Teaching ethics in higher education

The importance of teaching ethics in professional degrees is well recognised, but what is less obvious is the rationale for this is, who should do the teaching and what the best approach to teaching ethics is. In this paper, it is argued that ethics teaching to professionals should not just concentrate on the professional code of ethics which pertains to their chosen field, but give students a wider appreciation of the place of ethics in their lives. It is argued that students need to learn about and become committed to the fundamental ethical principles which form the basis of the codes of ethics that they adopt. Although case study methods of teaching ethics provide the best approach to teaching ethics, the best equipped to provide a broad ethical education will be moral philosophers and ethicists working in collaboration with professional practitioners.