| The
Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Undergraduate Courses
A Survey of Current Practice
By
Grace F. Johnson
AUGUST
2005 - The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOA) and its ability
to make substantive improvements in corporate financial
reporting is an important subject for accounting educators
to incorporate into their undergraduate courses. Students
must be made aware of the consequences of SOA, its effects
on accounting practice, its impact on corporate information
systems and business processes, and how it has altered management
decision making. A survey was conducted to provide insight
into the teaching approaches that are used to integrate
SOA into undergraduate accounting courses.
Data-Gathering
Approach and Methodology
Information
was gathered from December 2003 through April 2004 from
course documentation found online. The syllabi and course
schedules for 61 accounting courses were examined to determine
how much coverage was given to SOA. Of the 61 institutions,
64% were public and 36% were private. In addition to this
content analysis, the instructors for nine courses responded
to specific follow-up questions about teaching techniques,
assignments, or projects that were in their syllabi or course
schedules.
Two
caveats for interpreting the results are that faculty did
not always list every topic on their syllabi and course
schedules, and that not all instructors make their syllabi
and course schedules available on the Internet. Nonetheless,
the results provide a glimpse of current practice in a sample
of undergraduate accounting courses.
Exhibit
1 identifies the disciplines represented by the 61 courses
in the study. Nearly one-half of the courses in Exhibit
1 were related to auditing, with a smaller number of courses
in the financial reporting and accounting information systems
areas.
Teaching
Methods and Assignments
Exhibit
2 summarizes the teaching methods, with regards to SOA,
employed in the 61 courses; multiple methods were identified
for some courses.
Nearly
46% of the syllabi or course schedules included SOA as a
topic for class coverage or discussion. Approximately one-third
of the faculty used one or more sources of reading materials
(textbooks, Internet sites, white papers, and journal or
newspaper articles) for their courses. Almost one-fourth
of the faculty assigned research and a paper on SOA. These
papers ranged from short, one-to-two-page summaries to longer,
six-to-eight-page analyses. Less than 5% of the syllabi,
however, explicitly listed the development of an understanding
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a course objective or competence.
Observations
Accounting
educators are familiar with the skills and capabilities
of their students and can determine the most effective ways
to cover SOA, including lecture, class discussion, or more
detailed research or written or oral presentations. Suitable
materials for classroom use and research can be found in
many textbooks, newspapers, journals, and other professional
resources.
Grace
F. Johnson, CMA, CPA, is McCoy Professor of Management
and Accounting in the department of economics, management,
and accounting at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio. |