Instrumentos financeiros: nível de aderência curricular dos cursos de graduação em Ciências Contábeis

Abstract

Companies are increasingly using financial instruments to manage financial risks. The operations related to financial instruments are complex and the access to their content by the students, future professionals, can reflect in the professional performance of the accountant regarding the accounting treatment of these instruments and the preparation of the financial statements. In this sense, the main objective of this research is to verify the degree of adherence of the curricular content of the subjects included in the PPPs and/or of the discipline records of the undergraduate courses in Accounting Sciences of the Brazilian IESs, to the items of the technical pronouncements and orientations of the CPC on financial instruments in the light of institutional isomorphism, which is a useful tool for understanding the forms of structures that permeate organizations. To reach this goal, the work was developed in two stages. First, the Brazilian accounting courses were surveyed. The sample of the study was made up of presential undergraduate courses in Accounting Sciences that had a note in the ENADE and published their pedagogical projects and/or discipline fiches on the IES website, totaling 250 courses. Afterwards, the adhesion index was calculated through the application of a data collection instrument composed of 40 items (questions). Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis statistical tests were applied to test the isomorphism of the degree of adherence of the courses. A complementary analysis was also carried out to identify possible determinants of the level of adherence of the course. Regarding the explanatory variables, the following characteristics were considered: administrative category, academic organization, minimum course load, course age, ENADE grade, IDHE, planted area of the federative unit of the course, type of document (PPP or discipline record), MEC quality concept and discipline (accounting or finance and the like). The main results show that most courses (55.1%) offer content on financial instruments in the disciplines of Advanced Accounting, Financial Institutions Accounting and Financial and Capital Markets, according to the National Content Proposal of the Federal Council of Accounting, indicating the presence of coercive isomorphism among IESs, as to the disciplines that offer content. They show that the level of adherence of the courses, considering all questions of the instrument of data collection, was on average 4.1%, considered low. In addition, they show that half of the items of the instrument used are not included in the pedagogical projects and/or subject sheets of the courses. Moreover, the 140 courses observed in relation to the adherence index, statistically, do not differ if compared by administrative category, academic organization, geographical region and MEC quality concept. It is suggested, therefore, the existence of mimetic isomorphism among IESs in relation to the adhesion index. Finally, with the accomplishment of the multivariate analysis, no determinants of the degree of adherence of the courses were identified, except that, on average, the level of adherence obtained by the pedagogical projects is lower than those coming from the discipline fiches. As an impact in the area, the results of the study may motivate the improvement of the curricula of the IES to be more aligned with the accounting regulations of the country in relation to the accounting treatment of the financial instruments in the preparation of the financial statements.