As a moderator of the OBU Forum let me assure anyone who has found us for the first time that you are now within easy access of lots of great, reliable and sound advice about the OBU BSc Degree in Applied Accounting.
Spend a bit of time browsing our home page and see for yourself the FREE advice and service we offer and don't forget to read our FAQs which I compiled with help from an actual experienced OBU marker :
www.opentuition.com/obu
And the news gets even better - our poll of Open Tuition students' results for submissions regularly shows that our students achieved a pass rate of at least 79% compared with the average OBU pass rate of 57% (we say at least because it is highly likely that many more who had passed did not bother to come back to vote so it was probably over 80%). In addition students who have submitted Topic 17 (Corporate governance) and used our advice on our T17 forum have reported some great results in spite of having little real mentoring guidance (both alfred [P29] and eminathsana [P30] passed at the first attempt and achieved B grades) and confirmed our help was invaluable in their success.
We also provide a specific forum thread with helpful suggestions for tackling the Airline sector for Topic 8 so could be useful if you find yourself having to resubmit a previously failed RAP on this topic.
NOTE prescribed industry sectors are changing and airlines will not be allowed from P35 onwards so no one submitting their first attempt or changing topic or company for P35 may choose an airline - and only previously failed students who submitted between P32 and P34 can use an airline based on their previous work.
To solve problems first look using our search facility -just a few keywords will bring up relevant posts (remember a degree is about finding and researching for yourself!). Please try to select the most appropriate forum topic if you need to ask a question as it helps everyone to find it should they subsequently have a similar query. When you post a query it automatically will bring it to the top of the 'white' forum list so it can easily be found by everyone. However if you really can't find anything about your particular query then please post it on 'PLEASE HELP KEEP OUR FORUMS TIDY!!!!' where I will answer it and then post it to the appropriate topic.
Many of our contributors including our Moderator, Ehsan, have done the RAP for themselves so can offer help from their own experience and I have more than 13 years experience of reviewing RAPS and advising students so what we DON'T know about the OBU RAP on this Forum could be written on the back of a postage stamp!!!
Tired of being pushed to do Topic 8 by your mentor? Take a look at the Topic 17 Corporate Governance Forum - you may be surprised at how dynamic and interesting T17 can be! Our students achieved great success with this topic pre P35 often getting at least B grades. (The topic title changed then so it is still early days to judge the current position) but we still offer lots of good advice if you choose this topic (personal favourite of mine)
One word of warning on the subject of mentors: we advise that you do not respond to any posts from individuals plugging their 'mentoring' services as from P31 all mentors must be OBU registered mentors so you must select one from the OBU list. (There is provision for any ACCA members to do the online mentoring course and become registered and this also counts towards CPD so you may be able to persuade a potential mentor such as a supervisor to become a listed mentor). We also advise all students to register on the OBU Mentoring website EVEN if you already have a mentor as OBU is putting a lot of useful resources on this site to help students like you!
It is vital you do your work yourself and resist any mentor who offers you samples. OBU is actively targeting both mentors and students engaged in this practice. Several students have been stripped of the degree for this, mentors banned and at best you can be given at least GBP 600 penalty resubmission fee (it is set at double the normal fee) and at worst excluded completely from getting the degree and your case referred to ACCA for potential disciplinary proceedings. And do your spreadsheet yourself - again using one given out by the mentor can lead to misconduct issues if a marker detects you have based your work on a common spreadsheet.
.. and on this subject please do not solicit actual work from another student -this is not just against OBU rules but could end up in ACCA disciplinary proceedings being brought against you too - besides there us no need to as the OBU Information Pack and Mentoring website and this Forum can provide you with much better advice.
If you can't decide on a mentor (the OBU site merely lists mentors but does NOT recommend anyone in particular), then take a look at 'Advancing the Quality of the OpenTuition-OBU Experience' as we are able to approve one organisation that offers mentoring services based on their track record (details of them and comments made by their students can be found on that Forum). So if you are struggling to find a reputable mentor take a look- but you are under no obligation to use their services -we just offer it as an endorsement of assured quality.
One final piece of advice - as well as many students choosng Topic 8 because they mistakenly believe they do not have many options, many more who don't have a local suitable company often go for Topic 6 on Motivation. The problem with this choice is it depends on a survey and the surveys are often very badly done (T6 consequently has a very low pass rate and very few students actually pass at the first attempt). If you have internet access then you may choose ANY company wherever they are in the world subject to the current RAP rules so T8 may be viable (as well as T17 of course) provided you
select a company from the prescribed industry sector. My advice is: don't rush into doing any topic think carefully about it and other topics and the various requirements needed to pass. Also remember if you really want to do T6 you MUST spend a lot of time in preparing your questionnaire and planning your work otherwise your efforts will be misdirected and time wasted. However on the plus side we do have at least one contributor, Batala, who himself did Topic 6 successfully so between us he and I will try to help where we can if you do want to choose this topic.
The OT team, our moderators and contributors welcome you to the OBU Forum and we wish you every success with your Research and Analysis Project
Trephena - OT OBU Forum Moderator
PS Although Open Tuition is completely free to use at point of use it does depend for survival on advertising revenue -we would therefore ask that you do NOT use an ad blocker. If you do but still want to benefit from our advice it would be good if instead you made a donation so that we can be around to continue helping future students just like we hope we have helped you! Thanks.
Other Accountancy Qualifications
P48 – Welcome to all newcomers and returners to the OBU Forum
Hi All,
Good day.
I have failed my RR for period 39 on Topic 8 due to selected wrong industry sectors. I would like to re-submit my RR in period 41 and had confirmed with ACCA that no changes on the industry sectors.
My question is now I need to choose a new Company annual report to match the industry sectors in period 41. Can I choose the annual report released on 31 January 2020 or must comply with the information pack that I must use annual report publication dates on 31 July 2020?
I refer to the information pack for period 41 and 42 its quite confusion.
Hi all
I am a newcomer and want to begin my RAP to be submitted in the current period. I have chosen a mentor and have selected the automobile sector for topic 8. My mentor simply asked me to select my topic and begin research. I have not done any form of research report before. My question is what exactly must I do first to proceed. Thanks
Hi Tonim,
Did you pass your OBU by choosing Volkswagen? As I am concern, most of the automobiles industry are producing commercial vehicles. I had failed first attempt due to choose wrong industry sector.
Dears,
My RAP was failed and as per the feedback provided by the OBU self reflection part was passed and communication skills (incl. presentation) part was failed as they mentioned my conclusion was not proper. Does that mean only my presentation slides needs to improved ?
Yes. You have to pass the Presentation [communication skills] element and this means that you need to use the marker feedback and make good the deficiencies they noted in your Presentation slides and resubmit the whole Presentation.
Hi can anyone please help me find the market share of key players (UPS, fedex, Aramex etc) it is not on the annual report ... please help
Lily5937 Try using NYSE: UPS in your browser for UPS for example. This should bring up an interactive graph that allows you to look at historic share prices as well.
[Obviously you have to put in the company name for each company and view them in turn]
Hello. I need to ask if i submit my project and do not submit the fee...the project won't be marked?
Hi Uruba, did you submit your Project for Period 40 or are you asking a hypothetical question, that what would happen if you do not submit the fees?
If you didn't pay for Period 40, I believe your RAP will be not checked as it is clearly stated that the fee has to be paid. However, do see what the experts say.
Hello, can any one please help me with what the general rule about no date citations is ? I feel like I have way too many. For example I referenced something I found on the company website under the history section, now, the in text citation for such would not have a date correct ? because it's a webpage and there is obviously no date of publication for such information or am I just supposed to date it as 2020 and move on ?
You cannot impute a date if there isn't one! In those instances you must use n.d. (No date). Where this might result, in the case of a company website, as many entries that would be identical then you can insert the menu tab name e.g. (YXZ.com -History, n.d.). The purpose is that the reader/marker can track an entry in the text via the reference list to the original source (one of the elements that must be satisfied in the Assessment Criteria)
We have produced a Referencing guide available on our OBU homepage -so please see that for further details especially 'The Golden Rules' as that sets out clear rules to follow for good referencing
Hello everybody! I have to tell those students who are submitting this time about the mistakes I made...do not make them!
1. Check the count very carefully of your words before submitting.
2. review for any missing words or incomplete sentences (I mistakenly deleted many words and sentences and did not even know it, but when after the result I opened the submitted documents, I saw the dumb mistakes)
3. In review, I forgot to check the presentation of my report (my appendix numbers were incorrect such as after appendix 5, the next appendix was numbered as appendix 8....in table of content, page numbers written were inaccurate...I forgot to delete the detailed reference under two paragraphs which I had already included in the reference list and they were glaringly blue for the marker to see. )
These mistakes cause confusion for the markers and leave a bad impression. Even though my excuse on these silly mistakes is, when I was reviewing the project before submission, my PC got stuck again and again and in hurry and panic, mistakes happened.
Trust yourself, be confident and everything will be alright Insha'Allah. (I needed to hear these words from someone but nobody gave them to me so, I am giving them to you all.)
Take care everyone and have a succesfull submission. Thank you.
I have got failed in my OBU Period 40. As per the feedback given by the OBU there are few things that I need to change. Since the Industry will remain same in Period 41, My mentor is asking me to rewrite those points which was being marked as fail. My mentor told me that I don't need to write all the RAP. My question is, If I rewrite and submit my own paper which will be 50% similar to previous one, will it be get consider as Plagiarism ? I am really concerned about it. Please suggest me.
How did it go?
@tonim Hi. How did it go?
Hi @GillianM and @trephena
Please me regarding the following confusion.
In this attempt i am resubmitting my SLS. as per Examiners feedback there was some issues in Q1 Q3 and Q4 for which i made some changes and finalized the file.
Now I just need to confirm whether at the time of review of resubmitted SLS will Q2 be constant and will be ignored as it was approved by previous examiner or Q2 will also be reviewed by the new examiner.
Keeping in mind that there were no issued pointed out by the previous examiner in Q2.
Please help me out as 11th Nov is the deadline.
The important thing for the SLS is that there should be adequate self-reflection throughout and in this respect the markers take a holistic view.
What they don't like to see is a 'diarised' view of the process: I did this, I did that; my mentor said this and so I did what they said.
What they are looking for is WHY you did something and how this approach helped you or at least made you realise that another time you would do it differently or take a slightly different approach i.e. you have learned something from completing the RAP and your skills, level of understanding and development have improved.
So this is what they will be looking for overall rather than sticking rigidly to what has been put under each banner heading for individual questions.
Hi,
I submitted my thesis in period 41. but unfortunately I uploaded wrong file for my RAP which was not updated like I uploaded the file which had table of contents which was not upgraded due to last minute hurry. How would this impact my result.
Thank you
If it is just the contents page and minor things, I doubt it will make much difference. So I would advise you to chill, baby chill on this one!
Rewind 10 years and I too thought Corporate Governance was a boring topic - I blame the study manuals that present it in such an insipid, lifeless way - and if someone had said to me then in 5 years time you will not only teach CG on Masters courses but you will be so positive about CG, you will go out of your way to encourage others to 'keep the faith', then I would have turned round and said they must be joking and that was just never going to happen! Funny how life turns out....
However back to your query - I always hated Topic 8 as a marker so I will put my hand up and admit that I am biased - however rather this is the topic that is boring, rote and dead-end - the opposite of Topic 17. So as I think life is too short to be bored rigid I have declined to mentor for it [apart from resubmissions] - however Lorraine who has joined me at absolute mentoring does undertake mentorship for it. What if you don't pass first time? You may be expected to update the financials if there has been a more recent annual report but consult both the latest Information Pack and Resubmission Guide on this. This doesn't necessarily mean a total re-write, more just an update with updated graphs and the addition of commentary on more recent events.
Topic 17 - a little bit of background knowledge about the background and history of CG is handy - and if you are intending to study for Strategic Business Leader then there is some overlap between this and T17 [so a good idea to study the two close together]. However it is not game over if you don't have this background already as it wouldn't take long or much effort to get up to speed via articles on the internet etc. The great thing about T17 is that when they revamped the title back in about 2017 they focused it on failing / delinquent companies so you learn about CG in action - not just the theory and end up understanding why CG is so important for a broad range of stakeholders and also for a country's economy. Doing this topic can be an eye-opener - most students are left wondering 'how on earth did the CEO and board members manage to get away with all of their misdemeanors ?'
Hy,
Is it possible for a student to fail all the 3 submissions and ends up without getting the degree?
I failed 8/9 parts of my first submission in p40 and am worried if it will be a good decission to leave it and join local university for a degree program.
Hi Gillian,
I hope you don't mind me butting in here as I'm wondering if you can advise me on Topic 17. Basically I have a good understanding of cars and the motor trade and so decided to use topic 8 to analyse the a large car manufacturer for P42. However I'm also very interested in topic 17 and I was going to use the VW scandal whereby they purposely manipulated their emissions in order to gain an unfair advantage and they probably got away with this (up until they got caught of course) through weak corporate governance. The issue I have is that the scandal was concluded in 2015 after they had to pay around $30bn and topic 17 states that the corporate governance issues had to have happened in the last 5 years. Can I still us the VW scandal for my project? Suppose I could argue that the corporate governance issues was definitely still present after the scandal in 2015 and needing sorting out!
Looking forward to your response
Thanks
You have more or less answered your own question - the issue dates back to 2015 and therefore it is now outside the 5 years stated in the topic title.
If you are interested in cars and want to do Topic 17 why not look at Tesla? Elon Musk is an interesting character and I have had a couple of students who have submitted successfully on this company.
[You could email [email protected] and ask if they would be prepared to let you submit on Volkswagen and of course it they do grant permission then you could go ahead with your original proposal]
@mithat - sadly some students do fail at their 3rd and final attempt.
Often the difference between passing and failing is being given appropriate direction. Obviously if you feel that you will benefit more from a local university then that is one solution, the other would be to 'invest' in a quality mentor who might be able to advise you appropriately.
Thanks for this. I think I will leave the VW issue as opinions may vary regarding when the corporate governance issue arouse when I come to submit the project. I think Tesla is an electrical car company so I would need to do this under topic 8 as I'm not sure of any governance issues apart from a dominant CEO. So I'm guessing I would use topic 8 if I was to choose Tesla?
Thanks
That was the point I was trying to make - the students I was referring to did Topic 17. Although you may not currently be aware of them, there have been some significant corporate governance issues at Tesla and the SEC imposed a fine of $20m on both Elon Musk and the company, and the company was forced to separate the roles of CEO and chairman which had been held by just Musk.
hope you will do good.
How will the below requirement (given in the information pack pg 24) be featured in the RR??
""Although Oxford Brookes University does not require you to submit an RAP outline for approval, we strongly recommend that you prepare a short outline for your RAP and a timetable within which you show when you expect to complete the different phases of the research work and how you will meet the Oxford Brookes University RAP submission deadline. Be realistic about what information may be available to you, what you can achieve and how long it may take you to complete the RAP documents.""
The clue here is that it says 'BEFORE you start your RAP'. The idea behind this is to make you think realistically about time management before you start. The latter is something that can discuss in your SLS statement. By formulating a realistic plan for your work you will help avoid stress by realising that the work needs to be carried out regularly and that by putting effort in at the beginning you will spare yourself the experience of many - running out of time as the submission window close approaches and rushing your work.
I would suggest that you do a sort of Gantt chart so that you can schedule work and social commitments alongside any exams and study periods so that you can see exactly what time is available to do the work. This chart would then allow you to monitor your progress week by week and if necessary re-arrange your plans or defer to the next submission period.
As such the section you have cited does not feature in the report itself but is sensible guidance and additionally planning is something you could mention in your SLS
How to resubmit OBU through website. Last time I created an OBU account. Do I need to resubmit my OBU into that account or I have to create a new OBU account.
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