What is it like doing a Finance degree?

For someone with aspirations to be an accountant, doing a Finance degree is a long, drawn out and expensive way to earn exemptions from about a year's worth of exams with CIMA, ACCA or the ICAEW. For those with other aspirations in Finance, it's an expensive way to learn that employers prefer degrees in Physics, Economics or Mathematics (for investment bankers) or don't care what subject you studied (everybody else).

Financial Services generally is a profession that is very well supported by some excellent professional qualifications offered by bodies like the CFA Institute, CISI, the accountancy bodies, the CII, ICSA and the IFS to name a few. What this means in practice is that the only real purpose of an undergraduate degree is to earn exemptions. I would almost always advise people who are trying to break into finance (with the exception of some front office positions) to start at 18 and get professional qualifications rather than a degree.

However, there are some very limited exceptions. For example, in your case as I know from previous posts, your A-Levels may not be ideal so school leaver programmes might not be an option. In these cases I would recommend Manchester Metropolitans' collaborative degree with the ICAEW. I recommend this for several reasons, including that it will give you 100% of exemptions and won't cost £27,000!

A caveat though. I would still recommend you just go and do AAT instead of getting a degree.

I don't advocate not going to university generally, only for certain professions such as accountants. If you want to be a lawyer, psychologist, social worker, scientist, teacher or engineer, then I think university is probably one of the best options (if not the only one). However, for accountants it's normally a waste of time and money (and universities are generally only too happy for students to waste money).

Remember, to be recognised as an accountant in this country then you need to be qualified with one of the professional bodies. Except for members of the AAT, who are not really seen as fully qualified accountants by the market, they all have similar requirements. This includes about 2-3 years of taking exams and 3 years of work experience. Generally the exams cost between £1 - £2k to sit, not including tuition. So, you can leave school, train as an accountant and be finished at age 21.

Or instead you can go to university first. Unlike, say, law where a lot of the professional study is actually done at university, at best you'll get exemptions for about 18 months' worth of exams. Worse, those exemptions often lead to candidates entering the professional examinations at a level that university has left them woefully unprepared for (because generally the standard of university accounting is poor) and they then go on to fail. ACCA in particular is far too generous with its exemptions.

Once you complete your degree after three years and with £27,000 in debt, you still have to complete three years of practical training and at least another year of exams. The earliest you'll qualify is at age 24. Also, if you get less than a 2:1 the Big 4 won't want to know you, even if you had A-levels good enough to join them as a school leaver! So you could even go to university and come out of it with less options than you started with.

So, in summary, for an accountant a degree represents a waste of time; a waste of money and potentially a lost opportunity. That's why I recommend accountants don't do degrees. If they really want a degree, they should do a 'top up' after their professional exams.

I don't advocate not going to university generally, only for certain professions such as accountants. If you want to be a lawyer, psychologist, social worker, scientist, teacher or engineer, then I think university is probably one of the best options (if not the only one). However, for accountants it's normally a waste of time and money (and universities are generally only too happy for students to waste money).

Remember, to be recognised as an accountant in this country then you need to be qualified with one of the professional bodies. Except for members of the AAT, who are not really seen as fully qualified accountants by the market, they all have similar requirements. This includes about 2-3 years of taking exams and 3 years of work experience. Generally the exams cost between £1 - £2k to sit, not including tuition. So, you can leave school, train as an accountant and be finished at age 21.

Or instead you can go to university first. Unlike, say, law where a lot of the professional study is actually done at university, at best you'll get exemptions for about 18 months' worth of exams. Worse, those exemptions often lead to candidates entering the professional examinations at a level that university has left them woefully unprepared for (because generally the standard of university accounting is poor) and they then go on to fail. ACCA in particular is far too generous with its exemptions.

Once you complete your degree after three years and with £27,000 in debt, you still have to complete three years of practical training and at least another year of exams. The earliest you'll qualify is at age 24. Also, if you get less than a 2:1 the Big 4 won't want to know you, even if you had A-levels good enough to join them as a school leaver! So you could even go to university and come out of it with less options than you started with.

So, in summary, for an accountant a degree represents a waste of time; a waste of money and potentially a lost opportunity. That's why I recommend accountants don't do degrees. If they really want a degree, they should do a 'top up' after their professional exams.

Agreed, but not everybody knows they want to be an accountant, it's a big decision to make at 17/18 years of age. University will always be the 'safe' option and I really do think the university experience is not to be discounted. Despite not completing my studies, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at university and can honestly say I am a better person for going, I learnt more about myself than I could have imagined.

I accept that I will have to do accounting for a few years, but is there an option later on to move into global/investment banking based on my performance and work experience, without going to a 'top' university for undergrad?

Of course there is, especially if your 'further education' is done with a Big 4 firm. Neither of my brothers did a degree and went straight into the ICAEW. Both qualified at 21, both now working for very well know private equity businesses. In fact, they're putting this ICSA qualified poster with his History degree to shame! I really must get on with improving my own qualifications!

I don't advocate not going to university generally, only for certain professions such as accountants. If you want to be a lawyer, psychologist, social worker, scientist, teacher or engineer, then I think university is probably one of the best options (if not the only one). However, for accountants it's normally a waste of time and money (and universities are generally only too happy for students to waste money).

Remember, to be recognised as an accountant in this country then you need to be qualified with one of the professional bodies. Except for members of the AAT, who are not really seen as fully qualified accountants by the market, they all have similar requirements. This includes about 2-3 years of taking exams and 3 years of work experience. Generally the exams cost between £1 - £2k to sit, not including tuition. So, you can leave school, train as an accountant and be finished at age 21.

Or instead you can go to university first. Unlike, say, law where a lot of the professional study is actually done at university, at best you'll get exemptions for about 18 months' worth of exams. Worse, those exemptions often lead to candidates entering the professional examinations at a level that university has left them woefully unprepared for (because generally the standard of university accounting is poor) and they then go on to fail. ACCA in particular is far too generous with its exemptions.

Once you complete your degree after three years and with £27,000 in debt, you still have to complete three years of practical training and at least another year of exams. The earliest you'll qualify is at age 24. Also, if you get less than a 2:1 the Big 4 won't want to know you, even if you had A-levels good enough to join them as a school leaver! So you could even go to university and come out of it with less options than you started with.

So, in summary, for an accountant a degree represents a waste of time; a waste of money and potentially a lost opportunity. That's why I recommend accountants don't do degrees. If they really want a degree, they should do a 'top up' after their professional exams.

This is a very quick summary of what a 'top up' degree is. As you may or may not be aware, an undergraduate honours degree is normally made up of 360 credits, 120 credits per year. This is based on the European Credit Transfer System where 10 hours of study is worth 1 credit. The same applies to postgraduate years.

Typically the credit system applies to academic qualifications but it can be translated to professional qualifications too. For example, if you were to do all four levels of ICSA you'd have the equivalent of an hours degree and a postgraduate diploma; that's why ICSA graduates can go to places like Northampton University and do their ICSA top up degree which is a postgraduate masters where you only do about 60 of the required 180 credits for the full degree.

Accountancy bodies qualifications probably equate to about 240 credits. It may be more, I'm not entirely sure. For students holding these qualifications, some universities will offer to let them do a top up degree. For example, Birkbeck does a top up degree for the ICAEW and Oxford Brookes does one for ACCA. Robert Gordon University does one for CIMA. These degrees can all be done part time whilst working.

Generally, to get a degree at any university they normally require as a minimum that you study 120 credits of final year study with them. So typically a top up degree will be 120 credits at NQF 6, the level of a third year undergraduate (NQF 3 = A-Level/BTEC / NQF 4 = University Certificate/First Year / NQF 5 = Higher Diploma / Second Year / NQF 6 = Honours Degree / NQF 7-8 = Masters etc).

Other professions also have top up degrees. There are top up Masters qualifications for ICSA for example. People who do the ICA's Diploma in Compliance can do a top up with the University of Manchester. Hertfordshire does a top up degree in Computing for those qualified with the BCS. Etc.

Historically, top up degrees were for people who held HNDs and wanted to go further but obviously they have evolved with professional institutes also taking advantage. They're a great idea for people who want to go straight into work but may require a degree for future study or personal satisfaction. A great many universities offer them although to find them it's best to focus on the leaders of distance and part time education.