Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting

Duration0.5 years full-time, 1 year part-time
Location
Brisbane and
Next start termTerm 1, 2025
Study modeOn Campus, Online
Course codeCC38
CRICOS084204D
First-year fee
A$18,360 (Indicative)
A postgraduate student taking notes at a desk in an office

Overview

CQUniversity's Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting is excellent preparation to develop a career in accounting.

In this course, you will begin to develop business and accounting skills in line with requirements from the major Australian professional accounting bodies.

If you are a postgraduate student wanting to develop a career in accounting but do not meet the criteria for the Master of Professional Accounting you may consider enrolling in this course. Upon successful completion of this course, you will be allowed to enrol in the Graduate Diploma of Professional Accounting and will receive credit for the units completed in the Graduate Certificate.

Study a Master of Professional Accounting

Transcript

Professional accounting is a field that's in high demand. It's needed by every organisation, so there are a lot of opportunities.

The Master of Professional Accounting is a course designed for graduates of any discipline to achieve professional accounting qualifications.
Our Master of Professional Accounting has a set of core units plus space for two electives, and students can take electives in a number of areas, including forensic accounting, data analytics or they can take a business internship where they get the opportunity to work with a company for 10 weeks.

Internship requires them to attend a company's premises and do work for four days a week for 10 weeks in a normal term, and that's unpaid employment, but it's realistic employment.

At the same time, the student completes a research project for that company. 
CQUniversity provided me with many platforms to go beyond my potential. This course provided me financial literacy, theoretical skills as well as computer skills.

Currently, I am working as an Assistant Accountant in the construction industry. This was my first accounting job in Australia, and I got promoted after a year.
The course meets the accreditation requirements for professional accounting in Australia to become a CPA or a chartered accountant. 
Our staff are all doctorally qualified, including casual staff. They need to be active researchers and they are working in very applied areas including, for example, fraud detection, areas like sustainable business, sustainability reporting, so they're very applied industry relevant sort of areas. 
We design our teaching approach using effectively a flipped classroom model. We use a combination of lecture recordings and workshops.

The workshops are small in size, limited to under 50 students. And, students engage in quite practical activities, applying concepts to authentic case studies and situations, and they have the opportunity to work in small teams to discuss those questions.

My advice to the students studying in university and the graduates is to upskill yourself and learn new things. Learning does not stop at university. So, if you want to get the dream job you want, work smart and work on your soft skills as well.
The future of accounting is less focused on the debit and credit bookkeeping side because that is being automated but becoming more focused on the analysis of accounting data and looking for trends and guiding businesses in making decisions.
And that's where the accounting data becomes relevant, and that's the future of accounting.

Study experience

  • Cambodian, Masters Student Vorleak Ban smiling in front of a concrete wall
    I chose this course because I wanted to further my accounting qualification in an overseas environment. CQU offers many support services to help international students socially and academically.

    Vorleak Ban

    Master of Professional Accounting I Cambodia

Career Opportunities

Upon successful completion of the Graduate Certificate of Professional Accounting, you will have made the first steps on the way to a successful accounting career. To continue your studies towards qualifying as an accountant, you will need to enrol in the Graduate Diploma of Professional Accounting.

Structure & Availability

The course structure and available locations can change depending on when you want to study. You can choose the intake that best suits you in the drop-down menu below.

Available locations

Your course

You must complete four units (24 credits):

  1. 1
    The core structure (4 units)

Unit details

The units you'll study are listed below. Click on a unit to learn more.

Additional information

If you have already completed a study relevant to the course you have enrolled in, you may be eligible for credit transfer.

Requirements

To be eligible

For your application to be considered, you must meet the following entry requirements.

During your study

While not needed to apply, you'll need to meet the following requirements throughout your studies. 

Fees & Scholarships

Course fees

This is an approximate cost of enrolling in this course, shown in Australian dollars (A$), for one academic year and is based on a full-time study load (8 units over 2 terms). 

Your actual fees may vary, depending on the units that you select to study and your study load. Fees are reviewed each year and are subject to change.

International Course Fees

A scholarship can help with the costs involved with living on campus, laptops and technology, childcare, study and living expenses, travel, and more.

You may be eligible for up to 25% international scholarship funded by the University.

We also offer other scholarships to support international students and encourage you to apply for the one that's right for you.

Browse our scholarships

In addition to your international course tuition fees, you must have sufficient funds to cover other study and living expenses. 

This will include costs such as textbooks, accommodation, visa applications, Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC), general living, etc.

Information about cost of living in Australia

Overseas Student Health Cover

How to apply

Our easy to use online application system for international students will guide you through the process of applying for a course at CQUniversity Australia.