The Bachelor of Accounting is designed to develop your knowledge and skills in reporting, analysing and managing financial resources in business and government entities. In addition to meeting the education requirements for membership of the Australian accounting professional bodies, the degree offers flexibility for you to study in related disciplines of your interest, including finance, business information systems, management, marketing, international business and corporate sustainability.

You will be equipped with the ability to critically analyse emerging accounting issues, and be inspired by the professional and scholarly accounting research that provides you with insights into issues underlying the accounting numbers, thus fostering your academic and professional competence. Gaining these academic and professional attributes will enhance your accounting career opportunities, or pursuance of advanced accounting studies.

Are you a maths whiz who wants stimulating work, limitless potential and an ever growing salary? This is the esteemed degree that will make you a thought leader in a wide variety of areas. With an ANU Bachelor of Actuarial Studies you can excel in your career literally anywhere in the world.

Risk is all around us - in investment markets, on the roads, from our health and the climate. This degree will teach you how to apply your mathematical talent in understanding, measuring and managing these risks.

Graduates will apply mathematical, statistical, financial, economic and other skills to untangle the most complex and difficult problems facing the commercial world.

Learning Outcomes

1. Integrate theoretical and technical accounting knowledge in a business context.
2. Exercise judgement under supervision to provide possible solutions to routine accounting problems in straightforward contexts using where appropriate social, ethical, economic, regulatory, sustainability, governance and/or global perspectives.
3. Critically apply theoretical and technical accounting knowledge and skills to provide possible solutions to routine accounting problems.
4. Justify and communicate accounting advice and ideas to both specialists and non-specialists.

1. utilise concepts in financial mathematics, including the time value of money, annuities, bond and loan calculations
   
2. interpret the accounts and financial statements of companies and financial institutions.
   
3. describe the fundamental concepts of micro and macroeconomics.
   
4. apply mathematical statistics, regression modeling and other statistical techniques to actuarial problems
   
5. describe and apply stochastic processes, survival models and their application in actuarial contexts
   
6. model and value cashflows dependent on death, survival, illness, retirement, and other contingencies
   
7. apply risk modelling techniques across a variety of financial contexts 

Further Information

Students wishing to qualify for membership of CPA Australia must enrol in BUSN2101 Law of Business Entities, INFS2005 Accounting Information Systems and BUSN3014 Principles of Taxation Law. BUSN3002 Auditing is optional, but students are strongly advised to complete it in their degree. Students who do not complete this course at university must complete it in the CPA program in order to advance to CPA status.

Students wishing to qualify for membership of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand must also enrol in BUSN3002 Auditing, In addition to BUSN3014 Principles of Taxation Law, BUSN2101 Law of Business Entities and INFS2005 Accounting Information Systems.

Electives: 

Students have 48 units of electives in a single degree program. Electives can be selected from CBE or other Colleges. No more than 10 courses at 1000 level.

Students wish to undertake an out of college elective may contact the relevant College directly.

Student Responsibility:

It is the student's responsibility to select electives in such a way that:

• they satisfy prerequisites for the corresponding course/s.
• they conform to the rules set out in Programs and Courses or if unsure seek advice from the CBE office.

It is the student's responsibility to select the courses appropriate for his/her program.

FDD with Law (ALLB):

Due to incompatibilities between (BUSN1101 and LAWS1204) and (BUSN2101 and LAWS2203), student will need to select three courses other than BUSN1101 and BUSN2101 from the second list of courses (that is, select three courses from BUSN2036, BUSN3008, BUSN3017 and INFS2005).

You will meet the prerequisites of BUSN3014 by studying LAWS1204.

FDD with Commerce:
Bachelor of Accounting cannot be combined with Bachelor of Commerce with an Accounting major.

Students wishing to qualify for membership of CPA Australia must enrol in BUSN2101 Law of Business Entities, INFS2005 Accounting Information Systems and BUSN3014 Principles of Taxation Law. BUSN3002 Auditing is optional, but students are strongly advised to complete it in their degree. Students who do not complete this course at university must complete it in the CPA program in order to advance to CPA status.

Students wishing to qualify for membership of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand must also enrol in BUSN3002 Auditing, In addition to BUSN3014 Principles of Taxation Law, BUSN2101 Law of Business Entities and INFS2005 Accounting Information Systems.

Electives: 

Students have 48 units of electives in a single degree program. Electives can be selected from CBE or other Colleges. No more than 10 courses at 1000 level.

Students wish to undertake an out of college elective may contact the relevant College directly.

Student Responsibility:

It is the student's responsibility to select electives in such a way that:

• they satisfy prerequisites for the corresponding course/s.
• they conform to the rules set out in Programs and Courses or if unsure seek advice from the CBE office.

It is the student's responsibility to select the courses appropriate for his/her program.

FDD with Law (ALLB):

Due to incompatibilities between (BUSN1101 and LAWS1204) and (BUSN2101 and LAWS2203), student will need to select three courses other than BUSN1101 and BUSN2101 from the second list of courses (that is, select three courses from BUSN2036, BUSN3008, BUSN3017 and INFS2005).

You will meet the prerequisites of BUSN3014 by studying LAWS1204.

FDD with Commerce:
Bachelor of Accounting cannot be combined with Bachelor of Commerce with an Accounting major.

Admission Requirements

Prerequisites

There are no formal program prerequisites. But assumed knowledge is:-ACT: Mathematical Methods (Major) or NSW: HSC Mathematics Advanced or equivalent. More information about interstate subject equivalencies can be found here.

ACT:  Specialist Mathematics (Major/Minor) (160+)/Specialist Methods(Major/Minor) (160+), NSW: Mathematics Extension 1 (Band E3) or equivelant. More information about interstate subject equivalencies can be found here.

Adjustment Factors

Adjustment factors are additional points added to an applicant's Selection Rank (for example an applicant's ATAR). ANU offers adjustment factors based on performance and equity principles, such as for high achievement in nationally strategic senior secondary subjects and for recognition of difficult circumstances that students face in their studies. 

Selection Rank adjustments are granted in accordance with the approved schedules, and no more than 15 (maximum 5 subject/performance-based adjustment factors and maximum 10 equity-based adjustment factors) can be awarded. 

You may be considered for adjustment factors if you have:

• applied for an eligible ANU Bachelor degree program
• undertaken Australian Year 12 or the International Baccalaureate
• achieved an ATAR or equivalent at or above 70
• not previously attempted tertiary study.

Please visit the ANU Adjustment Factors website for further information.

Scholarships

ANU offers a wide range of scholarships to students to assist with the cost of their studies.

Eligibility to apply for ANU scholarships varies depending on the specifics of the scholarship and can be categorised by the type of student you are.  Specific scholarship application process information is included in the relevant scholarship listing.

For further information see the Scholarships website.

Program Requirements

The Bachelor of Accounting flexible double degree component requires completion of 96 units, of which:

A maximum of 48 units may come from completion of 1000-level courses

The 96 units must include:

24 units from completion of minor in Business and Economics Essentials

30 units from completion of the following compulsory courses:

BUSN1002 Accounting Processes and Systems
FINM1001 Foundations of Finance
BUSN2011 Management Accounting
BUSN2015 Company Accounting
BUSN3001 Accounting Theory

18 units from completion of courses from the following list:

BUSN1101 Introduction to Commercial Law
BUSN2101 Law of Business Entities
BUSN2036 Financial Statement Analysis
BUSN3008 Financial Reporting By Corporations
BUSN3017 Corporate Social Responsibility, Accountability and Reporting
INFS2005 Accounting Information Systems

18 units from completion of courses from the following list:

BUSN3002 Auditing
BUSN3003 Advanced Management Accounting
BUSN3006 Public Sector Accounting
BUSN3008 Financial Reporting By Corporations
BUSN3014 Principles of Tax Law
BUSN3017 Corporate Social Responsibility, Accountability and Reporting
BUSN3051 Accounting Analytics

6 units from completion of courses on List 1 of the ANU College of Business and Economics
 

If your flexible double degree is within the College of Business and Economics (for example Commerce and Economics), the below study plan may show the same course twice. If this is the case, you must only do the course once and replace the other course with a University Wide Elective or CBE List 1 elective. Please note that you cannot exceed 8 out of college electives.

The minor in Business and Economics Essentials will not be listed on transcripts for students completing the Bachelor of Accounting.

For majors and minors offered by the ANU College of Business and Economics, students may count a course towards multiple majors and minors. If a minor is a subset of all stated courses and/or prerequisites for a major, then completion of the major overrides completion of the minor, and only the major is regarded as having been completed.

The Bachelor of Actuarial Studies flexible double degree component requires completion of 96 units, of which:

A maximum of 48 units may come from completion of 1000-level courses

The 96 units must include:

72 units from completion of the following compulsory courses:

BUSN1001 Business Reporting and Analysis

ECON1101 Microeconomics 1

STAT1008 Quantitative Research Methods

STAT2013 Introductiory Mathematical Statistics for Actuarial Studies

STAT2005 Introduction to Stochastic Processes

STAT2014 Regression Modelling for Actuarial Studies

STAT2032 Financial Mathematics

STAT3032 Survival Models

STAT3057 Risk Modelling 1

STAT3058 Risk Modelling 2

STAT3037 Life Contingencies

STAT3038 Actuarial Techniques

6 units from completion of a course from the following list:

ECON1100 Economics 1 (H)

ECON1102 Macroeconomics 1

6 units from completion of a course from the following list:

ECON2102 Macroeconomics 2 (P)

ECON2016 Economics II (H)

6 units from completion of a course from the following list:

MATH1013 Mathematics and Application 1

MATH1115 Advanced Mathematics and Application 1

MATH1113 Mathematical Foundations for Actuarial Studies

6 units from the completion of courses on List 1 or List 4 of the ANU College of Business and Economics.

Students may choose to take two MATH courses instead of MATH1113. The options are MATH1013 / MATH1014 or MATH1115 / MATH1116. MATH1013 / MATH1014 is recommended for students with the bare minimum of mathematical background for the Bachelor of Actuarial Studies or for those not confident in their mathematical ability. MATH1115 / MATH1116 is a higher level of MATH1013 / MATH1014 and is recommended for those who are considering further mathematical study. Should two MATH courses be chosen, the elective course position would need to be used for the additional MATH course.

In the requirements of the Bachelor of Actuarial Studies above it is not possible to gain full exemptions from Actuaries Institute Foundation Program requirements as the required FINM courses are not included. However, by including these FINM courses in the other flexible double degree (if the FINM courses meet the requirements of the other degree), or overloading (i.e., taking more than the standard four courses in some semesters on non-award basis which means you will need to pay full fees for the courses you are overloading) or by using the College of Business and Economics Summer School Program (if available), students may be able to complete their exemptions from the Foundation Program. To facilitate either of these options, it is recommended that students undertake FINM1001 Foundations of Finance as their elective course.

If your flexible double degree is within the College of Business and Economics (for example Commerce and Economics), the suggested study plan may show the same course twice. If this is the case, you must only do the course once and replace the other course with a University Wide Elective, CBE List 1 course or CBE List 4 course. Please note that you cannot exceed 8 out of college electives.

The minor in Business and Economics Essentials will not be listed on transcripts for students completing the Bachelor of Actuarial Studies.

The courses on List 4 are equivalent to the university-offered courses under the Actuaries Institute Actuary Program, noting the following:

• The courses can only be enrolled in by students taking a flexible double degree combining a Bachelor of Actuarial Studies and another degree that contains sufficient overlap in courses to free up sufficient elective space.
• Examples of flexible double degrees where these courses can be fit into the degree are the Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Finance and Bachelor of Statistics (this list is not exhaustive).
• These courses have strict academic entry requirements. Further information on entry requirements into these courses can be found on the links to the course pages linked from the List 4 webpage.
• Students considering including List 4 courses into their degree should contact the program convener for further information on study plans, as it is necessary to move courses in the Bachelor of Actuarial Studies to earlier semesters than that of the study plan below, in order to meet the requisites of the List 4 courses.

Minors

Bachelor of Accounting Minors

Bachelor of Actuarial Studies Minors

Study Options