Witsies ace CA exams

4 April 2017 - Wits University

Aspirant chartered accountants from the School of Accountancy dominate external board exam.

Wits graduates have once again achieved outstanding results in the Initial Test of Competence (ITC) professional exam set by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). The ITC is a culmination of at least four years of studying and forms one of the two final academic hurdles to be crossed in order to qualify as a Chartered Accountant (SA). The results of the examination written in January 2017 were released on 31 March 2017.

Three Witsies, Justin Logie, Dusan Ecim and Kayleigh Greenslade, passed the ITC exam with honours (above 75%) and are featured in the Top 10. Wits has the highest number of Top 10 achievers.

The table below summarises the results of the January 2017 ITC examination:

“The results are especially pleasing given the challenges faced by the higher education system during 2015 and 2016. Wits achieved an outstanding pass rate on first time entrants which has surpassed the national average,” says Professor Nirupa Padia, Head of  the School of Accountancy.

The School of Accountancy has a Level 1 accreditation status which is the highest level of accreditation awarded by SAICA.

The SAICA was also pleased with the results adding that the CA profession is making strides to be more inclusive.

"While the overall pass rate is in line with the past few years, the highlight for us is the ongoing strides we continue to see in our transformation statistics," says Mandi Olivier, Senior Executive: Professional Development at SAICA.

"We are encouraged to see that of the 2 633 aspiring CAs(SA) who sat for the January ITC, 60% of the exam writing population (1 592) were Black. This is a good increase from last year’s January ITC where Black candidates represented 58% of the exam writing population," Olivier.

According to the SAICA, women make up only 35% of qualified CAs(SA) in the country, however, this will change in the long-term.  

The ITC statistics show that for some years now more than 50% of the exam writing population has been female (2017: 55%), SAICA.