“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”
- Joseph Campbell
I am officially back to school! Well, partly that is. Some might wonder why I wanted to become a student again. Wasn't the full-time job not enough? Hardly.
Since I started working full time in 2011, I was looking for a way to improve my knowledge in the field where I am employed right now: accounting. As my previous studies did not cover accounting-related subjects in detail, I felt a bit less prepared for the daily challenges at work fresh graduates experience. My current employer does a good job in giving its employees valuable on-the-job training in order to become a specialist in the desired fields. However, there is a clear distinction between the practical knowledge of working in an auditing company and the general methodological concepts behind the profession.
The programme
As I was looking into the possibilities of studying accounting, I stumbled upon the International Programmes offered by the University of London. The course material is assembled and also examined by professors of one of the many colleges united under the University of London brand. They offer bachelors and master degrees as well as diplomas for anyone who is willing to take on the challenge of studying on his own. For me, it was clear that I do not want to do a bachelor or master, since I already hold a German Diplom and a Masters from a Japanese University. Therefore, the diploma for graduates programme caught my attention. Meant to be a supplementary course for graduates of an unrelated discipline, the 4-course programme seamed to fit into my schedule quite well.
The course
The subject of accounting is offered by the London School of Economics (LSE), a prestigious school known by many students of business and the social sciences. In order to gain the qualification of a diploma for graduates in accounting, one must pass 4 exams in subjects such as "principles of accounting", "audit and assurance", "management accounting", and "financial accounting". As there are no taught courses offered online, only discipline and enough motivation will lead to success with the course. On the bright side, it is comparably cheap with a bit more than 1000 pounds tuition for the diploma (this excludes examination fees of the University of London and the external testing sites, the latter of which can be quite expensive).
The benefits:
Two of the main benefits to being a student again is (a) the access to scientific journals and (b) a student email address.
For some of the classes, access to scientific journals is essential, especially if the course involves writing a research paper. Also, when studying for a course that ends with a written examination, references to research papers are frequently made in the study guides. For me, the access to all these resources would be a reason for itself to become enrolled at University again.
After being enrolled at the University of London, an academic email account is provided as well. The University uses Gmail as a provider for the emails. However, as this is an academic account, the inbox size is 25 GB as opposed to the 10 GB offered to regular accounts.
Comments