Monash Actuarial Program Accreditation – News & Updates

July 2009

Students considering selecting units in their degree that will allow them to apply for accreditation with the Institute of Actuaries of Australia should consider the following points. Note that final accreditation has not yet been granted so there may be further changes.

1. Selection of Accounting and Finance Units

There has been a change in the set of units we expect to be required for accreditation in the Institute's CT2 (Accounting and Finance) Unit. The 3 Monash Units now required for exemption in CT2 are:

• AFC1000 Principles of accounting and finance
• AFC2000 Financial institutions and markets
• AFC2140 Corporate finance

(all three units would need to be completed). The change here is that we are no longer intending to require AFC1030 for CT2 exemption.

2. Maths Units

For students interested in the actuarial program, it would be advantageous for you to have as strong a maths background as possible. Later year Actuarial units rely quite heavily on mathematical ability. If you have not done Specialist Maths (or equivalent) at VCE, we recommend MTH1020, and for those who have done Specialist Maths, MTH1030 is the best option. You can get more advice about Maths Units from the School of Mathematical Sciences webpage.

We also recommend a second year maths unit (either one from the maths school or ETC2440 which is taught by the Econometrics Department (ETC2440)

None of these Maths units are essential for Actuarial accreditation, but they will provide useful background skills that increase your chances of success.

3. Utility Theory Tutorials Associated With ECC1000

If you want exemption from the Institute subject CT7 (Economics), it is necessary for you to complete ECC1000 and ECC1100 to an adequate standard (distinction at least), and attend two additional tutorials in Utility Theory, and pass a relevant assessment task.

The additional tutorials in Utility Theory are run every semester. You need to complete the tutorial program at some stage but it doesn't have to be in the same semester in which you actually did ECC1000.

You can register for the tutorials here – registration for Semester 2 tutorials will open in a couple of weeks, and tutorials will be held later in the semester.

4. An Update on Accreditation of Monash's Actuarial Program

The Institute of Actuaries of Australia has set up a Panel to analyse and report on the accreditation application from Monash for the "non-core" actuarial subjects. These are CT2 (Accounting and Finance) CT3 (Statistics) CT7 (Economics) and CT8 (Financial Economics, or Econometrics).

An actuary has been appointed as an "external examiner (or scrutineer)" foreach of those subjects to investigate Monash's application for accreditation. The Panel is holding a series of meetings now and we expect some definite advice and decisions shortly.

Once provisional accreditation has been granted for these "non-core"subjects we intend to proceed with applying over the following 6 to 9 months for accreditation for the "core" subjects CT1, CT4, CT5 and CT6, so hope to have full provisional accreditation for all 8 subjects by the middle of 2010.

The granting of accreditation is expected to provide for a certain amount of "backdating" to apply to units at Monash completed in past semesters.