Certified professionals: Accountancy education has global benefits, says ACCA director

Says online courses are really bringing a revolution in the sector

ISLAMABAD: Impact of digital age on education and global benefits that the ACCA aspires to bring; were some of the themes of a conversation that this correspondent had with Dr Mary Bishop.

Dr Bishop, director of learning at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) — the global body for professional accountants, met with The Express Tribune during her visit to Pakistan to discuss the benefits of online programmes, the ACCA, and the body’s collaborations with academic institutes.

Impact of digitisation

She said that in the current education landscape, the modes of study, networking and developing knowledge had changed immensely, with digitisation as one of the biggest drivers of change.

Dr Bishop credited the internet for the increase in accessibility and freedom of knowledge.

On the advent of massive open online courses, she said that courses which were free benefit everyone.

“Therefore, online courses are really bringing a revolution in education and its reach,” Dr Bishop said.

She was of the view that the ACCA was particularly benefiting from the era of digitisation, as the blended approach to teaching had helped the accountancy students.

Dr Bishop also cited that online courses enabled ACCA to reach students who would otherwise not have access to a face-to-face learning programme.

ACCA and its reach

She said that the ACCA programme was designed to produce graduates who were “well rounded and more suitable for the corporate sector.”

Dr Bishop said that it covered technical, ethical, and professional aspects of accountancy in the corporate world.

According to Dr Bishop, ACCA is number one in producing professional accountants in the world because of its huge membership — 180,000 members and 460,000 students spread over 185 countries.

Talking about academic collaborations, she mentioned Oxford Brookes University which gives BSc honours degrees to ACCA graduates and the University of London, which offered them a Masters in Professional Accounting degree.

“These collaborations have allowed blurring of the divide between professional and academic education, which is extremely essential in today’s age,” she said.

Global benefits

Dr Bishop said that it was critical to collaborate with local governments and regulators to contribute to the public good; calling it “one of the ACCA’s underpinning values.”

She said that the association propagated responsibility and ethical commitment in accounting to contribute towards improving the global economic performance.

Dr Bishop said that the ACCA specifically ensured this through its capacity building projects, for example, it had received World Bank funding this year to support different projects in Rwanda.

She said that it was important for the association to have its degrees recognised by all stakeholders in all countries.

Dr Bishop said that in Pakistan, the ACCA was constantly in touch with the Higher Education Commission as they recognised their degrees.

“The ACCA also firmly believes in supporting government with their clients and policies with regards to finance and fiscal policies, so the ACCA regularly sends its advice on various policies and budgets to the government,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2016.