Master of Professional Accounting (Professional Practice)

at Charles Darwin University

Course structure

The course will equip you with contemporary knowledge and skills required for professional practice as a public or chartered accountant. The course will provide you the technical and conceptual skills required in a competent accountant, and will develop your ability to explore, analyse and synthesise various accounting and related principles, methods and techniques.

For your professional practise component CDU provides training specific to working effectively in an organisation. You are then provided with a placement opportunity to work in an organisation of approximately 300 hours over a period of eight to ten weeks. If you wish you may also organise your own placement company to work at. The placement occurs in the last semester of study and provides you with an opportunity to apply the knowledge you have gained during your MPA studies.

Where students have prior CPA/CAANZ assessed exemptions and require electives to complete the total of 160 credit points, electives may be selected from the MBA, on approval of the Course Coordinator.

Core Units

Compulsory Core units totalling 120 credit points as detailed below.
 

• ACT501 Accounting Principles
• ACT502 Management Accounting
• ACT503 Corporate Accounting
• ACT504 Auditing
• ACT505 Accounting Theory
• ACT506 Accounting Information Systems
• ECO505 Economics of Sustainability (replaces ECO504 from 2022)
• FIN510 Aspects of Corporate Finance
• LAW511 Australian Tax Law
• LAW513 Corporate Law
• LAW514 Commercial Law
• STA510 Business Statistics

Specialist Elective

Students select 40 credit points of specialist elective units from one (1) of the specialisations below.

Professional Placement Specialisation

Minimum academic performance required
 

• WIB601 Business Skill and Professional Communication (unit title change 2022)
• WIB602 Professional Practice 1
• WIB603 Professional Practice 2 (20cp)

Advanced Business Research Specialisation

Minimum academic performance required
 

• BUS801 Business Research Project 1: Literature Review and Research Design
• BUS802 Business Research Project 2: Applied Qualitative Business Research
• BUS803 Business Research Project 3: Applied Quantitative Business Research
• BUS804 Business Research Thesis Proposal

Open Specialisation: Students select 40cp from the list below.
 

• BUS504 Sustainable Enterprise
• BUS505 Design Thinking for Sustainable Innovation
• BUS506 Global Megatrends
• BUS507 Global Market and Sustainability Strategy
• ENT501 Sustainable Entrepreneurship
• FIN503 Finance, Investment and Sustainability
• MAN514 Management for the Executive
• MAN516 Resilience Management and Leadership

Admission criteria

• Successful completion of the Graduate Diploma of Accounting Studies
  
  OR
   
• Successful completion of a recognised bachelor degree or equivalent international qualification in any discipline.

Applicants who have fully satisfied the entry requirements of the accounting professional bodies in their first degree are not eligible for entry.

The fees for Master of Professional Accounting (Professional Practice) may vary from $30,000 to $45,000 annually for tuition fees. The fee's prices may get higher for International Students.