Bach. of Bus. in Financial Planning from "Open Universities Australia"

Hi,
I've a mate who is thinking about doing a Bachelor of Business in Financial Planning
through Open Universities Australia.

I've never heard of this institution- they seem to roll correspondence courses from legit universities into a degree (though each degree centers around a single university). Seems like a decent enough setup. There are no requirements to get into the course - but I expect anyone who is not up to scratch won't graduate - thereby keeping the quality of the end graduate.

Anyone have an opinion on how well regarded this degree would be?

I believe they are a joint venture arrangement though some of the major universites such as Griffith, Monash and Curtin. All the courses come from them and are funnelled through Open Universites. I think they should still be well regarded.

If you dont know what it is, how will employers think about it???

maybe your first step is look at the financial planners association and see if there is a post grad course you need to do to be "qualified" or industry recognised, something similar to a CPA or CA in an accountants field, if so will this degree give you entry to the course...

Mate, just tell him to do it through Kaplan (formerly known as Tribeca).

Home

Mark

Requirements to work as a planner are completion of the first four units of the Diploma. I've been hearing talk over the last couple of years that they are going to extend that to all eight units (Diploma and Advanced Diploma). To work as a paraplanner, they say you need to be at least PS146 compliant, which means nothing.

True story: when I was studying I saw all over the place in ad's - must be PS146 compliant. Naturally, I'd heard of this, but didn't really know what it meant so I rang ASIC (lol). The response I got what that there are no formal guidelines for PS146 compliance, it's up to the employer to determine whether you comply or not. I'm not joking that's what I was told.

Anyway, I thought maybe I'd gotten come greenie in the call room who'd only been there a few months and didn't really know, so I rang back a few weeks later - and got the same answer. I was floored.

Mark

interesting - I've sent her a link to this thread.

If you get the degree through 'Open Universities Australia' it will not say this on the degree. It will be from the University itself. For example if the 'Bach of Business (Financial Planning) degree was completed it would say "RMIT University" not "Open Universities".

Employers will have no way of knowing if you did the degree by distance or on campus unless you tell them.

This degree (along with others on the open universities website) will be sufficent to get into the CFP program. It is exactly the same as doing the degree on campus.

I did a Bachelor of Accounting via Open University (then called Open Learning). I ended up with a degree from the University of South Australia.

Of all 24 subjects I did, the Financial Planning units were the most interesting, the most useful, and also the most enjoyable. The downside of it is, if you have a question about anything, you have no one to talk to as you don't get access to tutors. I've often wondered what going to a normal uni would be like, where you get to have tutorials to ask your questions.

On the other hand, if you do your DFP through Kaplan, the courses are easy, and you only have to do 8 subjects. But as I understand it, you can't do your CFP unless you have a degree.

After not receiving enough marks in the hsc to get into the uni course I wanted I commenced a bachelor of arts at macquarie. I got booted for not showing up.

After a while I started a part time (nite) course at tech - diploma in accounting - 4 yrs

After I finished I started a bachelor of business via open learning (correspondence) , after completing a bunch of subjects I then transferred to a bachelor of business at monash uni ( which was where the open learning course was run from). I completed this degree via correspondence and majored in accounting - 6 yrs.

Then I completed my cpa via correspondence - 2.5 yrs

During my studies I had various full time jobs in a number of accounting type roles.

After over 12 years of part time study I no longer account.

Go figure.

I really liked correspondence, getting to classes was a non-event for me, I worked for companies that couldn't give a stuff if a bloke was trying to get somewhere, so if you had to work instead of get to class they didn't care, it was a case of just get the work done. Study leave was taken as annual leave in some instances.

So correspondence gave me the flexibility to get the qualis I wanted at the time. Back when I did it open learning did not lead to a degree, it was chance to prove to that you could handle the work load via correspondence. They were heading in the direction of providing an entire degree via open learning at a uni however when I did it, it was early days and we were kinda guinea pigs. Once we did an examine in the bar at the wentworth dog track - no races or grog o course !!!

I got my degree with honours after being told I was not worthy by a uni. My degree was obtained without contact with anyone from the uni except comments written on marked up assignments.

I'm proud of my achievement, the establishment can get stuffed.

Open learning provided me with that opportunity, it was great !!!

RMIT - Open Universities Australia

Some interesting info there.

The Bachelor of Business in Financial Planning will get you into the CFP program and the CPA Program