What is the OBU all about?
ACCA teamed up with Oxford Brookes University to offer all eligible students (essentially mostly those who registered within the last 10 years*) the fantastic opportunity to obtain a BSc Honours degree in Applied Accounting, a qualification that is recognised worldwide. Most UK university bachelor degrees take 3 years to complete but by joining forces, the ACCA and OBU present a ‘fast-track’ way of getting those all important BSc letters after your name, but without any real short-cuts! While you have been toiling over all of your ACCA exams you have been demonstrating technical accounting skills – just like students on Accounting and Finance courses offered by other Universities. So once you have reached the required level* of exam passes, you normally automatically become eligible (unless you have specifically opted out and decided not to join the programme) to enter for the degree and the opportunity to receive a university qualification in addition to the accountancy qualification on offer by ACCA. *Please check your individual eligibility and requirements by consulting the OBU RAP Information Pack and if in doubt contact OBU directly as they will be able to advise you accordingly
What is involved?
Most students are able to fulfil the OBU requirements in 3 months! This does entail a fair amount of concentrated effort but is realistically achievable for the average student. To pass you need to submit a Research & Analysis Project (RAP) – a formal written 7,500 word report – on one of 20 set topicswhich meets OBU’s academic requirements, together with a 2,000 word ‘Skills & Learning Statement’ (basically a self-reflection on how you covered the overall RAP objectives and how the process has helped you improve your study habits, communication and potential study/job prospects).
There is also a requirement to prepare a short 15 minute PowerPoint presentation along with appropriate slides. We will be covering this in more detail in many articles but the OBU Information Pack outlines the OBU requirements and gives a lot of advice to get you started. When you are ready to submit your work there is a submission fee (currently in the region of GBP200) levied by OBU (to them, not to us!) to cover OBU overheads and marking and it usually takes between 4 – 5 months for your result to be confirmed but if your RAP is assessed as achieving the pass criteria you will then be entitled to the BSc (Hons.) degree.
Although the RAP is graded, the actual class of degree (e.g. First class honours, Upper Second etc) mostly depends on your average exam grade (again details of this are given in the OBU Information Pack).