Master of Accounting

Chartered Accountants Ireland exemptions

This programme has been developed with reference to the Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) syllabus. Therefore, significant exemptions from the CAI examinations are available. Graduates of the MAcc are granted full exemption from CAI’s CAP2 examinations, provided that they have full exemption from CAI’s CAP1 examinations before taking the MAcc.

MAcc graduates success in recent professional examinations

Our graduates consistently achieve very high places in the Final Admitting Examination of Chartered Accountants Ireland and in the final examination of the Irish Tax Institute (AITI). In the recent professional exams, our graduates Aisling Curtin and Sarah Finnegan obtained second and third place respectively in CAI’s Final Admitting Examination and Nora Cosgrove was placed second in the final examinations of the Irish Taxation Institute.

Summer Schools

The programme  hosts two summer schools which are held after the summer exams, typically in May and June. The topics vary from year to year.

• Summer school #1: Analytics in Accounting and Auditing, delivered by KPMG This summer school aims to give participants a rich understanding of the use of software and cognitive technologies to analyse audit and accounting data. The summer school demonstrates KPMG tools which were developed to harness the power of technology and bring greater vigour, precision and meaningful insights to the increasing age of data. Students are provided with an opportunity to see how data and analytics are used in a practical setting, bringing meaning, life and understanding into accounting information.

• Summer school #2: (Financing Net Zero, delivered by Barry Gavin)                    The objective of this summer school is to enable students to be able to hold their own with professionals working in the sustainability sector by developing a knowledge of the concepts, language, structures, process, risks, challenges and opportunities for corporate sustainability. In particular, students will learn to appreciate the role that finance has in enabling the transition to Net Zero.

Three Reasons to study the MAcc at University of Galway? 

1. It will enable you to get on the fast track to qualifying as a chartered accountant.

2. In the MAcc we help you develop the interdisciplinary and interpersonal skills you need to succeed in the professional exams and in your professional accounting career.

3. The class size (30 students) is optimal: Small enough that students can receive individual support and mentoring from lecturers, but also big enough that you get to develop the expertise in group working which employers value very highly.

The MAcc programme could be for you if you hold (or expect to graduate shortly with) at least a 2.1 honours primary degree with a significant specialisation in accounting and expect to have full (or nearly full exemptions) from the CAP1 examinations of CAI. The majority of students on the programme are sponsored by accounting firms who intended to employ them to train as chartered accountants upon graduation from the MAcc.