Incorporating Sustainability into Accounting Education

This paper chronicles an action research project seeking to incorporate the principles of sustainability into higher education. Both researchers are lecturers in accounting departments in Australian universities and implemented changes in the accounting curriculum. Researcher one introduced sustainability-related material as part of a core technical unit and modified an elective unit which enabled students to further study sustainability. Researcher two modified an existing unit to enable students to critically evaluate their employment options. Both approaches had some success. However, a key difficulty encountered in both projects was the vocational orientation of the student cohort. We conclude that content considering ‘sustainability ’ needs framing in terms of employment-related skills if it is to attract a wide range of students. In the longer term, institutional and student paradigms must change in order for such offerings to be considered ‘core’