PQ magazine AIA’s ‘ACCOUNTANCY MEDIA OF THE YEAR 2015’
www.pqmagazine.co.uk / www.pqjobs.co.uk
December 2015
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
LECTURERS’ CONFERENCE
PQ magazine attended this year’s CIMA event on your behalf. So what are the examiners saying?
AWARDS MATTER
HOT ACCA EXAM TIPS
We’ve just won one – and it could be your turn next
Advice and guidance from the UK’s top tutors for the upcoming exams
SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP MOVES TO NEXT LEVEL PQ magazine
EXCLUSIVE After more than three years of ‘courting’, CIMA and the AICPA have announced they are ready to take their relationship to the next stage! The two bodies started their joint venture way back in 2012, and when they came together the pair promised to keep things under constant review. It would seem that both parties are still talking and now want to take the partnership further. In an exclusive interview with PQ magazine, CIMA’s MD Andrew Harding explained that in order to take this next step with the American Institute of CPAs it is proposing the creation of a new association. Together, that means an association representing 600,000
current and next-generation professionals, creating what Harding believes will be a hugely influential, truly global body of professional accountants. Some 150,000 CIMA and AICPA members have already taken up the option to become Chartered
Global Management Accountant’s (CGMA). Harding stressed that CIMA members and students would continue to be served by CIMA. What is being integrated are the organisations’ strategies, management and operations, but
both will continue to operate as separate membership bodies. He felt students will be one of the main beneficiaries of the move, with better opportunities for employment and career prospects. Harding revealed that CIMA’s global reach was already seen a big attraction for students – some one in five new recruits mention the institute’s global influence as the key reason for choosing to study with CIMA. Members of both CIMA and the AICPA are now being asked to endorse this new commitment in 2016. Harding said that CIMA members were keen to keep hold of their royal charter, council set-up and mission, and have a strong affinity to their own brand. So any suggestion that this was a step on the road to a full merger was wide of the mark. There are no plans for further integration after this – so they will live together, but aren’t going to change their names!
TIME FOR AN ACCA STUDENT COUNCIL
Do ACCA PQs need a student council to represent the views of all students? That is just one suggestion coming from the fall-out over the announcement that the ACCA will no longer be publishing the exam papers and examiners’ answers after each sitting. Some students feel they haven’t been properly consulted about the move and liked the idea of a more formal arrangement for feedback, such as a student committee. However, the ACCA does work hard to engage with students through its active learning
community. It also has Learning Community Champions, who advise it on the best ways of improving the learning community. The ACCA has upped its game considerably in recent years to become more engaged with its PQs, but the news that the paper Q&As were no longer being published after each sitting just didn’t seem to filter through to students. When PQ magazine announced the change students asked: “When is this happening?” We had to tell them it already had! Students really don’t like the move. With exam
practice such a major factor in preparing for the real thing students just could not get their heads around the fact that they were no longer available. As one ACCA said: “As good as some books are, there’s no substitute for completing exam questions against the clock.” Students also want to go over the actual test they have sat, not an amalgamation of questions from the last two sittings. “That will mean nothing to me and the experience I went through,” a disgruntled PQ pointed out.