The Bachelor of Business Science specialising in Finance with Accounting degree is designed for students who want to qualify as Chartered Accountants. This qualification is the first step to become a CA (SA) registered with SAICA while getting a solid grounding in the related discipline of finance. Finance and accounting are strongly interconnected and make for a potent combination. Finance is concerned with the sourcing, allocation and investment of funds. It is both a science (based on rigorous theory and quantitative models) and art (requires judgment and insights into human behaviour). Thus, it is a highly diverse discipline, which overlaps with accounting, economics, mathematics, politics, psychology, strategy, statistics and many other fields. 

For the CA (SA) career path specifically, there are two routes at UCT: either the three-year BCom Chartered Accountant degree or the four-year BBusSc Finance with Accounting degree. After finishing either of these degrees, students wishing to pursue the CA route must complete a one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting (PGDA) before writing the SAICA board exams (a vital requirement of the CA professional qualification). 

The focus of the BBusSc Finance with Accounting degree is, as the name implies, finance and accounting, which it takes up to the fourth - and third-year levels, respectively. Because of the fourth-year finance content, this degree is an honours-level degree. Further, because it is a four-year programme, this degree also includes elements of a range of other disciplines, such as human resources, statistics, marketing etc. Thus, even without the PGDA, the BBusSc Finance with Accounting degree opens up career options not only in accounting but because of its finance component, also in the broader financial and investment industries. 

Through (mainly) its accounting component, the BBusSc Finance with Accounting degree covers the required undergraduate SAICA curriculum for eventually progressing towards the SAICA board exams. This degree is also an affiliate degree of the US-based CFA Institute, which offers the Chartered Financial Analyst professional qualification for investment and financial professionals. This course covers a large proportion of the curriculum for at least the first level of the CFA exams. 

For more information on the courses, please refer to the Commerce Undergraduate Handbook.

For information on applying to UCT, admission requirements, National Benchmark Tests, and key dates, please consult UCT’s Undergraduate Prospectus.