Luke Brown

Don't know what college you went to, but it certainly wasn't mine! lol

Nicholson_family

It will hopefully only be a matter of time for ACCA if CIMA have the mutual recognition. Is there any official news from ACCA about this? I know they have an office in Sydney so I'd expect them to be working on this recognition on behalf of their members. They can't let CIMA get the better of us!

JAJ

Have you asked them?

Nicholson_family

Not yet personally no. I considered that perhaps an ACCA on this board who is in Australia might have knowledge.

JAJ

There is always the possibility that CPA Australia have said no to mutual recognition with ACCA.

stephen284362

I have just sent an email to ask ACCA in Sydney the very same thing.
Hopefully there will be a plan for mutual recognition between ACCA and CPA, but my plan is to assume this will not be the case before we emigrate.
I'd rather be in a position where I have an additional qualification that I don't need (or could do without) than be in a position where my existing qualification is not deemed sufficient.

I'll let you know what response (if any!) I get.

Stephen

JohnJ

Did you manage to get any update from ACCA in Sydney?

Hellboy663

Well, that's the frustrating thing for ACCA members. You work so hard to complete the ACCA only to find that you hit a brick wall, it is not recognized when you migrate to places like US, Australia, New Zealand or Canada. ACCA promotes itself as a world class qualification in many thrid world countries but it is not even rated as equivalent to a bachelor's degree in many of the states in the US. In Oz, you'll have to sit for the entire CA course plus get 3 years of mentored experience while working in a CA approved organization under an Australian CA. CPA Oz on the other hand does not even recognize an ACCA member for associate membership if he does not have a bachelor's degree along with his ACCA. If organizations like CIMA and CIPFA can have mutual arrangements for their members to have direct membership in Australian CPA and ICAEW, ICAI, ICAS South African Chartered, CPA US and even Zimbabwae CA (the currecny of Zimbabwae as you know is worthless)can have arrangements with Australian CA whereby their respective members can get direct entry into Oz CA, I don't understand the problem with ACCA. I went over to US to just do 4 papers in the US CPA exams and when I went to OZ and just did the Oz law and tax papers, I was automatically given membership in Australian CA. Good. It feels great. Oh yeah!!!! To be honest with you, the US CPA exams as compared to ACCA were just like nursery standards and I'm sure that the ACCA standards are just as good if not better than Australian CPA or CA. I had half the mind not to renew my ACCA subscriptions this year but then thought that it would be better to have it rather than lose it in case I decided to go to the UK for some reason or other in future. Its high time that ACCA starts to look seriously into this problem as I feel that its doing its members a great disservice especially after they have gone through very tough exams, otherwise I feel that over time, more and more people will start to discount the value of ACCA in future.

JAJ

ACCA has mutual recognition with CGA Canada.

Hellboy663

Yes. Thanks for that. Quite forgot about that. But how does the CGA compare with CA Canada? Here in Oz when you look at CPA and CA, the banking industry or chartered accounting firms prefer CAs. Other than that, there is not much difference between the two in the job market. However, CA Oz is better recognized if one wishes to move overseas.

stephen284362

Heck, I forgot to get back onto the forum, and my mind has been elsewhere recently!!

The reply I got from ACCA Oz is as follows:
"Thanks for your enquiry. You are correct that CIMA and CPAA have signed a recognition agreement in Australia but at present there is no similar agreement in planning for ACCA. The real issue is, as usual, competition. ACCA competes strongly with CPAA in Asia, and while we have had numerous discussions about enhancing recognition, thus far they have not produced any tangible results.

That said, ACCA has twin programmes to enhance market recognition by employers and recruitment agencies and we believe that these efforts are bringing results. It would be advisable for you to consider undertaking courses in Australian Tax and company law to demonstrate that you have “localised” your knowledge, even if you are not proposing to enter public practice. We can identify appropriate universities who offer such courses by distance education.

Also, we would advise that you make contact with the larger recruitment agencies who know the ACCA qualification such as Hays, Robert Half etc and ascertain the state of the market from them.

I am currently working as a consultant to ACCA on a long term programme to improve our recognition in Australia. We will keep members informed on the ACCA Australia website as the matter develops.

Good luck.

Kind regards,

Allen Blewitt"

So don't hold your breath!

JAJ

You may wish to ask why ACCA sees a need to compete with CPA Australia in the first place. And if, as it seems, this "competition" means that there is no prospect of full recognition in Australia anytime soon, whether ACCA's strategy is really serving the interests of its members.

Hellboy663

So don't you think that it could be in the great interests of ACCA members if ACCA instead of competing, puts its ego aside and and start thinking about working with CPA Australia on an MRA just like what other accounting bodies have done for the mutual benefits of their members?

JAJ

The difference between CA and CGA in Canada is similar to that between CA and CPA in Australia, as far as I know.

houseisthebest

Hey .. just thought I give you my experience with cpa and ca members ...

I work in one of the big 4 and deal with a lot of ca's and a few cpa's (as colleagues).

- before the cima and cpa mutual agreement:

ca said: cima is a great qualification, what do you think? i'm thinking of doing that after my ca ...

cpa said yep true ... let's do it!

- after the cima and cpa mutual agreement:

cpa said: "nice and i'm going to take it!"

ca said: uhm on second thought, i dont think its going to be useful for me ... my qualification is recognised in uk anyway ...

another ca said: nah, not interested anymore , cuz i don't want to pay extra member fee



Hm .. valid points but .. bit funny hu?