In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
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
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).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2025
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).
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.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
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.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
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.
Feedback from Unit evaluation
Feedback on written assignments
Provide clear feedback what was expected but missing in particular area of assessment because students has unrealistic expectation of marks.
- 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
- Assess an accountant’s behaviour for compliance with the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants
- Resolve ethical dilemmas using a conceptual framework for ethical behaviour
- Evaluate a published company annual report for compliance with corporate governance guidelines
- 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) - 10% | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 40% | |||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 50% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| 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 | |||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||