A percepção dos alunos do curso de Ciências Contábeis da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU) sobre accountability e observatório social

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the understanding of the students of the course of Accountancy at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU) in the first semester of 2018, on concepts related to accountability and Social Observatories. Considering that accountability is related to the practical nature of Accounting, settle accounts and responsible for the information produced, and that Social Observatories are organizations with the attribution of collecting data, monitor, seek ways to punish irregularities and carry out educational actions. The concern that delimited the problem of this research arises: to understand how the students understand these two concepts and how they perceive that they were approached during their formation. For that, an descriptive study was carried out with a quantitative approach. The sample was selected in a non-probabilistic way, collected through the application of a questionnaire with 31 closed questions and 6 open questions. Despite the limits of the research, it was observed that most students did not know what the Social Observatories were, but they knew more about accountability, and most of them recognized their teaching during graduation, especially in the 6th period in the subject of Accounting Theory. In general, the students recognize the role of participation in the exercise of social control, they don´t know the laws that regulate the settle accounts and responsibility of the public administration and do not access transparency portals. However regardless of the way of teaching, the research indicated that there are no strategies to promote the teaching of accountability and Social Observatory in the scope of graduation.