A landmark collaboration between Deakin and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) will enable members of the professional accountancy body to fast-track the University’s popular MBA program.
The arrangement is an acknowledgement of the extensive educational dimension of full ACCA membership and offers ACCA accountants up to six credits in Deakin’s 12-credit point Master of Business Administration (MBA).
MBA Course Director Associate Professor Colin Higgins celebrated the collaboration as a win for both ACCA members and Deakin, “these types of collaborations with key industry bodies reflects the way the Deakin MBA is geared toward understanding the needs of professionals – wherever they are and wherever they’re going.”
With Deakin’s MBA ranked in the top 25 of online MBA programs globally, the acceleration scheme will be appealing to many, according to Associate Professor Luckmika Perera, Deakin Business School Director – Professional Education and Partnerships.
“This a great opportunity for busy, ambitious accounting professionals. It also underscores Deakin’s strong reputation and links with industry,” Perera said.
The partnership includes other benefits, in addition to the accelerated MBA program. ACCA members can take advantage of:
- 10 per cent discount on any postgraduate program offered by Deakin University’s Faculty of Business and Law
- Institute of Managers and Leaders membership with their MBA enrolment
- Access to dedicated executive and career coaching, a professional career development program
- Option to customise assessment in core units.
Perera said ACCA members who meet entry requirements and enrol for the Deakin MBA would enjoy all the same program features accessed by standard pathways students.
“We know that students really value the flexible delivery of Deakin’s online MBA. Being able to fit your degree around a demanding job, and study when and where is convenient for you, is a huge drawcard,” Perera says.
Deakin’s online MBA has been recognised as the best of its kind in Victoria for three years’ running. It consistently attracts ambitious high-achievers because of its varied delivery options, academic excellence, and industry-connected teachers.
Feedback indicates the program’s intensive “residentials” (akin to thinking and breathing in an MBA unit over six concentrated days) are increasingly popular, as are the masterclasses which focus on current, moving issues in the industry.
“We have listened to students and graduates and know that these kinds of varied, flexible delivery options really hit the mark in terms of what aspiring professionals want and need,” Perera said.
Maurice Cheong, Head of ACCA (Australia and New Zealand), said he the unique Deakin-ACCA arrangement reflected the leading accounting body’s global status and influence on the accounting profession.
“At ACCA, we pride ourselves with our unrivalled connections to shape the global accountancy profession. We connect our members with fulfilling careers, organisations with the best finance talents, and economies with the ingredients for growth,” Cheong said.
Describing the collaboration as “exciting and unique” Cheong says it reflected exactly the kind of innovation and partnership approach that was crucial in era of rapid change.
“By offering our members access and acceleration of one of Australia’s premier business education programs, it definitely demonstrates the kind of connections ACCA strives to achieve in order to provide the utmost value proposition to our members globally.”
The new digital economy brought challenges, Cheong said, and both ACCA and Deakin’s educational offerings were lifting the bar in creating educational qualifications that responded to the contemporary skills, ethics and quotients required by industry.
“Along with our internal offerings, this MBA program by Deakin University will no doubt help elevate the relevant skills, contemporary knowledge and real-life experience our members need to continue to be business leaders of tomorrow.”
