THE majority of accountants with a third level qualification have come" from the business disciplines, and a wide and varied group of disciplines they are. All of the universities and RTCs offer business courses of some kind, which qualify students for a range of exemptions in the examinations of the professional accountancy bodies.
Trinity College's School of Business, Economics and, Social Studies, for example, offers degree courses in business studies, economics, political science, sociology or contemporary European integration. Trinity also has a combined degree comprising any two of business studies, economics, political science or sociology.
The University of Limerick offers a BA in law and accounting and BBS degrees in business studies and business studies combined with a modern language. DCU, its sister college, has degrees in business studies, accounting and finance, European business, international marketing and languages and international business and languages. UCD offers bachelor degrees in commerce, international commerce, actuarial and financial studies, financial services and business and legal studies, in addition to certificates and diplomas in similar areas.
UCC's commerce faculty offers a BComm degree and BScs in accounting, business information systems and finance and Maynooth offers a finance degree. Finally, UCG offers a BComm degree with emphasis on one or more of the following accountancy, finance, marketing, management information systems, economics and human resource management.
In other words, the university business faculties offer a broad skills base from which students may choose to move into the profession. Most of these colleges, and some northern universities, also offer postgraduate qualifications which can bring students up to the final examinations of their chosen branch of accountancy. Many of these, such as the MBA programmes in UL, DCU and particularly UCD, are heavily subscribed because of the standard of postgraduate study they offer.
Increasingly, non business graduates too are being attracted to the profession, previously regarded as the exclusive territory of the BComm graduates and their ilk. Arthur Andersen and Company, one of the largest firms of chartered accountants in the world with 82,000 employees, is among those who have begun to actively encourage the entry of non business graduates into, the profession.
The exemption based nature of third level business courses in this country means that we, still lag behind the UK in the, levels of non business students, entering the profession. For example, business degrees with in some cases, an additional diploma, will take graduates into, Stage 3 of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) examinations, with some exemptions at this level.
While universities continue to attract those with a business bent who feel that a degree is the best way for them to proceed, the RTCs have, in some cases, moved past the universities in the ease of access they offer into the profession. For, example, Athlone RTC is the only college which will take students to the final stage of" the CIMA examinations' through its national diploma in professional accounting.
Tallaght RTC's BA in business studies brings students to the final stage of the CPA examinations, the only course to give full exemptions from three years of examinations. The Bachelor of Business Studies course in Waterford RTC offers students at 2.2 level or higher full exemptions from the first two levels of the ACA examinations, equivalent to the highest exemptions offered for university courses, yet the points requirement for Waterford last year was considerably lower than for equivalent courses in the universities.
Many RTCs also offer specialised accountancy, courses as well as the more general types similar to those available in universities and a number of RTCs also offer courses for those interested in moving into the field of accounting technician.
