Undergraduate education in social and environmental accounting in Australian universities

Historically, the discipline of accounting has focussed on an organization's financial aspects. Incorporating information about organizations' social and environmental interactions into the accounting function has become a contemporary feature of 21st Century business. Consequently, there have been numerous calls from academics and practitioners alike for the education of accountants to encompass instruction in social and environmental accounting (SEA). In this paper the results of an exploratory study into the extent of SEA education in Australian universities are presented. The survey employed in this study elicited information on the extent of, content of, and influences on SEA education in Australian universities. Results of the study, although predominantly descriptive in nature, reveal substantial similarities with other (western) countries, although the existence of a time-lag is apparent.