[sathjyot]

The original query here is whether ACCA, considered to be a masters level qualification, and MSc of UoL are recognizable qualification for the entry into a doctoral program.

In my understanding, although ACCA is a master level qualification, it is not a masters degree awarded by an academic institution, but a professional qualification just equivalent to a British Masters Degree. Yes, equivalency certificate from UKNARIC is available and could be legalised. Nonetheless, some universities shows reservation in granting admission under such situation. However, with UoL Masters, irrespective of the route adopted to gain the qualification, I am of the view that, you stand a better chance for securing an admission for a PHD in any university.

Good luck

[sathjyot]

My knowledge on the eligibility requirements for PHD in any university is limited. Please check with the university itself.

I my understanding, Since ACCA is a professional qualification and the standards of its final exams are equivalent to a British Masters degree, many universities do not recognise it as an academic award/degree.

To pursue a PHD, an academic masters degree may be required rather than a professional degree equivalent to the standards of a masters degree.

Good luck

[sathjyot]

You have to clear your dues and reinstate the membership status.

UKNARIC is possible to legalise (apostel). But when you apply with your membership certificate, they will validate it with ACCA before they issue the letter of equivalence.Since your status is non member, ACCA may not give a confirmation on your membership status.

To legalise the UKNARIC letter, you may have to find an approved individual in the UK. you can find one through on line. contact them by mail and transfer the appropriate fees. They will do it for you and send you back the same including the attestation of the country you are required to submit the same. I have gone through this exercise for my ACCA certificates as well as UKNARIC letter. you may contact this mail for notary services. enquiries@thenotarysolution.co.uk, Ms. Katie Beckett (Notary Public).

But, the first step is to reinstate your status as a member in ACCA records, without which nothing may be possible.

Good luck

[sathjyot]

@nizamsharaf said:
Thank you so much sathjyot for your insight and for responding!

The truth is always harsh! Has this been your experience so far?

Yes, this is my personal experience and I have migrated to Qatar after realising the fact that only humiliation waits for ACCA members. Interestingly, even many CAs in India have no clue about ACCA.

I agree that, students doing ACCA have increased in India, thanks to the cheap internet. However, if you give a closer look at the students who opt for ACCA, you will find that they are mostly the children of parents either working in Gulf or in other countries, as they aim to work any of these countries after being qualified. I have observed that in 2014 close to 30% of the ACCA passed finalists were of Kerala origin, the people who account close to 80% of the Indian Population in GULF.

Yes, CPA Australia, ICAEW etc has MRA with ICAI, where you have a chance to become the member of ICAI as well with few exams or reciprocal membership arrangements.

[sathjyot]

Hi Nizamsharaf,

Unfortunately, the prospects for ACCA qualified individuals in India is not very bright. Your chances of a decent job mainly depended upon the vacancies available in MNCs. Most Small and medium sized companies don’t even know what ACCA is and in my personal experience, nobody want to believe that ACCA is equivalent of CA of India.

The other disadvantage is that, if your experience is in finance and accounting role from gulf region, then you stand a chance to get rejected. You may have to take up a lower paying job since your experience in Gulf region in finance and accounting is considered incomparable.

I am sorry to be ruthlessly open as this is the stark reality. But you can always try for the best, and tables could change for outstanding individuals. I wish you all the best.

[sathjyot]

In my ACCA, your membership page has a link where you can directly download the letter of equivalence.

Alternatively you can apply to UKNARIC for a letter of equivalence with a charge of 20 pounds or so. These letters can be legalised as well.

I hope this helps

[sathjyot]

Yes, You are on your own. The main intention for the pathway 2 program itself is to prove that a student is capable to produce projects and coursework independently. However, there is an opportunity to discuss with other students and tutor/student relationship manager, where you can get your doubts clarified.

Wish you best of luck

[sathjyot]

Yes, Please post your queries in this forum or at the study section. Alternatively you can mail me your queries to my mail ID.

Please do not send me request for my submissions to UoL, as it is ethically wrong and I will not respond to such queries please. My apologies for my inability in this regard.

All the best

[sathjyot]

Hello,

I have recently completed MSc with merit and would like to share my experience for the prospective students.

SIFP:

This module consists of one course work and a final project.

Coursework:

This section of the module expects a student to have gained reasonable insight and ability to present a proposal for conducting an academic research study on a topic of their choice. The study material provided by UoL will guide the students to learn the structure and contents of such a proposal.

key: The requirement section of the coursework, which will be released approximately 1 month before the last date of the submission of coursework, is the most important piece of document a student must be referring constantly while he/she prepares the coursework. It is important that the proposal should not miss each of the requirement given and should be in sufficient detail. Although, a student is free to chose the format and structure of the proposal as long as the contents covers the coursework requirement, this section also provides an indication of the structure and format of the proposal a student may wish to adopt.

Final Project:

This is basically build upon the prior learning as regards to business/investment plan we had gone through in our ACCA studies. Students will first be exposed to a practical world scenario as a preparatory course leading to the completion of final project. This is done by creating students into groups with a maximum of 5 students in each group with the task of estimating the business plan for 5 years. This plan will be then compared with the actual results that the tutors have and each group will be ranked based on the best financial parameters, mainly ROCE. Each year of planning is done one by one starting from a week and each week is equivalent of one year and this will continue for 5 weeks before the Final project requirement is released. The group will be created by the Tutors and students’ geographical proximity with each other is considered for better communication between group members.

Please note that this is simply a simulation exercise and has no bearing on the grading of your final project, although each students’ involvement and dedication in the given study program may be closely monitored.

The final project is a case study, where the requirement will be mostly to prepare a detailed business plan including the financial estimations for 5 years. UoL will provide the financial spread sheet with past figures for us to work on.

GIFP:

This module consists of two course works and one final project with topics mainly revolving around BASEL (Banking), CSR, IFRS and the final project M&A (Mergers and acquisitions).

There is no group activity for this module and all the submissions are purely dissertations. Please note that the key to secure a pass is how much you understand the coursework requirement released and work on your answer in line with this requirement.

The key requirements as explained above in SIFP is relevant to this module as well.

Other key requirements for both Modules:

1. The ability to write essay with reasonable coherency in English is the key in both modules. Grammar, spelling and correct referencing, all will have a bearing on your final grade. Your writing ( 4000 to 6000 words each submission) should hang together as one piece, while you discuss various aspects of the topic throughout the essay.

2. Yes, you have to read lot, as you will have to refer journals for ideas and may reproduce the references and quotes from these journals to prove your point. However, it is not possible to read all the journals that may available for the topic to , but you can swift through it in order to understand the concept of the journal. The best way, in my experience, not to read a journal fully but still to get the concept and idea is to start with the conclusion and focus on the sub headings.

3. Beware of copying other’s work, UoL has an impeccable system to identify whether or not the work is your own.

With reasonable dedication and focused reading an ACCA student can definitely secure a pass, as the study material and tutor help and guidance provided by UoL is reasonable enough for a student to prepare for the final submissions.

Best of luck for all the students

[sathjyot]

Sales ————– 479,500

Less:
Cost of Sales—- (383,600) —- ( Purchases Less Inventory)
( 456,800 – 73,200)

————-

GP 20%
of Sales 95,900
========

So the inventory is 73,200

Hope this helps

[sathjyot]

F1-64
F2-50
F3-62
F4-50
F5-58
F6-65
F7-73
F8-51
F9-52
P1-60
P2-57
P3-53
P4-52
P5-55

[sathjyot]

Dear Alkemist,

It is good to see you everywhere in open tuition guiding students with your valuable inputs and sharing your experience. You are an inspiration and role model to a lot of students who are using this platform. During my ACCA studies you have been very helpful to me on number of my doubts.I thank you once again for your invaluable contribution.

I am currently in the first module of UOL Msc, pathway -2 started in July 2017 and the Icarus simulation is underway with the first course work submitted and awaiting grading.

I am curious to know the % of grades you were secured on each of your course work and final project, if you are comfortable to share. I believe this will give me an idea as to how I may be able to perform. Although it may not make any sense to you, I have some kind of calculations in my mind to form my chances of securing a pass % looking at your pass %. Sound weird?, Ignore it if you think it is nonsense.

Did your team ever came first in simulation competition?
How close you were to the real world figures with your estimated figures?
Is the final project on SIFP is about creating a financial model similar to the Icarus simulation model?
Is GIFP project similar to SIFP? Is an actual research need to be undertaken by us?

Lastly, Are you comfortable, if I can contact you on your personal mail Id, in case I need some additional guidance in this regard? , If ok, please send me a test mail to anisathjyot@gmail.com

Thanks once again

[sathjyot]

I used to pay my annual subscription on or before 31st of every January. Although it falls due by 01st January you have a grace period of 30 days. Now being a member of ACCA my membership renewal fee will fall due by the same date and will only pay before 31st January 2015.

I therefore recommend you t pay the annual subscription fees before 31st of January. It may be possible that your result may be withheld if there is any outstanding in your account during the release of exam results.

[sathjyot]

There are 2 attempts a year May and November. I am yet to experience the difficulty level as my first exam is scheduled in May 2015 and my studies are yet to start. From different forums of CPA students it is known that the level of difficulty is more or less equal to ACCA papers.

The foundation level has 8 papers which I am fully exempted by virtue of ACCA and 2 out of 6 from professional level. The papers I have to complete are Financial reporting, Ethics and Governance, Strategic business and leadership and 1 elective.

[sathjyot]

I can give exams from India, there is provision for that.

[sathjyot]

@snehag said:
Is it true that after a complete Indian CA degree one is exempted from certain papers in ACCA ??? My friend had askd me this… And I wasn’t sure… Please do respond as I am curious to know … Thankyou .

Yes it is true. You are exempted from all foundation and skill level papers that is f-1 to f-9 you have to, however, pass all essential papers in professional level and 2 electives.

To share a piece of my mind regarding what to do after ACCA, I have to say that it depends on your circumstances. Let me tell you my story.

I am an Indian resident and a full member of ACCA and now doing CPA (Australia), where I had exemptions except 4 papers, after this my objective to is to gain CA of India by the virtue of MRA between CPA (A) and ICAI.

If you ask me why this long route, I have to tell you that there is no route or exemption available in ICAI exams for those who are a member of another professional body with whom ICAI has no MRA or MOU. In this circumstances if I want to complete ICAI, then I will spend at least 5 years to gain the CA status.

In India other than CA of India, equivalent qualifications from other countries are not recognised by most employers except some multinational companies and big four audit firms. ACCA could not so far strike a deal with ICAI, while ICAEW and AIA from UK has inked a MOU with ICAI. If my understanding is correct AIA is not a IFAC member body.

[sathjyot]

Which certificate you are talking about?. Professional level completion certificate or the Ultimate ACCA member certificate?

Professional level completion certificate, if it is available in your MyACCA, then it means you are still an affiliate and therefore not yet eligible for Member certificate. Members’ My ACCA page does not contain print a certificate option.

Of course, you will get the hard copy of professional level completion certificate. I did not get it by post for some reasons and I had requested for a fresh copy, they have recently posted it and sent me a PDF copy yesterday, since it is not available in my ACCA page as I am a full member and my member certificate also received by post a couple of weeks ago.

[sathjyot]

Not clear that whether or not you are admitted to membership of ACCA, which requires along with completion of all exams, achieve 3 years practical experience and completion of professional ethics module.

Assuming that you have achieved membership status, I believe, you should be job ready. According to me you might not be sitting before the right employer or for the position that matches your experience. Probably the CV may have to be well prepared and presented. It could also be possible that you under perform in an interview. I think you must get these things right. In order to know whats going wrong, you may seek help from a professional career consultant or may be your friend who is successful in his/her career and you think he/she does things always right.

Obtaining a qualification is just half the story, which would help, in most instances, a person to be eligible to apply for jobs. The factors that counts from shortlisting to secure the job are dependent on above discussion. Retaining the job is another most difficult thing as you have to perform well in the assignment applying the skill and knowledge gained from the qualification and keep updating the professional knowledge in order to be competent and present day relevant.

I am of the opinion that you may please do not allow your mind to wander in the ACCA qualification alone and do not take the posts and literature of ACCA talking about the benefits of ACCA member ship very very seriously and remain to wait for an automatic flow of benefits without doing anything from your end as suggested above.

I wish you all the best

[sathjyot]

I think slodoanm would like to know whether or not he may have to make any payment in the subsequent year of admission to membership.

I believe yes. let me explain you.

The first time you pay 205 GBP is the member admission fee and during the year of such payment we don’t have to pay anything beyond that.

Irrespective of the date of such payment is made in immediately previous year, one has to pay membership subscription fee in the following year, as ACCA financial year is calendar year.

I hope I am right on this.

[sathjyot]

First of all what I am unable to figure out is the logic behind the paradigm shift you are trying to make in your career. Pharmacy to Accountancy!! Hmmm quite a big leap. isn’t it??? What I think perhaps make a better sense is, if you currently not working in a role of accountant, before you decide this shift is to try and identify from where did you pick up this interest in accountancy suddenly.

Regarding opportunities in India for an ACCA qualified person, I am highly skeptical, small to medium sized companies in India do not consider ACCA as a qualification equivalent to CA of India, even most CAs in India have no idea about this qualification and few of them asked me what is this qualification all about etc? However the irony is that Indian CA syllabus is highly outdated and not globally relevant, a fact admitted by its president recently and initiated sea changes to its syllabus effective from 2016. The IFRS and IAS (International auditing standards) convergence are already commenced a couple of years ago and the syllabus has extensive disconnect to this regard.

Short to medium term I do not see small and medium sized employers are even making any effort to know about this qualification, but in the long term they will have no option but to recognize this qualification.

There is a good number of students now in India ( about 3000 as on March 2014) and 234 members for ACCA. Incidentally most students are in the southern region of India, especially Kerala state. The last session out of 46 members more than 26 members were from this state. As you may be aware (or by yourself probably a keralite) a large chunk of kerala population is working in the middle east, where this qualification is widely accepted.

I would say that the chances are bright for an ACCA, not in the short term in India generally. However it is up to you how would you convince the potential employers, which I do whoever I come across with no idea about what a professional qualification is all about. I give hereunder a detailed letter I sent to one of the CFO (CA of India) who questioned that ACCA is not an equivalent qualification to ICAI.

“ACCA is equivalent to qualification of CA in India. When I say equivalency of a qualification it means that the knowledge, expertise, and skills that are gained by a CA of India by his/her studies of ICAI, equals with an individual who gained ACCA and for that matter, we will have to say that all professional accountants (professionally qualified accountants known in different designation in different countries, cor eg. CPA in the US) in this universe possess same level of knowledge, expertise and skills, except country specific statutory laws and tax rules. The financial & management accounting principals, terminology and concepts, the underlying theories of preparing financial statements (P&L, BS), and theories, concepts and techniques involved in financial management, for eg. working capital management techniques, NPV analysis, project appraisals, risk management techniques etc , are not at all to a great extent country specific but common across the world and this is what professional accountants study for their exams in all accountancy bodies across the world. and then put in practice

The only draw back when you have foreign accountancy body membership, if you are intended to practice in your home country is that, you will not be able to conduct public practice, which means you can not take up audit assignments and therefore cannot certify financial statements. The members of ICAI who are working in industry as employee is also not authorized to do such things. And most people who acquires a foreign accountancy membership like me has no intention to do public practice.

The CA course through out the world will have syllabus contains the same learning objectives with papers such as taxation, and corporate law differs regionally. ACCA and CPA only are in best of my knowledge offers students to take this papers of their choice and have an international variant paper. The examinations are paper based and other requirements like practical experience are similar to CA of India.According to me ACCA covered International auditing practices and standards, management accounting, and business management more than any of their other counter parts..

ACCA has presence in most countries in the world with globally relevant syllabus that updates every year and also offers country specific variant papers for taxation, financial reporting and corporate law. I chose global variant for corporate law and financial reporting and taxation UK. The reason being since I have been working in India for more than 2 decades, my exposure to India specific matters was adequate. Also there is not much difference in the taxation and corporate law between these two countries. ( I have enclosed a global magazine called The accountant that will shed light into various aspects of accountancy bodies in the world. Please refer from page no. 18) You can find that there is no such country where ACCA is not present and in some countries they are only 2nd or equal to the local bodyin terms of members and students.

The ICAI curriculum currently is not globally competitive and contemporary and therefore they are planning to make drastic changes to their curriculum from 2016 (enclosed a report in this regard).

ICAI also offers membership to ACCA members who are a foreign citizen of India (The notification of ICAI is enclosed)

Most ACCA members in India have employed with big 4 audit firms, standard chartered bank, shell Ltd etc. (www.accaglobal.com)

To summarize I wish to state that a professional accountant is an individual who is a member of a professional accountancy body and known as professional accountants (chartered accountants in India they are known). In that line I can say that I am a chartered accountant qualified from ACCA (UK). For eg. if you go to any job portal and when you select your qualification section as CA then it will list out the name of institute you are qualified from and ACCA is very much in that list.

I made this submission only to prove my point that ACCA is equivalent to ICAI as a qualification in the field of professional accountancy. ”

I hope this may help

[sathjyot]

The statutory auditor of the company was my work place mentor and he certified all my PERs and he had access to my account. The process in my case worked in following way:-

Step-01 : Got the Auditor registered as my work place mentor upon my request.
Step-02 ; I answer challenge questions and submit
Step-03 : Auditor receives my answers
Step-04 : He discusses it with me for certain clarifications
Step-05 : He Sign off the answers and the mail goes directly to ACCA
Step-06 : I receive a confirmation mail from ACCA that my submission is signed off by my work place mentor.
Step-07 : In a day or two relevant performance objective element is shown as achieved against it on the ESR.
Step -08: Once you complete all the performance objectives the progress to membership section on ESR will show that practical experience – completed.

I am unable to comment on the paper submission as I haven’t done that.

I do not see any inappropriateness in signing off the PER at one go, if you are experienced and your auditor closely work with you, who is very well aware of your expertise, abilities and knowledge prescribed in the PER.

My PER was signed off by a single auditor, who was the statutory auditor of my company where I was working during the completion of my PER. I did not see the necessity of going back to previous work place mentors, as what is important is whether or not the present work place mentor is supervising or happens to be in a reasonable position to know what you are doing in the company where he audits. The natural process of this situation will be during the audit procedures, as most performance objective elements are a testing component in a statutory audit as well. If you are heading finance and accounting of a company, the natural choice would be the auditor, I believe.

Regarding NED, I doubt she may agree to this first, and secondly it may be inappropriate to choose an NED as work place mentor, as they do not involve themselves in the day to day affairs of the company, except be present in board meetings and audit committee meetings or other matters that may deem fit an normally do not have reporting subordinates. Going by this meaning ACCA may not accept this as suitable work place mentor, I believe.

I hope this helps.

[sathjyot]

I am afraid you are ill informed about the qualification of work place mentor. Your work place mentor need not be a qualified accountant recognized under relevant law of the country of your residence. If your work place mentor is someone who is not in a position to certify your job and not capable to advise on the need for improvements, for eg., if you are reporting directly to the MD of the company, who is not an accountant and his profile is not exclusively handling the accounting and finance of the company (not necessarily be a qualified accountant), then your PER can be certified by the auditor of your company or a qualified accountant providing consultancy services to your company.

A qualified accountant recognised by law of your country of residence means those individuals who are members of an accountancy body set up by the act of government in your country or a body/institute recognized by the government, whose members are authorized to conduct audit of financial accounts, issue audit reports and certify financial statements of a company.

There are mechanisms in place for ACCA to verify whether or not your work place mentor meets the criteria set by ACCA. If your work place mentor is a qualified accountant in the country of your residence, then ACCA may verify his credentials with the local body. The certification process is through your work place mentor’s personal/ /official mail ID that would be sent directly to ACCA, which you have no control of. The section where your work place mentor register for this, have fields to fill in to establish the qualification with reference that ACCA may use to counter verify if the need arises.

In my case, I have been working with various organisations as head of finance and accounting for the last 15 years and therefore my PERs were certified by the respective auditors (a qualified accountant as per law of the country of my residence) of those companies.

I hope this helps.

[sathjyot]

John, Does this mean that only students who are working major accountancy firms will be entitled to enroll for ICAEW exams?? or you mean to say that students would be doing their 3 year article ship (as they call in India for ICAI) in any one of the CA firms whereas ACCA students need not necessarily working with an audit firm.

In such case do you mean to say that those students who are working with audit firms stand a better chance to crack the exams be it ACCA or ICAEW??

I doubt, because in India it is compulsory that you have to do 3 year article ship (experience) with an audit firm and post completion of article ship only you will be allowed to sit for final exams of ICAI. You will not believe that the pass rate for the last session was 9%!!!!!!. It never crossed 15% in the 60 year history of ICAI exams. ICAI even provide the copies of evaluated scripts to the students to identify their weaknesses to better prepare for future exams. The exam structure is group and only aggregate mark need to be 50%, where the pass mark for one subject is 40%. The syllabus of ICAI is not globally relevant (the reason why I never tried this qualification) , the fact recently admitted by its president Mr. Raghu and they are effecting sea change to the syllabus from 2016.

While I agree to your points, I would like to believe that ACCA exams are a notch higher in terms of standard, relevancy and toughness that will ultimately benefit the students.

[sathjyot]

kterriq,

You have to answer those by yourself. This section is designed to test your practical knowledge certified by your immediate boss to establish its veracity. As a qualified accountant you should not initiate any action to achieve this without any effort from your end.

And I am sure you will not get any answers from this forum, as seeking this service openly is equal to seeking permission for copying in ACCA exams.

I hope you understand the matter. I wish you all the best

[sathjyot]

I can easily say that OT’s resources and services have immensely helped me pass most of my ACCA exams. I always thought a nominal fees to access these resources would have helped OT to provide a full fledged ACCA tuition platform and no student would have complained.

Of course there would be possibilities of pressure to perform as there is no limit to a rock bottom fees. In the current format it can only improve and can simply perform without pressure and competition.

I take this opportunity to salute Mike, Jhon and Gromit and the entire team OT for their stupendous and quality job. I think ACCA cannot ignore this services for a long time and I hope a deal will be inked to collaborate for the benefit of students in the future.

I thank from the bottom of my heart once again to OT

[Author]

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