Is the accounting curricula keeping up with sustainability development?

ABSTRACT

There is continuing demand from practitioners, standard setters, and regulators for accountants to have the knowledge and competencies to contribute to sustainable business practices, reporting, and assurance. Educators at all levels of the accounting curricula have a responsibility to upskill. This research examines the extent of sustainability education among all levels of accounting curricula. Publicly available course information at three levels in New Zealand – secondary school, university, and professional accounting – was analysed using content analysis. The research finds a lack of sustainability education at all accounting curricula levels, with uneven coverage that is focused on sustainability broadly with questionable breadth and depth. This inconsistency among accounting educators results in accounting graduates with varied exposure to sustainability. This research calls for collective responsibility and collaborative leadership among educators, professional accounting bodies, practitioners, standard setters, regulators, and society to ensure sustainability education keeps pace with the development of sustainability accounting practice globally.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• constructive alignment
• secondary school
• university
• professional accounting

Introduction

This research identifies the extent of sustainability education in the accounting curricula across secondary school, university education, and professional accounting. In doing so, the research addresses the following research objective: At what level and in what courses is sustainability education included in the accounting curricula?

This is important as the continuing developments in sustainability accounting practice globally have created a need for accountants to have the knowledge and competencies to contribute to sustainable business practices, reporting, and assurance. Yet, sustainability education at universities worldwide has been largely ad-hoc and delivered through elective courses that are typically non-accredited, focussed on a special topic and referred to as stand-alone. Further knowledge of sustainability education at all levels of the accounting curricula is needed to ensure there is sufficient coverage and alignment to keep pace with global developments.

The research objective was addressed through content analysis of the New Zealand accounting curricula, specifically 20 achievement standards from the secondary school accounting curricula, 96 courses from the accounting curricula of eight universities, and 14 courses from the professional programmes of two professional accounting bodies. The aspects of sustainability covered in the accounting curricula were identified along with the number of courses and the specific course components where sustainability is included.

The changing role of accountants and the increasing call for them to engage in the collection, analysis and dissemination of sustainability information has been acknowledged for some time (Boulianne & Keddie, 2018; Duska et al., 2011; Gray & Collison, 2002; International Federation of Accountants [IFAC], 2011; Mangion, 2006; Owen, 2013; Zvezdov et al., 2010). The focus on addressing sustainability practices and performance through some mechanism of sustainability reporting and assurance highlights accountants – who are skilled in gathering, analysing, measuring, reporting, and auditing information – have a role to play in furthering the sustainable business agenda and should be well positioned to do so (Botes et al., 2014).

Although accounting has been playing an increasing role in relation to sustainability in business (Khan, 2013) there is a need for accountants to be more active (Botes et al., 2014; Collins et al., 2011). Practitioners expect graduates with knowledge of contemporary issues such as sustainability (Boudreau, 2022; Khan, 2011; Mangion, 2006). Gray and Collison (2002, p. 797) noted that ‘the pursuit of sustainability is central’ to the accounting profession’s proclamation to serve the public interest. Yet for accountants to contribute meaningfully they need to have relevant education.

Accounting education has often been labelled as ‘out-of-date’ and slow to adapt to changes in the business environment (Amernic & Craig, 2004; Humphrey, 2005; Mangion, 2006) with the response to sustainability education no different (Khan, 2011). Boulianne et al. (2018, p. 328) concluded that increases in the sustainability coverage in accounting education will only occur when there is market demand, societal pressure, regulatory forces, and proactive inclusion of sustainability knowledge in accounting practice.

If accountants are going to contribute to addressing sustainability, there needs to be a change in the accounting curricula now to ensure accountants have the knowledge and competencies required to meet the ever-increasing demands on them to work with sustainability-related information (Botes et al., 2014; Boulianne & Keddie, 2018; Khan, 2011; Williams et al., 2010). As noted by Collison et al. (2007, p. 340), ‘For an enlightened […] adaptation to take place, education – for accountants and many others – must be at least a necessary, if not a sufficient, condition’. Failure to address the need to include sustainability education in the accounting curricula may result in accountants losing relevance as well as an increase in the number of accounting firms hiring non-accounting specialists to engage with sustainability (Boulianne et al., 2018). To address the deficiencies, the Big Four accounting firms are actively recruiting sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) experts and offering current employees the opportunity to upskill themselves by undertaking in-house training and/or postgraduate study in sustainability (Boudreau, 2022).

Contributions

This research contributes to the accounting education literature in several ways. The research examines the extent of sustainability education in the accounting curricula at secondary school, university education, and the professional accounting programme, and finds that, at all three levels, accounting graduates have varied exposure to sustainability education in the accounting curricula. This is further evidenced by the focus on sustainability more broadly rather than its component parts more specifically (Rangarajan & Joshi, 2019), the lack of alignment within and between curricula levels, and the inclusion of sustainability education in predominantly elective university courses. This research highlights that change is needed if the accounting curricula is to keep up with sustainability development. To effect change, reduce the challenges, and ensure there is a holistic integration of sustainability education in the accounting curricula, this research calls for urgent action through collective responsibility and collaborative leadership involving educators and professional accounting bodies, along with practitioners, standard setters, regulators, and society.

The remainder of the paper is structured into four sections. The next section presents a literature review on sustainability education and its benefits and challenges, and sustainability education in accounting curricula, leading to the development of the research questions. This is followed by a section discussing the research method employed and the data analysis undertaken. Results are then presented and discussed, followed by a section that outlines the conclusions, implications, and future research.

Literature review

Sustainability means different things to different people, however the Brundtland Report definition that states that sustainable development ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) is a commonly cited definition. Other definitions encapsulate the concept of sustainability as intergenerational and consisting of three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. This is the view taken in this research.

Sustainability education

The United Nations (UN) Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) Declaration has been an international influence on embedding sustainability education, also referred to as education for sustainable development (ESD) or education for sustainability (EfS) (Calder & Clugston, 2005), with the Declaration highlighting the need to integrate ‘the principles and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning, to encourage changes in knowledge, values and attitudes [emphasis added]’ (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2014, p. 9).

A detailed discussion of EfS in universities and business schools is provided by von der Heidt and Lamberton (2011). Prior studies on sustainability education, have focussed on the higher education sector, and in particular universities, with universities noted as being critical to furthering sustainability education (Segovia & Galang, 2002), due to the expectation that they ‘fulfil greater objectives’ than the imparting of technical knowledge (Khan, 2013, p. 52).

Menon and Suresh (2020) and Wu and Shen (2016) provide extensive literature reviews on sustainability in higher education. Prior studies have also looked at sustainability education for specific disciplines related to commerce including accounting (e.g. Khan, 2013; Mangion, 2006; Scott et al., 2012; Williams et al., 2010), business (e.g. Naeem & Neal, 2012; von der Heidt & Lamberton, 2011; Wu et al., 2010), management (e.g. Christensen et al., 2007; Wu et al., 2015), and marketing (e.g. Perera & Hewege, 2016; Rundle-Thiele & Wymer, 2010).

In examining sustainability education in universities, prior studies have typically looked at either postgraduate studies (e.g. Jorge et al., 2017; Moon & Orlitzky, 2011) or undergraduate studies (e.g. Botes et al., 2014) and have explored aspects such as whether sustainability education is embedded throughout the programme via core courses or taught ad-hoc through elective courses (e.g. Jorge et al., 2017; Mangion, 2006; Rangarajan & Joshi, 2019; Sundin & Wainwright, 2010; Wu et al., 2010). Regardless of where sustainability education is implemented, Stubbs and Schapper (2011, p. 259) note that ‘While individual subjects cannot effect wholesale change, each effort can, no matter how piecemeal, make a difference’.

Early efforts to include sustainability education highlighted a lack of coherence and direction in environmental courses (Thomas et al., 1999). While some prior studies have noted an increase in sustainability education (e.g. Spicer et al., 2011), low levels of sustainability coverage have also been found (Thomas, 2004) with universities delivering sustainability education using an ad hoc approach resulting in significant variation between courses and institutions (e.g. Botes et al., 2014; Stone & Baldoni, 2006). More elective than core courses related to sustainability have been found to be offered in universities (Benn & Dunphy, 2009; Jorge et al., 2017; Matten & Moon, 2004), with Wu et al. (2010) identifying differences in this regard between accredited universities in different regions. Further, some programmes have been dominated by a focus on environmental sustainability rather than social sustainability (Gray et al., 2001) or the holistic concept of sustainability (Rangarajan & Joshi, 2019).

Benefits of sustainability education

Numerous benefits for including sustainability education in the curricula have been noted. Sustainability education prepares students for the ‘challenges and opportunities they are likely to face’ in the future (Rangarajan & Joshi, 2019) by exposing them to ethical and moral considerations (Mangion, 2006) and increasing their ethical reasoning (Gray et al., 1994). The student experience of real-life situations improves (Gray et al., 1994) and they can develop transdisciplinary skills (Saravanamuthu, 2015). Further, through sustainability education students can develop more information-based ‘knowledge, skills, abilities, values and dispositions’ (Shephard & Furnari, 2013, p. 1578), creating broader career opportunities in areas related to sustainability and climate change.

Challenges of sustainability education

Despite the benefits, the inclusion of sustainability education in business disciplines, including the accounting curricula, continues to spark debate (Boulianne et al., 2018). In particular, the issue of whether sustainability education should be taught as an elective course or embedded across the curricula continues to be an ongoing discussion (Larrán et al., 2015; Rangarajan & Joshi, 2019; Savelyeva & McKenna, 2011; Sidiropoulos, 2018). While Ghaffari et al. (2008) found that UK universities embedded sustainability education in accounting courses rather than delivering special topic courses, other programmes have been found to include sustainability in elective courses (Jorge et al., 2017). An embedded approach has been noted as being better able to increase the awareness and reasoning of students (Blanthorne et al., 2007; Ghoshal, 2005) and provides ‘exposure to the sustainability issue as a minimum’ (Khan, 2011). However, inclusion of sustainability education in mainstream and core courses (Hazelton & Haigh, 2010) can increase the risk of superficial coverage (Owen et al., 1994). The latter was found by Mangion (2006) who identified mainstream accounting courses that included sustainability only dedicated approximately 10% of course time to sustainability.

The lack of inclusion and integration of sustainability topics in textbooks has been noted as a potential contributor to this situation (Botes et al., 2014; Mangion, 2006). Regardless of the cause, this limited exposure to sustainability issues in higher education questions the meaningfulness of the sustainability education (Khan, 2011; Mangion, 2006). A lack of substantial change in university curricula has also been found in universities that have signed the Talloires Declaration to incorporate sustainability and environmental literacy (Khan, 2013).

Sustainability education is often superficial as a result of a lack of awareness among instructors of its importance (Matten & Moon, 2004), often seen through faculty scepticism and negative attitudes toward sustainability (Ceulemans et al., 2011; Naeem & Neal, 2012), and a lack of instructor knowledge or awareness (Ceulemans et al., 2011; Naeem & Neal, 2012; Thomas, 2004) with the ideal educator being one skilled in their own discipline as well as sustainability (Bebbington et al., 2014).

Other challenges to sustainability education include a lack of interest (Bean & Bernardi, 2007), a lack of resources (Matten & Moon, 2004) including those needed for ‘course development, teaching, updating content, and testing’ (Boulianne & Keddie, 2018, p. 72), a lack of support from senior management (Stone & Baldoni, 2006), and the absence of ‘deeply challenging conflicts’ between sustainability and accounting (Gray, 2013, p. 311). Rangarajan and Joshi’s (2019) study classified these challenges into three specific barriers: programmatic, institutional, and psychological. Institutional barriers have also been noted by other previous studies (Benn & Rusinko, 2011; Ceulemans et al., 2011; Matten & Moon, 2004), while Senaratne et al. (2022) identified isomorphic pressures – coercive, mimetic, and normative – in their examination of the inclusion of Integrated Reporting in Sri Lankan universities.

Sustainability education in the accounting curricula

Specifically examining accounting, the importance of sustainability education has been recognised (Bebbington & Dillard, 2007; Cowton, 2004) and linked to increasing students’ ethical thinking (Khan, 2013). Researchers have noted that the university accounting curricula should be sociologically-informed (Boyce et al., 2019) and include sustainability education (Botes et al., 2014; Hutaibat, 2019). However, while there has been guidance as to how a programme might incorporate sustainability (Cowton, 2004), over the years the delivery of sustainability education in accounting programmes has been limited. Mangion (2006) found ‘little consensus as to who will do the educating, how they will go about it, and what they will teach’. Over 10 years later, Boulianne et al. (2018) stated that ‘sustainability should be included in [the professional accountants] education program’ (p. 2), yet as noted by Rangarajan and Joshi (2019), a ‘continuum of pedagogical possibilities’ exists.

An interest in sustainability and its relationship to accounting and responsible decision-making needs to begin earlier than the accounting profession. The path to professional accounting starts in higher education, and for some students in secondary school, and thus these two levels of education also have a role to play. However, the higher education sector, and specifically universities, dominates prior studies in sustainability education in accounting.

Prior studies have noted that accounting has been slow to incorporate sustainability education (Khan, 2011) with Menon and Suresh (2020) finding that accounting as a discipline has embraced sustainability to a lesser extent than other disciplines. Sustainability education in accounting has been found to be delivered ‘on a very much ad hoc basis’ (Botes et al., 2014, p. 95) rather than with a holistic and inter-disciplinary approach (Denby, 2010; Hahn & Reimsbach, 2014; Milne, 2001). In a global examination of universities that had signed the Talloires Declaration, Khan (2013) found universities without a special topic course often only had a superficial level of embedded sustainability education in other accounting courses. Sustainability education in undergraduate accounting courses was also found to be insufficient in terms of depth in Australian universities (Mangion, 2006) and depth and integration in Botes et al. (2014) who surveyed both accounting academics and accounting graduates in New Zealand.

Instructors believe they lack the resources, knowledge, and experience to teach sustainability accounting (Botes et al., 2014; Boulianne & Keddie, 2018; Williams et al., 2010). This might explain the predominant focus of sustainability education in accounting on sustainability reporting and legitimacy and stakeholder theories (Khan, 2011, 2013) and why there is little discussion of concepts such as sustainability history (Khan, 2013). However, this does not explain the lack of inclusion of sustainability education in undergraduate accounting courses.

Khan (2013) found a relationship between the sustainability research expertise of accounting academics and postgraduate course offerings, but not undergraduate course offerings.

As well as examining the extent of sustainability education in accounting, prior studies have also explored the views of stakeholders (Al-Hazaima et al., 2021), effective ways to introduce sustainability-related content into accounting courses (Coulson & Thompson, 2006; Gusc & van Veen-Dirks, 2017; Hazelton & Haigh, 2010; Holland, 2004; Hutaibat, 2019), whether introducing sustainability education affected the emphasis placed on environmental performance (Wynder et al., 2013) and led to deep or surface learning (Hahn & Reimsbach, 2014; Senaratne et al., 2022), and the learnings from students and/or educators in specific accounting courses implementing sustainability education (Boyce et al., 2012; Hegarty et al., 2011; Wong et al., 2021).

Sustainability accounting courses were found in less than one quarter of accounting programmes in the United States of America and in Australia (Khan, 2011). Similarly, Khan (2013) in a global examination of universities that had signed the Talloires Declaration found that only four of 20 Australian universities had a course on sustainability accounting. A dearth of courses in sustainability accounting was also identified by Mangion (2006) and Botes et al. (2014) who argued that a lack of separate courses on sustainability accounting is indicative of ‘a lack of priority’ (p. 106). Contrary to this, is the view that there needs to be a holistic and interdisciplinary integration of sustainability education (Al-Hazaima et al., 2021; Denby, 2010; Milne, 2001), supporting an embedded approach combined with ad-hoc elective courses (Hahn & Reimsbach, 2014). Yet, as noted by Sisaye (2016), the holistic integration of sustainability requires evolutionary changes in the forces that shape accounting education.

Outside the higher education sector, no studies have been found examining the secondary school curricula, and Owen (2013), Boulianne et al. (2018) and Boulianne and Keddie (2018) are among the few studies to examine the professional accounting curricula (i.e. post-higher education). The motivations, challenges, and benefits of incorporating sustainability education in the professional accounting curricula of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) were explored by Owen (2013) with specific reference to Integrated Reporting. Boulianne et al. (2018) found that despite the French government requiring sustainability reporting and auditing, the government-funded French professional accounting education programme did not include much on sustainability. While Boulianne and Keddie (2018) found that the sustainability-related content in the Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) education programme does not align with the advocating of sustainability education in the accounting education programme.

Conclusions can be drawn from these prior studies that there is a dearth of sustainability education in higher education and in the professional accounting education programme, with many university accounting programmes offering sustainability education in elective courses. Further, there are a lack of prior studies exploring the full accounting curricula, and in particular secondary schools and professional accounting bodies. Thus, the extent and alignment, if any, of sustainability education in the accounting curricula is relatively unknown.

Sustainability in New Zealand

New Zealand has recognised the importance of environmental sustainability for some time with the introduction of the Resource Management Act 1991 and subsequent amendments (Resource Management Act, 2021). In 2004, The New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment noted the importance of sustainability education in the university curricula (Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, 2004). However, to date sustainability reporting and its assurance in any format has been voluntary for all organisations with little uptake over the years (KPMG, 2020). Recently changes to the corporate governance guidelines have been implemented that create increased accountability for sustainability actions. At the end of 2017, the New Zealand Exchange Corporate Governance Code (NZX Code) was updated requiring a listed issue to either ‘report on ESG factors and practices as part of its non-financial reporting, or if the Board of an issuer decides not to report on ESG, it must explain why this is appropriate’ (New Zealand Exchange [NZX], n.d.). The accompanying guidance note (NZX, 2020) calls for the use of consistent global standards in the Guidance Note, namely: Global Reporting Initiative; Integrated Reporting Framework; and the UN Global Compact. In early 2018, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) published a refreshed Corporate Governance Handbook, containing updates in areas including non-financial reporting and environmental and social governance reporting (FMA, 2018). Of further significance, is that in a world first, one of New Zealand’s most recent developments is the introduction of mandatory climate-related disclosures which will take effect for accounting periods that start on or after 1 January 2023 for approximately 200 large entities (Clark & Shaw, 2021; PricewaterhouseCoopers, n.d.).

Accounting education in New Zealand

Accounting education in New Zealand commences in the secondary school curricula, although students entering accounting programmes in higher education (i.e. universities, institutes of technology and polytechnics, private training establishments, industry training organisations, and wānanga) are not required to have completed accounting at secondary school. The New Zealand secondary school curricula is governed by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and accounting is included in the curricula for the last three years of schooling. Under the NZQA framework, achievement standards are specified, and teachers have some discretion as to what and how achievement standards are covered (NZQA, n.d.). There are eight universities in the higher education sector, all of which have an accounting programme that is jointly accredited by the two main professional accounting bodies operating in New Zealand – Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) and Certified Practising Accountants (CPA) Australia. CA ANZ and CPA Australia are each responsible for educating and examining their members. Accreditation specifies the subject areas that must be included in the courses in the accredited programmes and the learning outcomes that must be covered for accounting students seeking professional accounting body membership. At the time of data collection, there was no requirement for universities to include sustainability education in their accredited accounting programmes; however, changes to the accreditation guidelines that will take effect from 2022 include some references to sustainability reporting, ethics, and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Research questions

There is a lack of prior studies exploring the full accounting curricula, and in particular secondary schools and professional accounting bodies. Thus, the extent and alignment, if any, of sustainability education in the accounting curricula is relatively unknown. So too is, the extent, and development, of sustainability accounting education in New Zealand with key studies (e.g. Botes et al., 2014; Sharma & Kelly, 2014), conducted over five years earlier, focused only on student and lecturer perceptions.

In addressing this research gap, this research seeks to identify the status of sustainability education in the accounting curricula in New Zealand across the full spectrum of secondary school, university education, and the professional accounting education programme. This is achieved by addressing the following research questions:

• RQ1. What is the extent of sustainability education in the accounting curricula delivered at secondary school in New Zealand?

• RQ2: What is the extent of sustainability education in the accounting curricula delivered by universities in New Zealand?

• RQ3: What is the extent of sustainability education in the accounting curricula delivered by the professional accounting bodies in New Zealand?

Method

To address the research questions, in line with prior studies (e.g. Botes et al., 2014; Rangarajan & Joshi, 2019; Wu et al., 2010), archival data collection of the accounting curricula was examined for sustainability-related content using (web-based) quantitative content analysis. Boote and Matthews (1999, p. 20) comment that the use of content analysis allows an examination of ‘what educators actually do, not what they claim to have done’. Rundle-Thiele and Wymer (2010) support this claim. However, the unstated assumption is that there is curriculum alignment, i.e. alignment between the content and structure of the course (i.e. subject or paper) (Fraser & Bosanquet, 2006), and constructive alignment at the course level between the intended learning outcomes, assessment, and learning activities or content (Biggs & Tang, 2011).

Sampling

The research includes three New Zealand accounting curricula samples: secondary schools, higher education, and professional accounting bodies. At the secondary school level, all accounting curriculum information provided by the NZQA was included. A purposive sampling approach was used for the higher education sector with only the eight New Zealand Universities included in the final sample. The focus on universities, rather than other higher education providers is consistent with prior studies as noted above in the literature review section. The higher education sector in New Zealand also consists of several institutes of technology and polytechnics that offer similar accounting courses and programmes, however only some of these are accredited accounting programmes and thus to have a fair comparison between accredited programmes, these and other higher education providers were excluded. Further, only undergraduate accounting courses at universities were included as postgraduate accounting courses are not required for professional accounting body membership. An accounting course that is categorised to another discipline, for example accounting information systems classified as an information systems course, is not captured in the sample. A purposive sampling approach was also used for the professional accounting bodies, with the education programmes of the two professional accounting bodies that accredit the New Zealand higher education sector included – CA ANZ and CPA Australia. While other professional accounting bodies have active members in New Zealand (e.g. ACCA and CIMA), their membership is considerably lower than that of CA ANZ and CPA Australia.

Data sources and collection

The NZQA website, the websites of the eight New Zealand universities, and the websites of CA ANZ and CPA Australia were searched to locate the publicly accessible information sources containing accounting curricula for the 2020 academic year. This search led to the NZQA achievement standards being the source of data for secondary schools, while for both universities and the professional accounting bodies, course information provided on their public website, such as course outlines, and/or course descriptors, were used. Where a number of course components were missing from university websites, contact was made with the university. Two universities supplied course outlines. Further information from education providers was not sought but the prima facie validity of the data sources can be reasonably presumed due to the education providers being responsible for their own web content (Jorge et al., 2017).

A total of 20 achievement standards were identified for secondary schools, 96 undergraduate courses for universities and 14 courses for the professional accounting bodies. Information that was available in a downloadable format (i.e. a pdf document) was downloaded while web-based information was saved for future reference. Due to the variations in curriculum design at the different levels (e.g. schools can select which achievement standards they deliver) and the variation in curriculum information that is publicly available from different educators, not all information was available from all data sources.

This research extends beyond course titles and prescriptions as is common in prior studies (Jorge et al., 2017; Rangarajan & Joshi, 2019) to include the following course components: title (i.e. name), prescription (i.e. a concise synopsis or brief description of the course content), aims (i.e. a broad statement of educational intent indicating the overall goals of the course), learning outcomes (i.e. statements about what learners will know or be able to do at the successful completion), and structure (i.e. the various parts of the course such as modules and topics). These course components were chosen based on the notion of curriculum alignment and constructive alignment (Biggs & Tang, 2011; Fraser & Bosanquet, 2006). The relevant course information was extracted and saved in a spreadsheet for easier coding.

The curriculum information was searched for keyword frequencies which are assumed to be representative of the relative importance of concepts (Boulianne et al., 2018). A list of 62 keywords, shown in Table 1, was developed based on prior studies (Boulianne et al., 2018; Jorge et al., 2017; Rangarajan & Joshi, 2019; Wu et al., 2010), the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN, n.d.), the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) ESG Ratings Key Issue Framework (MSCI, n.d.), and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standards Materiality Finder (SASB, n.d.). The key words address sustainability, in its broadest sense, as well as environmental sustainability and social sustainability.

Table 1. List of keywords used for content analysis.

Sustainability
Accountability	Planetary boundaries
Anthropocene	Responsibility
Circular economy	Responsible
CSR/Corporate social responsibility	SASB/Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
Double materiality	SDG/Sustainable Development Goals
Ethical	Stewardship
Ethics	Sustainability
Fair trade	Sustainable
Governance	TBL/Triple bottom line
GRI/Global Reporting Initiative	Transparency
Integrated reporting	Transparent
ISSB/International Sustainability Standards Board	Value Reporting Foundation
Environmental sustainability
Biological	Green
Biodiversity	Land use
Carbon	Natural
Clean tech	Packaging
Climate change	Pollution
Emissions	Recycling
Ecological	Renewable
Energy	Resource management
Environment	Waste
Environmental	Water
Social sustainability
Community	Lifecycle/Life cycle
Culture	Philanthropy
Diversity	Poverty
Equality	Race
Gender	Responsible investment
Health	Social
Human rights	Social enterprises
Inclusion	Social impact
Labour	Society

Coding guidelines and a codebook were developed to ensure inter-coder reliability and replicability of the research. Prior to the final data collection, the coding guidelines and codebook were pre-tested. The pre-test involved two coders who were researchers with previous extensive content analysis coding experience. The coders were provided with a sub-sample of the university accounting curriculum information and asked to independently analyse the course components by identifying keyword frequencies, searching field by field, and keyword by keyword. The inter-coder reliability was calculated as 0.94. A discussion between the coders was held to identify the reasons for the minor discrepancies and the coding guidelines and codebook were modified accordingly.

The final coding process involved searching the curriculum information items field by field, keyword by keyword. A count of the keywords present was recorded. The context of the keyword was considered to ensure that double counting did not occur and that the use of the key term related to sustainability. For example, governance relates to corporate governance, while resource management excludes human resource management, and environment excludes changing business environment. This also resulted in the use of the term ‘responsibility’ as well as ‘corporate social responsibility’ to enable terms such as ‘social and environmental responsibility’ to be captured.

Results

Of the 62 keywords in Table 1, 32 occur in course components across the accounting curricula, as shown in Table 2. Five keywords occur in the secondary school accounting curricula, 29 keywords occur in the university accounting curricula, and 17 keywords occur in the professional accounting curricula. There were 30 keywords that had no occurrences across any level of the accounting curricula.

Table 2. List of keywords showing occurrence and non-occurrence.

Keyword occurrence	Keyword non-occurrence
Sustainability
Accountability	Anthropocene
CSR/Corporate social responsibility	Circular economy
Ethical	Double materiality
Ethics	Fair trade
Governance	GRI/Global Reporting Initiative
Integrated reporting	ISSB/International Sustainability Standards Board
Responsibility	Planetary boundaries
Responsible	SASB/Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
Stewardship	SDG/Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainability	TBL/Triple bottom line
Sustainable	Value Reporting Foundation
Transparency
Transparent
Environmental sustainability
Biological	Clean tech
Biodiversity	Ecological
Carbon	Emissions
Climate change	Energy
Environment	Land use
Environmental	Packaging
Green	Pollution
Natural	Recycling
Resource management	Renewable
Water	Waste
Social sustainability
Community	Culture
Equality	Diversity
Health	Gender
Lifecycle/Life cycle	Human rights
Poverty	Inclusion
Social	Labour
Social enterprises	Philanthropy
Social impact	Race
Society	Responsible investment

The results for each level of the accounting curricula, in order of keyword occurrence, are presented and discussed in the sub-sections below. When comparing curriculum levels, it is important to note that the number of courses reviewed at each level varies.

University

Just over half of the 96 courses in the undergraduate university accounting curricula analysed have keyword occurrences, as shown in Table 3. For six of the eight universities, 50% or more of their courses have a keyword occurrence. University of Canterbury has the highest number of accounting courses with a keyword occurrence (10 courses) while Victoria University of Wellington has the highest proportion of accounting courses with keyword occurrences (70% of their courses). Overall, keywords occur in a greater proportion of non-accredited courses than accredited courses, with only three universities having a higher proportion of keyword occurrence in their accredited courses.

Table 3. Accounting courses with keyword occurrence by university.

University	Number of courses analysed			Number of courses with keyword occurrences			Proportion of courses with keyword occurrence
	Accredited	Non-accredited	All	Accredited	Non-accredited	All	Accredited	Non-accredited	All
Auckland University of Technology	10	3	13	6	2	8	60.0%	66.7%	61.5%
Lincoln University	8	0	8	5	N/A	5	62.5%	N/A	62.5%
Massey University	7	5	12	1	2	3	14.3%	40.0%	25.0%
University of Auckland	10	2	12	3	1	4	30.0%	50.0%	33.3%
University of Canterbury	12	7	19	4	6	10	33.3%	85.7%	52.6%
University of Otago	9	1	10	4	1	5	44.4%	100.0%	50.0%
Victoria University of Wellington	8	2	10	6	1	7	75.0%	50.0%	70.0%
Waikato University	9	3	12	6	1	7	66.7%	33.3%	58.3%
Total	73	23	96	35	14	49	47.9%	60.9%	51.0%

Note: Accredited courses are required courses for students seeking professional accounting body membership and include core (compulsory) courses and courses where students can choose one course from a list of two or more courses (i.e. soft core).

The keyword occurrences are shown in Table 4, with several keywords having multiple occurrences across course components. The most popular keywords, at both a course level and in total, for both accredited and non-accredited courses, are social, ethics, sustainability, environmental, accountability, ethical, and governance with all other keywords occurring less than ten times.

Table 4. Keyword occurrences in university accounting curricula by keyword.

Keyword	Accredited courses		Non-accredited courses		All courses
	Course level	Total	Course level	Total	Course level	Total
Sustainability
Accountability	7	10	8	12	15	22
CSR/Corporate social responsibility	3	5	4	9	7	14
Ethical	13	14	6	7	19	21
Ethics	21	25	7	7	28	32
Governance	7	11	3	5	10	16
Integrated reporting	3	3	2	2	5	5
Responsibility	4	5	3	4	7	9
Responsible	0	0	1	1	1	1
Sustainability	9	9	10	20	19	29
Sustainable	0	0	2	2	2	2
Transparency	0	0	1	1	1	1
Transparent	0	0	1	1	1	1
Sub-total	67	82	48	71	115	153
Environmental sustainability
Biodiversity	0	0	2	2	2	2
Biological	1	1	2	2	3	3
Carbon	0	0	1	1	1	1
Climate change	0	0	2	2	2	2
Environment	2	2	0	0	2	2
Environmental	3	7	10	18	13	25
Green	0	0	1	1	1	1
Water	0	0	1	1	1	1
Sub-total	6	10	19	27	25	37
Social sustainability
Community	1	2	2	2	3	4
Equality	0	0	1	1	1	1
Health	0	0	1	1	1	1
Lifecycle/Life cycle	5	7	0	0	5	7
Poverty	0	0	1	1	1	1
Social	4	9	13	25	17	34
Social enterprises	0	0	3	3	3	3
Social impact	1	1	2	3	3	4
Society	3	3	2	2	5	5
Sub-total	14	22	25	38	39	60
Total	87	114	92	136	179	250

Note: Only keywords that occur in the courses analysed have been listed. ‘Course level’ refers to the number of course components (i.e. title, prescription, aims, learning outcomes, or structure) where the keyword occurred. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of times the keyword occurred (i.e. it accounts for multiple occurrences).

Table 5 shows the dominance of sustainability keywords across both accredited and non-accredited courses. There are more total keyword occurrences per course for non-accredited courses than accredited courses. University of Otago is the only university that has more environmental sustainability keywords than social sustainability keywords. University of Otago also has the greatest number of multiple keyword occurrences. These occur in non-accredited courses, with 25 multiple occurrences in the sustainability keywords, and 16 multiple occurrences in the environmental sustainability keywords. Auckland University of Technology also has 16 multiple occurrences of social sustainability keywords in their non-accredited courses.

Table 5. Keyword occurrences in university accounting curricula by keyword theme and university for accredited and non-accredited courses.

University	Sustainability						Environmental sustainability						Social sustainability
	Accredited courses		Non-accredited courses		All courses		Accredited courses		Non-accredited courses		All courses		Accredited courses		Non-accredited courses		All courses
	Courses	Total	Courses	Total	Courses	Total	Courses	Total	Courses	Total	Courses	Total	Courses	Total	Courses	Total	Courses	Total
Auckland University of Technology	5	25	2	22	7	47	1	4	1	6	2	10	2	5	1	16	3	21
Lincoln University	4	6	N/A	N/A	4	6	1	1	N/A	N/A	1	1	1	1	N/A	N/A	1	1
Massey University	1	1	2	2	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
University of Auckland	3	3	1	1	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1
University of Canterbury	4	6	6	15	10	21	0	0	1	4	1	4	1	1	2	9	3	10
University of Otago	3	6	1	27	4	33	0	0	1	16	1	16	1	2	1	10	2	12
Victoria University of Wellington	6	26	1	1	7	27	4	5	1	1	3	6	1	9	1	2	2	11
Waikato University	5	9	1	3	6	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	4	0	0	3	4
Total	31	82	14	71	45	153	6	10	4	27	8	37	9	22	6	38	15	60

Note: ‘Courses’ refers to the number of courses where the keyword occurred. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of times the keyword occurred (i.e. it accounts for multiple occurrences).

As shown in Table 6, three universities have less than 10 keyword occurrences in their courses. Overall, most keyword occurrences occur in the structure, followed by the learning outcomes and prescription. This holds for both accredited and non-accredited courses. The most multiple keyword occurrences occur in the structure. For one university, Massey University, keywords only occur in the learning outcomes, for example: ‘Evaluate ethical issues in business and accounting situations’. While for another university, Lincoln University, keywords only occur in the learning outcomes and/or structure, for example ‘biological assets’ is covered in the structure of one course while another course refers to ‘ethics’ as part of its learning outcomes.

Table 6. Keyword occurrences in university accounting curricula by course component and university.

University	Level	Course component
		Title	Prescription	Aims	Learning outcomes	Structure	Total
Auckland University of Technology	Course level	1	5	5	7	34	52
	Total	1	6	6	10	55	78
Lincoln University	Course level	0	0	0	4	4	8
	Total	0	0	0	4	4	8
Massey University	Course level	0	0	0	3	0	3
	Total	0	0	0	3	0	3
University of Auckland	Course level	0	1	1	1	2	5
	Total	0	1	1	1	2	5
University of Canterbury	Course level	2	7	4	11	6	30
	Total	2	7	6	11	9	35
University of Otago	Course level	1	10	1	8	17	37
	Total	1	15	1	16	28	61
Victoria University of Wellington	Course level	0	1	5	7	18	31
	Total	0	1	5	7	31	44
Waikato University	Course level	0	6	2	5	0	13
	Total	0	6	2	8	0	16
All Universities	Course level	4	30	18	46	81	179
	Total	4	36	21	60	129	250

Note: ‘Course level’ refers to the number of course components (i.e. title, prescription, aims, learning outcomes, or structure) where the keyword occurred. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of times the keyword occurred (i.e. it accounts for multiple occurrences).

For the other six universities, keywords occur in a combination of the prescription, aims, learning outcomes and structure. Keywords occur in the title for only three courses, one each for three universities. Of the remaining coverage, the most popular course components where sustainability keywords occur were the structure and learning outcomes, with 12 courses having sustainability keywords in the structure only.

Looking at the course components for the most popular keywords in more detail, as per Table 7, we can see that consistent with Table 6, most keywords occur in the structure, followed by the learning outcomes and the prescription, with any multiple references to a keyword occurring predominantly in the structure.

Table 7. Keyword occurrences in university accounting curricula by course component for popular keywords.

Keyword	Level	Course component
		Title	Prescription	Aims	Learning outcomes	Structure	Total
Ethics	Course level	0	5	4	7	12	28
	Total	0	5	4	7	16	32
Sustainability	Course level	2	4	2	5	6	19
	Total	2	6	2	9	10	29
Ethical	Course level	0	2	2	10	5	19
	Total	0	2	2	10	7	21
Social	Course level	1	4	2	3	7	17
	Total	1	6	4	6	17	34
Accountability	Course level	0	0	1	7	7	15
	Total	0	0	1	8	13	22
Environmental	Course level	1	2	2	1	7	13
	Total	1	4	3	4	13	25
Governance	Course level	0	2	0	3	5	10
	Total	0	2	0	5	9	16

Note: ‘Course level’ refers to the number of course components (i.e. title, prescription, aims, learning outcomes, or structure) where the keyword occurred. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of times the keyword occurred (i.e. it accounts for multiple occurrences).

As noted earlier, there are only three courses, all non-accredited, with keyword occurrences in the title. Table 7 shows that these courses have the keywords sustainability, social and environmental in their course title, with one course having two keywords in its title – social and environmental. These three courses account for a significant proportion (over one-third) of the keyword occurrences – 37.5% of the keyword occurrences at course level (66 out of 176 occurrences) and 44.9% of the keyword occurrences in total (110 out of 245 occurrences). Of the remaining coverage, the most popular course components where sustainability keywords occur were the structure and learning outcomes, with 12 courses having sustainability keywords in the structure only.

Professional accounting bodies

Almost all the courses (85.7%, or 12 out of 14) offered by the professional accounting bodies in their professional accounting curricula have keyword occurrences. The two professional accounting bodies had one course each which did not have any keyword occurrences.

The keyword occurrences are shown in Table 8. As can be seen by the difference between course level and total occurrences, the keywords ethical, ethics, and governance have multiple occurrences across the course components for some courses. For example, in the CA ANZ programme, the keyword ethical occurred at a course level four times, but there were multiple occurrences of the keyword in the course components – the keyword occurred twice in the learning outcomes for one course, and three times in the learning outcomes for another course.

Table 8. Keyword occurrences in professional accounting curricula by professional accounting body.

Keyword	CA ANZ			CPA Australia			Total
	Courses	Course level	Total	Courses	Course level	Total	Courses	Course level	Total
Sustainability
Accountability	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	3
Ethical	4	4	7	4	7	9	8	11	16
Ethics	0	0	0	7	12	17	7	12	17
Governance	0	0	0	6	11	22	6	11	22
Integrated reporting	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Responsibility	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Stewardship	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Sustainability	0	0	0	3	3	3	3	3	3
Sustainable	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Transparent	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	1
Sub-total	6	6	9	26	39	57	32	45	66
Environmental sustainability
Climate change	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Environmental	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Natural	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Resource management	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Sub-total	0	0	0	4	4	4	4	4	4
Social sustainability
Lifecycle/Life cycle	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	1
Social	0	0	0	1	2	2	1	2	2
Society	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Sub-total	1	1	1	2	3	3	3	4	4
Total	7	7	10	32	46	64	39	53	74

Note: ‘Course level’ refers to the number of course components (i.e. title, prescription, aims, learning outcomes, or structure) where the keyword occurred. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of times the keyword occurred (i.e. it accounts for multiple occurrences).

As can be seen from Table 8, the most popular keywords for the professional accounting curricula, at both a course level and in total, are governance, ethics, and ethical with all other keywords occurring less than ten times. Table 9 shows that most keyword occurrences occur in the learning outcomes for the CA ANZ professional accounting programme, while the CPA Australia professional accounting programme is dominated by keyword occurrences in the prescription and learning outcomes. Further, the results show that most keyword occurrences in the professional accounting curriculum occur in the CPA Australia courses, with one course providing most of the coverage.

Table 9. Keyword occurrences in professional accounting curricula by course component.

Course information	CA ANZ		CPA Australia		Total
	Course level	Total	Course level	Total	Course level	Total
Title	0	0	2	2	2	2
Prescription	0	0	20	33	20	33
Aims	0	0	7	9	7	9
Learning outcomes	6	9	10	12	16	21
Structure	1	1	7	8	8	9
Total	7	10	46	64	53	74

Note: ‘Course level’ refers to the number of course components (i.e. title, prescription, aims, learning outcomes, or structure) where the keyword occurred. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of times the keyword occurred (i.e. it accounts for multiple occurrences).

Looking at the course components for the most popular keywords in more detail, as per Table 10, we can see that the popular keywords occur mostly in the prescription and learning outcomes, with multiple occurrences of a keyword occurring predominantly in the prescription as shown by the difference between course level and total occurrences.

Table 10. Keyword occurrences in professional accounting programme by course component for popular keywords.

Keyword	Level	Course component
		Title	Prescription	Aims	Learning outcomes	Structure	Total
Ethics	Course level	1	7	2	1	1	12
	Total	1	12	2	1	1	17
Governance	Course level	1	6	2	1	1	11
	Total	1	13	3	3	2	22
Ethical	Course level	0	4	1	5	1	11
	Total	0	5	2	8	1	16

Note: ‘Course level’ refers to the number of course components (i.e. title, prescription, aims, learning outcomes, or structure) where the keyword occurred. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of times the keyword occurred (i.e. it accounts for multiple occurrences).

Only one course, Ethics and Governance, in the professional accounting curricula can be considered a special topic or sustainability-focussed course. This course accounts for 37.7% of the keyword occurrences at course level (20 out of 53 occurrences) and 43.2% of the keyword occurrences in total (32 out of 74 occurrences).

Secondary schools

The five keywords in the secondary school curricula appear in only two of the 20 achievement standards analysed. The keywords ethical, environment, and environmental occur once, and the keywords sustainability and community each occur twice – giving a total of seven course level occurrences (i.e. the number of course components where the keyword occurred) – while the keyword community is repeated in one course – giving a total of eight occurrences (i.e. the total number of times the keyword occurred). These keywords all appear in the course structure.

Discussion

The results show that there is sustainability education at all levels of the accounting curricula, albeit negligible in the secondary school curricula and unevenly distributed in the university and professional accounting curricula. The number of accounting courses at each curriculum level varies, as does the breadth of sustainability education from only five keywords occurring in the secondary school curricula, to 17 keywords occurring in the professional accounting curricula, and 29 keywords occurring in the university curricula. A wide variation in the sustainability education at New Zealand universities was found by Stone and Baldoni (2006) and the results of this research show this has not changed. Some of the keywords, such as ethics, may align with broad definitions of sustainability as noted by Wu et al. (2010). Taking this into consideration, this research finds that sustainability keywords including ethics and ethical, governance and sustainability dominate the university and professional accounting curricula and raise questions as to how specific the sustainability coverage is. Similarly, ethics, CSR and sustainability also dominated Wu et al.’s (2010) keyword list of the curricula of leading global business schools, and Jorge et al.’s (2017) study of MBA curricula.

In the secondary school accounting curricula, the extremely low level of keyword occurrence and the presence of keywords only in the structure, suggests that the focus of the curricula is on traditional accounting and sustainability education in accounting is immaterial and perhaps left for other disciplines. In the professional accounting curricula, sustainability has been given limited importance, especially by CA ANZ, and the results are dominated by a single sustainability-focused course. This aligns with the findings of Boulianne et al. (2018) and Boulianne and Keddie (2018) who also found limited coverage in the professional accounting curricula in France and Canada, respectively, with sustainability-related concepts covered in a broad way. Although keywords occur in the prescription and learning outcomes, they fail to appear in the structure of the professional accounting programme, which differs from the finding in the university curricula, where most keyword occurrences were found in the structure (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Total keyword occurrences by course component.

The above discussion indicates weak, or missing, curriculum alignment and/or constructive alignment (Biggs & Tang, 2011) which subsequently suggests a missing link between the knowledge and skill development and the assessment (Patterson, 2009), the inability to verify learning outcomes (von der Heidt & Lamberton, 2011, p. 682), and sustainability education that lacks depth (Senaratne et al., 2022).

In the university accounting curricula, sustainability education was found to be present at all universities, consistent with Botes et al. (2014). The number (proportion) of courses at each university that include sustainability ranges from 3 to 10 (25–70%). While this is similar to the 60% of courses that had sustainability coverage found by Owen et al. (1994) and the 71% coverage found by Stevenson (2002), this result lags behind Mangion’s (2006) Australian study which found 83% of courses had sustainability coverage, and Matten and Moon’s (2004) study which found 93% of courses had sustainability coverage. This supports the findings of prior studies that accounting has been slow to address sustainability education (Khan, 2011) and indicates that little progress has been made since the early 2000s.

This research identifies only three sustainability-focussed courses in the university accounting curricula, all non-accredited, and one at each of three universities. This is an increase on the number of these types of undergraduate courses identified by Botes et al. (2014) in their study of New Zealand universities, and the same number of courses, although a greater proportion, than that identified by Mangion (2006) in a study of 30 Australian universities.

The need for the university accounting curricula to undergo systemic change and holistically integrate sustainability has been noted (Al-Hazaima et al., 2021; Boyce et al., 2019). Specifically, finding effective ways to incorporate sustainability into the university accounting curricula has been discussed in prior studies, with a focus on either integrating sustainability throughout the curricula (e.g. Dagiliūtė & Liobikienė, 2015) or incorporating sustainability into elective courses (e.g. Ceulemans & De Prins, 2010). Regardless of which approach is taken, incorporating sustainability needs to be meaningful and efforts need to be made to avoid a shallow approach being undertaken (Lozano, 2010; Senaratne et al., 2022; Sterling & Thomas, 2006).

With specific reference to accounting, Wyness and Dalton (2018) argue ‘that sustainability should constitute a core module in all accounting programmes in the interests of students, the accounting profession, and society at large’. However, the results of this research, in line with Botes et al. (2014), show that the sustainability content in the university accounting curricula appears to be ad-hoc and unevenly distributed across courses.

With only three sustainability-focussed courses identified, the results suggest that the New Zealand university accounting curricula has attempted to integrate sustainability into a variety of courses. While this approach may have the advantage of enabling students to make better linkages between sustainability education and accounting (Botes et al., 2014; Boyce et al., 2012, 2019) than the use of elective courses, the driving factor may be quite different. The number of courses required to meet university regulations and the accreditation requirements of professional accounting bodies can often leave little room for other courses in an accounting programme. Thus, any new content, especially core content, often needs to be included in existing courses. One way to address this is to embed sustainability concepts into existing content, such as decision-making. This research finds that the sustainability education in the university accounting curricula predominantly occurs in non-accredited accounting courses, which are often elective courses for students. The establishment of these sustainability-focused elective courses appears to be the driving factor behind attempts to integrate sustainability education throughout the university accounting curricula with no curriculum alignment with the secondary school or professional accounting curricula. Further curriculum development is needed to increase the breadth and depth of sustainability education in accredited, or core, courses at universities, and increase the level of curriculum alignment within, and between, the curricula levels.

Conclusions, implications and future research

This research, in addressing the research objective to identify: At what level and in what courses sustainability education is included in the accounting curricula, has provided insights into the extent of sustainability education across the full spectrum of accounting curricula in New Zealand – secondary school, university education, and professional accounting bodies – by examining courses and their course components to identify where sustainability education is present. Using content analysis, what and where sustainability coverage occurs is highlighted, with a focus on the courses at each curricula level and the course components (i.e. title, aims, prescription, learning outcomes, and structure). The research finds that no level of the accounting curricula has extensive coverage of sustainability education, and any coverage is primarily focused on sustainability more broadly (as noted by the sustainability keywords).

The almost non-existent coverage of sustainability education in the secondary school curricula is likely to be a result of the focus on traditional accounting and low, or no, demand for modification to the school curricula. The extent of sustainability education in the professional accounting curricula is also mainly limited to three keywords, with one course providing over one-third of the coverage. Although the university accounting curricula has the most extensive coverage of sustainability education, there is plenty of room for improvement with varied and non-extensive coverage throughout the courses, including a focus on including sustainability education in non-accredited or elective courses. These findings show that the New Zealand accounting curricula is significantly under achieving with respect to sustainability education and producing accounting graduates at all three curricula levels that have had varied, and at times limited, exposure to sustainability in their accounting education.

The varied extent of sustainability education in accounting highlights a lack of alignment within the curricula at each level and across the three levels. Curriculum alignment is needed, not only at the course level, but also within and across each curricula level of accounting education. There is evidence of weak, or missing, curriculum alignment at the course level with many courses including sustainability keywords in the structure or learning outcomes, but not in the title, aims, or prescription. This may be reflective of the speed and ease with which specific aspects of a course can be changed and may also indicate a ‘tick-the-box’ or superficial approach to incorporating sustainability education into accounting courses. This raises concerns, not only about the extent, but also about the breadth and depth of the sustainability education accounting students are receiving at all levels of the curricula. While students at secondary school and university may be exposed to sustainability education in other disciplines during their education, the accounting courses they take are not necessarily exposing them to sustainability issues.

With the increased pressures on accountants to contribute to sustainability, collaboration between educators at secondary school, university (Roffe, 2010) and the professional accounting bodies is needed. However, there are challenges with this approach.

To increase the breadth and depth of sustainability education in the accounting curricula it is necessary to address the challenges, including ensuring course information correctly represents the course content; co-ordination between educators, professional accounting bodies, practitioners, standard setters, regulators; educators who do not have sufficient knowledge to deliver sustainability education; and the various approvals required for implementing and documenting curriculum modifications at each education provider and at government level. Collective responsibility and collaborative leadership are needed to effect change in the accounting curricula, and action needs to be taken to ensure there is investment into upskilling educators and supporting educators who have sustainability knowledge. The professional accounting bodies have, in both their professional accounting curricula and their continuing professional development, courses that would contribute to upskilling educators at secondary school and university. However, access to these courses is often restricted to provisional or full members. Providing access with reduced fees to non-members would be a step forward.

Given the influence that professional accounting bodies have on the university accounting curricula, they are also well positioned to take a lead role in improving sustainability education. At the time of writing, revised accreditation guidelines were being implemented in New Zealand and Australia, effective 2022. While these guidelines introduce sustainability into some of the competencies, they do not go far enough – there is no inclusion of an integrated approach to the curricula and there are multiple references to ethics but not sustainability.

The professional accounting bodies could support change in the secondary school curricula, as they have with universities, by advocating for a broadening of the focus of the curricula beyond traditional accounting. The professional accounting bodies could also play a key role in connecting teachers with practitioners and sustainability accounting researchers to support the delivery of sustainability education in the accounting curricula.

The world is facing sustainability challenges, there are changes in sustainability accounting practice globally, and mandatory climate-related financial disclosures and other sustainability reporting requirements have been introduced. Consequently, it is time for a serious and urgent examination of sustainability education in the accounting curricula.

Accounting curricula needs to keep pace with sustainability development if it is to contribute to the future relevance of the accounting profession. There is an opportunity for the professional accounting bodies to play a key role, but they need to get ready for the challenge.

This research is not without limitations. The findings and conclusions of this research are based on key course components, some of which were not publicly available on websites. In line with prior studies, course components were used as they represent ‘what educators actually do, not what they claim to have done’ (Boote & Matthews, 1999, p. 20). This assumes that sufficient detail is included in the publicly available course information to demonstrate what is covered in a course and there is curriculum alignment between the course components examined. However, if either of these assumptions is not valid, there may be higher levels of sustainability education in the accounting curricula than noted. The latter is likely to be less prevalent in the secondary school curricula due to the oversight of NZQA.

As some keywords represent aspects that could be business-related and not necessarily sustainability-related (e.g. responsibility), the context of the keyword was considered to ensure that the term related to sustainability. However, the limited course information available for some courses may have resulted in an incorrect contextualisation resulting in over- or under-representation of sustainability coverage.

The focus of this research was on the accounting curricula, and thus, only courses categorised as ‘accounting’ by NZQA were included in the secondary school curricula, and only undergraduate courses categorised as ‘accounting’ by the universities were included. Courses covering accounting content may be categorised differently by some universities, for example, accounting information systems may be categorised as an information systems course. If that was the case, it would have been excluded from the sample. Courses in other disciplines were outside the scope of this research. Despite these limitations, this research provides useful insights into the extent of sustainability education in the accounting curricula.

To explore the curricula further, the analysis of university education could be expanded to include postgraduate courses and courses in other disciplines that are taken by accounting students. To identify if the course components provide a good representation of the sustainability education offered and why some keywords are popular while others do not feature, future research could include a qualitative approach with interviews or surveys with educators at each level. The data collected could provide further insights into the sustainability coverage and the assessments used, as well as identifying the reasons why sustainability education is or is not being taught at each curricula level. Reasons to examine may include, among other things, a need for educators to be upskilled in sustainability accounting, a greater demand from the professional accounting bodies for sustainability education, and the speed at which changes in the curricula and the course components are possible. Further research also needs to be undertaken looking at curriculum alignment to identify how accounting education providers at each curricula level can work together to scaffold knowledge and competencies – see Flint et al. (2000) and Hill and Jones (2010) for a discussion. Insights into how professional bodies and practitioners can support curriculum alignment may be able to be found from examining other professions including property, engineering, law, and teacher training. Other interesting insights could be obtained from a post-analysis of the accounting curricula following the 2023 introduction of the mandatory climate-related disclosure requirements and the 2022 revised accreditation requirements in New Zealand.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).