Contents and Methods: The Reference and Enlightenment of ACCA Professional Ethics Education to China

Aug 29, 2026

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Accounting professional ethics has become a core course for accounting training, yet in Chinese universities its development began relatively late and still lags behind social progress. Implementing the new national education quality standards in practice is therefore urgent. Drawing on ACCA’s well-known qualification framework, the moral module’s content and examination structure offer reference value for professional moral requirements, course design, and assessment methods in China’s context.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

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Introduction

The necessity of professional ethics education in the training of accounting talents in colleges and universities

Professional ethics as a behavioral guideline and its role in accounting talent training

Influence of licensing examinations and policy-driven ethics cultivation

ACCA practice exam on the cultivation of professional ethics

Basic elements of professional ethics

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 610 Proceedings of the 7th Annual International Conference on Social Science and Contemporary Humanity Development (SSCHD 2021) Contents and Methods: The Reference and Enlightenment of ACCA Professional Ethics Education to China Jinjian Yang* and Zhedong Hu Accounting School of Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China *[Corresponding author. Email: yjj@wtu.edu.cn](Corresponding author. Email: yjj@wtu.edu.cn) ABSTRACT Although Accounting Professional Ethics has become a core course in the training of accounting professionals, the professional ethics education of accounting professionals in Chinese universities started relatively late, relative to the social development is a little behind. How to implement the new national education quality standards into practice is also very urgent. As the most well-known ACCA examination for accounting qualification in the world, the content and examination of the moral module have much to be used for reference in the aspects of professional moral requirements, course design and examination methods. Keywords: Professional Ethics Education; ACCA; accounting personnel training. 1. INTRODUCTION Despite the international trade frictions and the rise of national protectionism over the past two years, globalisation and internationalisation are still the order of the day. Standards and rules systems are gradually converging and permeating each other. China's socialist modernisation started later than that of developed Western countries and is still learning from the more mature international system in many areas, especially in accounting-related systems, such as the recent hotspot of personal tax reform, which reflects more humane and individualised differences in standards and is a good example of convergence with the international system. Against the backdrop of rapid economic development and the fast-track construction of systems in the country, the professional ethics of accounting staff have not kept pace, and breaches of professionalism have occurred repeatedly. Financial fraud is still widespread, and even as an independent third-party auditor, significant malpractice is often exposed by the media. It can be said that the improvement of the overall business quality of financial personnel and professional ethics have not been parallel. The proportional growth of the international Big Four firms with 20% of their business each year is not just a reflection of the higher quality of their business compared to domestic firms, but also of their higher professional ethics and the image of impartiality and professionalism they have established in society and the market. According to Lagarde, "A system with a higher level of ethics is a more stable system. Because ethics breeds trust. And a more stable system leads to more sustainable growth." (Christine Lagarde, 2017) [1] 2. THE NECESSITY OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS EDUCATION IN THE TRAINING OF ACCOUNTING TALENTS IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES Professional ethics is a guideline for employees to judge whether their behavior is correct or not. An excellent enterprise depends on good professional ethics of employees. The professionalism of accounting staff and their contribution to the value of the enterprise should be proportional, as pointed out by President Li Shichang of Beijing East Asia International Technical Training Center (Li Shichang, 2008), the value of enterprise employees = professional ethics ×innovation ability + education + professional qualification + scarcity. [2] It can be seen that employee's professional ethics and innovation ability are equally important. As a professional profession, the accounting profession has been deeply influenced by the licensing examinations (primary, intermediate, advanced and Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. This is an open access article distributed un

FAQs

Why is professional ethics education considered necessary for training accounting talents in Chinese colleges and universities?

Professional ethics serves as a guideline for employees to judge whether behavior is correct. The text also notes recurring professionalism breaches and a mismatch between business quality improvement and professional ethics development.

How is ACCA related to the professional ethics education discussion?

The document treats ACCA’s moral module as a globally recognized examination and curriculum model, whose content and assessment methods can be referenced for China’s professional moral requirements, course design, and evaluation approaches.

What policy approach does China’s Ministry of Education take toward professional ethics cultivation?

It places professional ethics education at the first article of talent training from the viewpoint of professional standards, and adopts “accounting ethics” as a core professional course, reflecting the importance emphasized by the times.

Aug 29, 2026

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