Accounting and auditing firms worldwide are placing a much stronger emphasis on the importance of business ethics within the industry. CUT is answering the call through course material and initiatives designed to ready their students for the “real world” by arming them with relevant, practical ethics education.

Winners of the CUT/PwC Business Ethics Project 2014

While entrepreneurial and professional skills are vital to good business, business ethics can make or break any affiliation.

To ensure that their students are able to make informed decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas once they join the workforce, CUT includes a compulsory Business Ethics module in the first semester of all B.Tech Programmes offered by the Department of Accounting Auditing.

This important and exciting module includes theoretical information on topics such as ethical decision making, resolving ethical dilemmas, social responsibility and corporate governance.

But the real beauty of the course is its practical component; an incentive-driven project devised in collaboration with international audit firm PwC. The project allows final year students in business ethics the opportunity to integrate their theoretical knowledge with real-life ethical dilemmas, with awards given for the best project presentations.

To partake in the project and awards, students form groups of six to eight members and select any topic related to a business ethics issue to work with. They then conduct extensive research and present their findings to an interdisciplinary panel of judges consisting of staff members from CUT, PwC and the University of the Free State. The best presentations are rewarded at the annual Business Ethics Awards function at CUT.

Over and above the practical experience gained from the project, students also benefit from being forced to work in groups, think laterally, learn to scour the South African and international media and debate vigorously on their chosen topic.

CUT PwC Business Ethics 2014: Interviews with the winners

CUT PwC Business Ethics 2014: ENRON

CUT PwC Business Ethics 2014: NSFAS

CUT PwC Business Ethics 2014: Copyright Issues