Maths requirements in Account Finance Degree

I am currently a CIMA(UK) student with just one exam remaining and in the majority of the subjects I scored 80% or more. I asked some UK universities about their BSC (hons) TopUp Accounting & Finance courses whether I was eligible for the course if I pass all CIMA exams and most of them are willing to consider my application and say that I should apply so that they can assess my full eligibility. Most of these TopUp courses also have GCSE Maths requirements but some don't. Other higher ranking universities with a regular 3 years BSC degree said to me that they only accept 3 A Levels or equivalent for admission and some also offer exemptions for CIMA. I studied Maths during Matric (Grade 10 exams) from another country and currently don't have O and A Levels or a recognized equivalent. Business maths concepts are studied in the CIMA modules which I have passed. My question is that is it necessary or desirable that I do one to three A Levels (e.g. Maths, Statistics, Further Maths) and will this increase my chances to get admission in TopUp Accounting & Finance Degree or to get Graduate Trainee Schemes ? What other advice can you give me for the mentioned objectives?

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by learningandlearn

I am currently a CIMA(UK) student with just one exam remaining and in the majority of the subjects I scored 80% or more. I asked some UK universities about their BSC (hons) TopUp Accounting & Finance courses whether I was eligible for the course if I pass all CIMA exams and most of them are willing to consider my application and say that I should apply so that they can assess my full eligibility. Most of these TopUp courses also have GCSE Maths requirements but some don't. Other higher ranking universities with a regular 3 years BSC degree said to me that they only accept 3 A Levels or equivalent for admission and some also offer exemptions for CIMA. I studied Maths during Matric (Grade 10 exams) from another country and currently don't have O and A Levels or a recognized equivalent. Business maths concepts are studied in the CIMA modules which I have passed. My question is that is it necessary or desirable that I do one to three A Levels (e.g. Maths, Statistics, Further Maths) and will this increase my chances to get admission in TopUp Accounting & Finance Degree or to get Graduate Trainee Schemes ? What other advice can you give me for the mentioned objectives?

The immediate question that I had at the back of my mind when you said you have almost completed your CIMA qualification is why in blazes is this person thinking of getting a bachelor's.

A fully qualificed CIMA accountant is the equivalent of a lecturer in management accounting. If anything, you would be the one in front of the lecture hall, not the one sitting in the auditorium.
I am also not completely sure what value you would get from a degree that you can't already get from a completed CIMA qualification i.e. employers would be far more interested in your CIMA qualification than they would with your top up degree. A graduate in accounting would be far less qualified to do a job in accounting than someone with the CIMA qualification.

The annoying thing about the top up degree system is that they would be looking for GCSE requirements, so if anything this is the area that will likely let you down. I would also consider doing something about this as well, as it can affect your job applications.
The A Levels won't mean very much. If you're specifically doing an Accounting and Finance degree, most of them are very likely not to include a lot of finance modules (or at least finance modules with a lot of maths). In other words, they are not likely going to require you to have maths skills en par to A Level maths (I could be wrong though, so it pays to query the university's admissions team). If you are going to pick a mathematical A Level (which I really don't think you would need to for top up degrees), it would likely be Maths more than anything else (Further Maths contains topics that are more complicated, and there aren't that many topics in accounting and finance degrees at bachelor's level that would involve much from Statistics).

I am not particularly fond of you having to do an extra 3 A Levels just to get a top up degree. The entry requirements for most accounting and finance degrees tend to be A Levels in any 3 random subjects. On the odd occasion, the more quantitative degrees (most accounting degrees aren't that quantitative) tend to ask for A Level maths for the finance modules. If you have already done 13/14 modules from CIMA, then you would have already covered most of the topics and should have the level of maths you would need.
If you want to do 3 A Levels to do a bachelor's degree in something else, I could understand. However, for a top up degree in accounting, I don't think it's either necessary or practical.

Utlimately, your application for the top up degree is from a nontraditional route i.e. you didn't do HNCs/HNDs, or any specific academic qualifications to get in. So the admissions team would be looking at your experience and professional qualification as a proxy and use their own judgement to whether they should enroll you or not. As it's a judgement call, you're better off asking them yourself as opposed to relying on any specific qualification to confirm your eligibility.

Reply 2

ajj2000

20

Are you in the UK?
Are you working at the moment?
Have you applied for jobs?

I'm not sure I'm clear on your motivation to take a degree - and especially to take one in accounting and finance. Could you give a little more background? Are you entitled to UK funding?

Maths requirements in Account Finance Degree

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