i'm a Bachelor of accountancy (hons) final year student. I would like to ask which professional qualification should i do after i've finished my degree. currently, im considering whether to take CIMA, MICPA or ACCA. kindly give me your opinion.
Thanks in advance.

Which country is your degree from?

IMHO, all 3 (CIMA, MICPA and ACCA) are non-degree prerequisite professional qualifications. If you have a degree, you should take a professional qualification which requires a degree (CA or CPA).

No point taking a step backwards.

There should be exemptions i suppose?

Depends on which accounting line do U want to join.

ACCA if U wanna go into public practice e.g. auditor, tax consultant. The focus is on technical excellence.

CIMA if U wanna work in commercial firms, becos they emphasise more on management accounting tools like budgeting, planning, decision-making and a bit of marketing stuff.

MICPA if......I dunno.

This post has been edited by Prince_Hamsap: Apr 12 2008, 05:25 PM

ACCA, MICPA and CIMA does offer exemptions to degree holders.

On the other hand, CA and CPA does not include those basic modules in their programs at all as their candidates already have the necessary educational basis in the first place.

Great thread, I've been looking for it actually. Just want to know, let say you have accounting degree from local u and there's exemption for ACCA, MICPA and CIMA. The question is, how do we know what subject is exempted and how many papers should we take, let say ACCA? where to check?

This post has been edited by killingspree: Apr 12 2008, 11:43 PM

Just check from their websites and email them if you need to.

If I had an accounting degree from a local U that's on MIA's list, I wouldn't bother getting ACCA, MICPA and CIMA.

A local acctg degree accredited by MIA entitles you to join MIA after fulfilling the work experience requirements. And once you're a CA with MIA, you can do everything from calling yourself an accountant, to getting an audit licence.

In addition, you can use your membership of MIA to gain entry into reciprocating foreign statutory accounting bodies.

Why bother doing ACCA, MICPA, CIMA, or even CA or CPA when you already have a direct route to the ultimate destination ie. MIA CA? You don't need another professional qualification when you already have a qualification from a statutory accounting body.

If you really want to spend some time studying, might as well do a higher qualification like a Masters or a professional qualification that expands beyond accounting like a CFA.

This post has been edited by seantang: Apr 13 2008, 12:09 AM

I would say ACCA as I took it too.
ACCA gives global recognition. Working in overseas countries like UK wont be issue at least.
Hope this helps

I would say that all established professional qualifications give global recognition.

The differences in prestige and employer regard would be whether the professional body (1) conducts a degree-prerequisite program or not, and (2) whether the professional body also functions as a national statutory body as well (like ACA/ASCPA, SICPA, HKCPA etc).

degree from local uni. degree will give exemption for certain modules in ACCA, CIMA and MICPA.

After you complete your local Accountancy degree, you will be eligible to apply for membership with MIA after which you can also apply for exemptions from other professional bodies like ACCA, CIMA, MACPA etc..For more info on MIA pls. read their FAQ here: MIA FAQ
Rgds

As you do not mention which local university you are from, so I do not make any assumption. I advise based on general rules.
In order to qualify for MIA membership, you are required to pass the final exam as specified by Accountant act 1967, schedule Part 1.
After obtaining 3 years of relevant working experiences as specified in the same Act, you may apply for MIA membership and qualified youself as Chartered Accountant (CA).
However, please be mindful that MIA membership do not automatically admit you to foreign professional accountancy bodies, where you are required to apply for exemption , attempting its papers and the admission requirement varies from each others. Some require Continouos Professional Development (CPD), some do not.
I do not know your intention in pursuing professional degress such as ACCA, CIMA or CPA but it depends on individual goals and ambition.
Local graduates that qualify for MIA membership do not bother for professional qualification as they can opt for MIA membership.
However, for those local gradute that do not qualify for MIA membership will consider taking up foreign professional qualification to apply MIA membership, meaning you will have two membership. But bear in mind that MIA membership only cost RM250 but foreign membership will cost you pound sterling, USD, EURO or any foreign currency (e.g. 175 pound for ACCA Associate member, equivalent to RM1,120 @ 6.40). Thus, many ACCA, CIMA or CPA associate members after obtaining their membership, they normally apply MIA member and give up their membership in ACCA, CIMA or CPA due to relatively higher member fee paid.
My advice will be:
1) If your local accountancy degree is recognized by MIA, after you have obtaining 3 years of relevant working experience, you can apply for MIA membership and become CA.
2) If your local accountacy degree is not recognized by MIA, you may opt for:
a) any foreign professional degree recognized by MIA.
b) Qualifying Exam (QE) conducted by MIA.
For details, check http://www.mia.org.my
The pro and con for the above is that MIA member is a Malaysian Professional Accountancy Body. The recognition of MIA membership in oversea varies from each others. The popularity of MIA membership compared with foreign accountacy membership depends on countries and employers. There is no saying of MIA membership is inferior or superior to other membership as it is only individual perception. Many foreign professional accountacy bodies as well as its students or associate members definitely will promote its body and some might have exaggerated its qualification. To be sure and firm, it is always wise to refer to MIA as the regulatory body in Malaysia.
Be cautios that many private colleges nowadays claim to provide accounting course that is recognized by MIA but ending you need to sit for MIA QE exams. QE exams are only for those local and oversea accounting degree that are not recognized by MIA as well as STPM qualification. Exemption for QE exam varies from each others.
My advice is always collect detailed information before opt for any qualification in accountacy as it is very costly to regret half-way and taking up many qualifications and ending up as not achieving any qualification. It is true that the passing rate for some professional accountancy bodies is quite low, some is as low as 30%. But being optimistic, you should view yourself as part of the passing 30%, not the failing 70% and so forth. There is always no shortcut or easy way in getting yourself qualified as CA, for those who is fortunate to be admitted to local universities accountacy degree course and which are recognized by MIA, try not to be arrogant as employers nowadays regard foreign accountancy membership or qualification higher than MIA membership or local university qualification due to the protectionism practised by the Malaysian government in tertiary education.
If you have further question, I would be more than happy to help you.
Hope you find your bright future in accountancy career!

I dont think so, go to UK/US and tell ppl u r a CA - MIA member, chances of ppls know what is MIA are definitely very low. Even if they know it is an Insitute Of CA in Malaysia, they won't know how prestidges it is. It is more advisable to get an ACCA/CIMA/CPA as these are the most well-known professional body, internationally recognised, besides, you automatically qualifed as a MIA member once your acquired your ACCA/CIMA membership.

This post has been edited by alxcnq: Jun 24 2008, 12:40 PM

Depends on what you mean by recognition.

If you say man on the street or colleague in office, chances are they won't know who MIA are.

But if recognition means whether other professional bodies recognise MIA as the statutory body for the accounting practice in Malaysia, they do in the sense that they usually have reciprocating recognition arrangements with MIA (ie. if their members want to be recognised in Malaysia, they'll have to talk to MIA first), and MIA is a member of the major global acctg stds setting bodies.

This post has been edited by seantang: Jun 24 2008, 01:29 PM

Since you already got a degree, try ICAEW instead.

That's the problem, MIA is well known only in Malaysia, apart from that, you also need to think about prestige here. Imagine you go for an interview in UK or other countries outside malaysia, you tell your employer you are an MIA member compared to you are an ACCA member, which one you think can impress the employer more? They know what ACCA is, the whole world of accounting knows they are a prestiges professional body. Why take only one membership when you can take two? If you talk about reciprocating recognition, ACCA/CIMA also opens you to that. Think yourself.

This post has been edited by alxcnq: Jun 24 2008, 01:54 PM

Firstly, my assumption about TS was that his ultimate aim was to practise in Malaysia. In that case, all roads lead to MIA and/or an audit license.

Secondly, if TS wanted to work overseas, I still won't take ACCA or CIMA. Why? Because they are not the governing accounting body of any country.

If I wanted to practise in Australia, I'd take ICAA or ASCPA.

In Singapore, ICPAS. China, CICPA... and so on.

Therefore, if TS has overseas ambitions in mind, depending on which country, my first priority is to take the qualification from the governing body in that country. If that's not possible, I still wouldn't take ACCA and CIMA. I'd rather take ICAA, ASCPA, ICAEW, NZICA etc because these are degree-prerequisite qualifications, are governing bodies in their respective home countries and in short, simply more prestigious and well regarded.

This post has been edited by seantang: Jun 24 2008, 07:09 PM

You still dont get it. For your info ACCA Chartered Certified Accountant qualification is fully recognised in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, they are one of the designated statutory body/governing body there. Outside these countries, legal recognition by government authorities, and mutual recognition by equivalent overseas institutes, varies from country to country, many countries like Malaysia do offer membership to those who is an ACCA direct to their local statutory body, also in many countries ACCA's strong global reputation have even obviate the need to acquire a local designation.

Take Australia for instance, you mentioned ICAA or ASCPA, but ACCA qualification is also a statutory recognised body for insolvency purposes & audit purposes there. The ACCA qualification is recognised as at least equivalent to an Australian bachelors degree in accountancy(in some countries even equivalent to master). This allows ACCA members to obtain a direct entry to the examinations or advanced standing from Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia or National Institute of Accountants.

TS is currently in Malaysia, the best choice ofcourse would be ACCA if he want to pursue accounting, even if his ultimate aim is to practice accounting just in Malaysia, ACCA also open you to a direct membership in MIA, and who know some day he might want to work in UK? You cant tell, back yourself up with ACCA would definitely be an advantage. Even if you go to other countries just for conference purpose or meeting, you will be known if you say you are ACCA with designation FCCA because ppl already know at what standards ACCA are. If you say like MIA, ppl dont know at what quality the body is like, their prestigious would definitely be in doubt. Master degree in instance does not open you to the recognition whether statutory or not like, ACCA does, you should obtain ACCA first before you go for master if you want to persue accoutancy. Which is also why I keep mentioning globally recognised, it is not just globally famous thats all. Hence, it is advisable to take ACCA, because it open you to a lot of opportunities, recognition and routes, if you just take ICAA or ASCPA, MIA it is not as globally recognised as ACCA, your choice is limited. Not forgot to mention, CFA is a body well recognised in finance/investment not accountancy.

This post has been edited by alxcnq: Jun 24 2008, 06:14 PM

I stand corrected on the term governing bodies.

MIA is a very different animal altogether as an organisation that both regulates the industry and professionally qualifies accountants.

Only in Australia is there something similar where the ICAA and CPA Aust jointly undertake to regulate the profession via the regulation of their respective memberships and their joint membership of standards setting bodies. In Singapore, the industry is regulated by a statutory body ACRA but only ICPAS is recognised by ACRA as the national accounting body.

In the UK, the FRC regulates the industry with input from the major accounting bodies.

I would put it to you though that ACCA offers nothing more than what the largest international accounting bodies like ICAEW, ICAA, CPA Australia, AICPA, NZICA etc. already offer in terms of global recognition. I have yet to see any nation's list of recognised accounting bodies that include ACCA, but not the others.

As for less international bodies like MIA, MICPA, ICPAS etc... I concede that their reciprocating relationships are fewer.

Professional qualifications (ACCA or any other prof qualification for that matter) are SOMETIMES recognised as alternatives to a bachelor's degree for SELECTED courses in SOME universities. This is certainly not universal. As for being equivalent to a masters, that's even less common if any. In any case, equivalency is not the same as actually having a degree. A bachelor's degree is accepted... well, as a bachelor's degree for entry into any Master's or PhD. No need for discretion or special favour. Additionally, if one doesn't pay one's ACCA dues or one's certification is revoked for some reason, one's highest qualification reverts overnight back to SPM or STPM. A degree stays with a graduate for life.

At the end of the day, it's a moot point. Whatever tertiary educational requirements the ACCA is deemed to have fulfilled, the same benefit extends to any of the other international accounting bodies, with the exception that the latter actually have an undergraduate degree base, which potentially opens up even more possibilities of advanced standing in other courses which are less friendly towards professional accounting qualifications.

Again, it's not universal. If TS has a degree from a local university and he has no intention of working overseas, I wouldn't bother with anything else and go straight for MIA membership.

However if he is like you, and insists on an additional professional qualification, his options for a qualification from a large international accounting body would be limited, to perhaps ACCA as you said, or CIMA.

But if he has any foreign degree that allows him to gain a qualification from any other large international accounting body like ICAA, CPA Australia, ICAEW, AICPA, NZICA etc... my advise still stands that his first option needs to be any of those organisations instead of ACCA. The opportunities, recognition and routes, as you've put it, are at worst, as good as ACCA (but IMHO actually much more prestigious and well regarded by employers due to the fact that the latter qualifications only accept degree holders as candidates, and in the case of ICAA and CPA Australia, they are indeed governing bodies in their home country).

And after all that, it's no coincidence that it's usually only the ACCA holders or advocates who are always trying hard to convince everyone else of ACCA being 'the best', or being equivalent to a degree, or being as good as the other international accounting qualifications. You don't see Chartered Accountants (as distinct from ACCA's Chartered CERTIFIED Accts, not Certified CHARTERED Accts) and CPAs having to do the same to spin their qualifications.

I'm noob in this field, but reading on your explanation, for example, if I plan to work in Singapore and China, that means I need to take both ICPAS and CICPA? I have a feeling that these papers aren't going to be easy. So, the pay is gonna be real good compare to ACCA?