All 31 Rhodes University Accounting candidates passed the new Assessment of Professional Competence Exam (APC). This gives Rhodes the distinction of being the only one of the 13 SAICA-accredited institutions to achieve a 100% pass rate. The national pass rate was 86%.
All 31 Rhodes University Accounting candidates passed the new Assessment of Professional Competence Exam (APC). This gives Rhodes the distinction of being the only one of the 13 SAICA-accredited institutions to achieve a 100% pass rate. The national pass rate was 86%.
Last year professional body the South African Institute for Chartered Accountants launched the new exam.
In November 2014 a total of 2 050 students sat the exam at various centres countrywide. The APC is the final assessment in the process of qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (CA (SA) and is written towards the end of the second year of the three-year training contract.
The APC assesses professional competence with a specific focus on the assessment of the strategic and managerial aspects of the broader accountancy discipline.
Candidates were presented with a case study five days before the exam, to allow them to do additional research before writing the assessment. The exam focused on examining the candidate’s ability to use the knowledge and skills they developed through their academic and well as professional training programmes.
Technical proficiency is thoroughly tested in the Initial Test of Competence (ITC), written shortly after the final post-graduate year at university. The APC, in contrast, focuses on the candidate’s ability to demonstrate real-life professional application of their knowledge and skills.
Describing it as a "phenomenal achievement", head of the Rhodes University Department of Accountancy, Professor Jackie Arendse said, “I am extremely proud of our Rhodes graduates who achieved 100% pass rates in both the ITC in 2013 and the APC in 2014, meaning that these graduates have proceeded from our Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting straight through both sets of professional exams. The 100% pass rate in the 2014 APC follows on the heels of a 100% pass rate in the ITC for both 2013 and 2014.
