ACCA Masters with University of London

ACCA sent out an email about the MSc in Professional Accountancy with University of London out today. Unfortunately, very little information is available yet from https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/campaign/msc-professional-accountancy.html

It seems that there will be two paths to ACCA: all require the fundamental ACCA exams and the 3 essential professional papers, but then you can choose between the two optional ACCA papers (ACCA route) or 3 MSc courses (MSc route).

I guess those going the MSc route won’t quality as auditors since the MSc doesn’t include the audit exam. (Presumably, you could take the ACCA audit exam in addition to the MSc courses in order to quality.)

I wonder about the cost of going the MSc route. The 3 essential P exams count as 90 credits (hopefully for no extra cost), leaving you to do 90 credits via 2 MSc courses and 1 MSc project. Looking at the OuL web site, a course at MSc level appears to be around 1260-1450 GBP. Assuming we only have to pay for the 3 courses we take, that’d be in the 3800-4400 GBP range, which wouldn’t be bad for a MSc.

UoL only does exams once per year, but you only have to do 2 MSc courses. (Hopefully the project can be done any time.)

The course is through University College of London (UCL). UoL and UCL have a good reputation, so this MSc might be quite attractive.

Note that there’s a lot of guessing in this posting… I hope ACCA will post details soon.

OpenTuition staff: do you have more information than what’s currently available from the ACCA web site?

To be honest I saw news article in January about new initiative, but the link from above is something new for me. If you get any additional information please post.

good to hear that and hope it comes to pass.the cost is an issue thinking of how much it will cost.
It is the cost that will determine its attractiveness so equivalent to ACCA PRICE good for us all

The cost will be £1,300 per module so £3,900 in total. Got this information from the admission team at UoL.

From what I understand, there is no need to “opt in” to study this Msc. The admission criteria is to pass all F papers. So in order to start the course, you need to first finish all the F papers then join.

The essential papers are P1-P3 are 90 credits for the Msc and then 3 modules instead of the optional papers. that’s 90 credits for approx 300 pounds and then 3900 pounds for the other 90 credits.

or you could complete do your optional papers for 100 pounds per paper get qualified.

@Avnish “Also £1,300 per module sounds reasonable considering that tuition fees for the P papers are substantially more than this.”

how is £1,300 is less than £100?

Professional:
P1, P2, P3 (and any two from P4, P5, P6 and P7) Early £103 £104
Standard £111 £112
Late* £266 £268

sorry, i self study so my exam fees/subscription fees/ and books are my only expense.

https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/ACCA_Global/Assets/campaigns/msc-student-pathway.pdf

Hi Everyone

Thank you very much for all the updates on this forum. I see the last update was on the 30 April 2015 and I was wondering if anyone has managed to establish what the pricing for the MSc modules will be?

I am unfortunately in the same, if not worse, situation as Latoyah in terms of affordability. While a cost of GBP1300 per module may look affordable or attractive to many, it is to a huge extent expensive if you consider the fact that I am studying in South Africa and my studies are self funded. This costing equates to a total of R70 200.00 for the three modules which unfortunately, at this stage is 23.4% of my total cost to company per annum. You can imagine the financial effect of this, on my part.

Hi all,

I have received information regarding the MSc that ACCA are offering. I have thought about a potential route for myself in terms of study. I had a few questions, if anyone could help me. This is my route:

Finish ACCA doing P6 Advanced Taxation and P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance as the options
Do professional ethics module and submit project for BSc Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes
Enter CIMA through professional gateway route and finish CIMA strategic level
Do the MSc Professional Accountancy as an affiliate/member of ACCA

What I found most difficult was deciding between the modules below:

ACCA: Advanced Performance Management, Advanced Financial Management
MSc: Strategic Performance Management, Strategic Financial Management, Strategic Financial Project
CIMA: Risk Management, Financial Strategy, Strategic Management

As you can see you I have decided to go with the CIMA route as I felt this offers more in terms depth and knowledge. However, I may be wrong which is why I wanted advice. What is the difference between these modules and what do you think offers most relevant knowledge and application to the real world? You also may wonder why I want to do both CIMA and ACCA, this is because I want to be a more rounded individual with skills in management accounting. I am not trying to collect credentials, I believe the strategic level of CIMA offers knowledge ACCA does not provide. Please correct me if I am wrong. I feel ACCA does not have much management accounting in it. I also chose P6 Advanced Taxation and P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance as my ACCA options so that I have covered all bases.

Thanks,

Harry

@harry87 said:
Hi all,

I have received information regarding the MSc that ACCA are offering. I have thought about a potential route for myself in terms of study. I had a few questions, if anyone could help me. This is my route:

Finish ACCA doing P6 Advanced Taxation and P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance as the options
Do professional ethics module and submit project for BSc Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes
Enter CIMA through professional gateway route and finish CIMA strategic level
Do the MSc Professional Accountancy as an affiliate/member of ACCA

What I found most difficult was deciding between the modules below:

ACCA: Advanced Performance Management, Advanced Financial Management
MSc: Strategic Performance Management, Strategic Financial Management, Strategic Financial Project
CIMA: Risk Management, Financial Strategy, Strategic Management

As you can see you I have decided to go with the CIMA route as I felt this offers more in terms depth and knowledge. However, I may be wrong which is why I wanted advice. What is the difference between these modules and what do you think offers most relevant knowledge and application to the real world? You also may wonder why I want to do both CIMA and ACCA, this is because I want to be a more rounded individual with skills in management accounting. I am not trying to collect credentials, I believe the strategic level of CIMA offers knowledge ACCA does not provide. Please correct me if I am wrong. I feel ACCA does not have much management accounting in it. I also chose P6 Advanced Taxation and P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance as my ACCA options so that I have covered all bases.

Thanks,

Harry

You are already ACCA Affliate? In that case, you don’t have to sit the two strategic modules from the Msc route. On the contrary, you need to sit one module which is something to do with contempary financial issues. Then the final project which is mandate for both routes for the Msc.
As for ACCA (P4, P5) v CIMA management accounting wise, I doubt there is much difference.

I am not an affiliate. I am about to take P1, P2, and P3. I am really unsure what to do. I have compared the two syllabus and there are a few similarities. E3 CIMA seems like a carbon copy of P3 Business Analysis in ACCA. P3 CIMA has a few P1 ACCA Elements. F3 CIMA again has a few P4 ACCA elements. It looks like maybe CIMA won’t add as much as I thought it would. However, then comes the choice of doing the MSc without doing any options or doing options and then the masters. Such difficult choices. Worse than studying! I may just not do the MSc altogether and do a MBA as suggested above after a few years working.