh Brennan, Michael MacCormac Professor of Management, UCD School of Business, University College Dublin, Ireland.
Citation
Oates, G. and Dias, R. (2016), "Including ethics in banking and finance programs: teaching “we shouldn’t win at any cost”", Education + Training, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 94-111. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-12-2014-0148
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited