Law and accountancy courses at uni. I’m confused!

[sociableintrovert123]

My DS is only in S4 and has expressed an interest in studying law or possibly accountancy. I know I’m being a bit thick but what degree would he start looking into for these?
Is it an LLB for law? Would common law mean if he gets in and passes he could potentially practise law anywhere? Can you only practise law in Scotland if you study Scots law at uni? Also I’m presuming he needs at least 5 As at higher to get in however when I looked at Stirling uni I think, the entrance requirements are only something like AABBB. Is this true or does he need to aim for 5As?
For accountancy is it an ACCA? I’ve seen accountancy offered at places like the University of the west of Scotland so I’m presuming it’s not the same course as ones like Glasgow or Edinburgh offer.
Sorry loads of questions. I’ve looked online and on the uni websites but I’m still not really sure.

A good place to start is My World of Work - a website that has lots of information about careers and courses.
If your son is at a Scottish state school he will have a careers adviser who will be able to provide support and answer any questions.

Thanks @Jammin8 I’ll have a look. He’s off school
for Easter holidays then study leave for Nat 5s and doesn’t return until the end of May. I’m just trying to do a bit of reading on courses more for my own information. I’ve no idea if he’ll do well enough in his exams to apply for law or accountancy.

If he wants to be an accountant, then ACCA is one of the main recognised routes (although there are a couple of others) -however, any degree he does, even an Accountancy degree, won’t be enough for him to be considered a qualified accountant under the ACCA framework, at best he would be exempt from some of the early exams but likely he would need to continue studying post-degree for at least 2 years. It can be expensive to self-fund.

if he decides to lean in that direction, I would suggest he looks at post-18 apprentice opportunities. Many financial companies are offering these now, it means he would be earning a wage, his training/exams would be paid for (as long as he stays employed for a certain period - eg 3yrs, he would likely not have to pay this back), and he would be getting on the job experience, which for the ACCA route at least, they also need 3years of experience alongside the exam passes to qualify.

he might still prefer to go to uni first for the broader experience, in which case a variety of degree topics, including maths, accountancy, business management - all of which would have some use, and as mentioned earlier, would potentially exempt him from some of the early ACCA exams. If you are in Scotland, I believe there is less reliance on student loans etc, so this might be a good opportunity for him - if he was in England I’d strongly advise against uni because the weight of student loans for the limited benefit of the degree seems excessive at the moment.

edited to change Uk to England!

With regards law. It's a 4 year degree course usually then a diploma in legal practice then a 2 year traineeship before you can practice law. There is a 3 year course which is an ordinary degree which my daughter did online via Robert Gordon university. To practice law you gave to have the diploma and the traineeship.

Thanks all. I think an apprenticeship would be fantastic but I think this would be difficult to get into too as the numbers are smaller. Also I’m not sure how mature he’ll be at 18 to enter the workplace!

You can do accounting and business law at Strathclyde uni https://www.strath.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/accountingbusinesslaw/

There's ACCA and another one which is the Scots version of icaew for chartered accountancy.
AAT is good for lower accountancy but it's usually in conjunction with an employer.

He will need to qualify in Scots Law LLB to work as lawyer in Scotland.
He will need probably need 5As for Strathclyde, Glasgow or Edinburgh unis (even though 2 of these unis say 4A1B - it’s highly competitive unless he qualifies for widening participation criteria)
Aberdeen and Dundee are also well regarded with slightly lower requirements. Stirling and GCU also offer LLB and less competitive. Glasgow uni require students to take the LNAT exam probably to put some students off as it’s a lot of extra work. Glasgow also want Advanced higher in a humanities.

Accountancy degrees are offered at most Scottish universities but again be wary of grades as this year lots got rejected from Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Glasgow unless they had required grades.

Good to apply to aspirational uni and a few safer options too.

I work in a finance team and none of my direct reports has a ‘relevant’ degree. It’s one of the great joys of accountancy in the UK that you can come at it from a range of degrees.

If he’s certain then a degree apprenticeship is an amazing thing but yes, enormously competitive by all accounts. If he’s less certain then there might be something to be said for a mathematically literate degree.

I have a chemistry degree (and PhD) and spent a decade at a Big 4 firm before moving into industry. My career trajectory was far from unusual. And of the intake in my office (18 of us from memory) only one had an accounting degree. I think maths was most common, then economics, but there was an historian and a fistful of scientists.

Accountant here - I personally would advise against doing an accountancy degree as there is no particular advantage from it in terms of going into the profession, and you might as well study something that gives you a broader foundation.

For graduate entry, employers will be looking for a good degree (at least a 2:1) and critical numeracy skills. Business, law, economics, maths are all good subject choices, but plenty of people go into the profession with a completely unrelated degree (I'm a Philosophy graduate).

Thanks so much everyone. He has also said he fancies economics so that may work well too. If he did do law he wouldn’t want to be tied to Scotland (don’t blame him) so would common law be the one to apply to? My friend’s daughter got in to Edinburgh to study law and French but dropped French after a month. She said it was slightly easier to get in with a joint degree.

This is not an LLB so won’t qualify you to practice law in Scotland

I'm another accountant who wouldn't bother with an accountancy degree. Either go straight into work or do a degree that really interests him. The people I've met with accountancy degrees have had no advantage beyond a few exam exemptions and would have progressed further and without debt if they had just gone into a finance role/apprenticeship. I think they've generally been poorly advised when making post-school decisions.

No accountant I know did accountancy. Do something that he finds interesting and then do the accountancy qualification when you start work. That’s the usual route.

If he wants to practice law he needs to think carefully about whether he thinks he wants to live in Scotland or England/Wales in the future. The legal systems are different, so if you qualify as a lawyer in one, you can’t practice in the other without re-qualifying. That said, you don’t need a law degree to practice law in England. In fact very few people have them. It used to be that you did a conversion course after your uni degree in English or history or whatever, and then a training contract, now it is something called the SQE but I’m hazy on the details. I expect it’s all explained on the Solicitors Regulation Authority website though.

I have worked with several Scottish people who either qualified as both Scottish and English lawyers, or qualified in England but then managed to get jobs as in-house lawyers in Scotland when they wanted to return home anyway.

I'm an accountant who did an accountancy degree. It actually counted against me as I needed a 2.1 for my job whereas those with English only needed a2.2. I got a 2.2 and no job.. (still annoyed 30 years on, even though I made it to Chief Finance Officer...)

Yes if he thinks he might want to practice law in England get him to do his research on the SQE by all accounts it’s absolutely hellish!

I'm an accountant and I did a BA degree in accounting and marketing at Strathclyde University's Business School. Most of my friends did either economics or business law alongside the accounting and the advantage of the Strathclyde degree is that it is very flexible. When I did it, in first year we had to do classes in accounting, business law and economics plus half classes in commercial law and statistics and we then chose one other subject; I chose marketing, others chose different subjects from either the Business School or Humanities. At the end of first year the students chose any two of the full classes to progress for the rest of their degree. The Glasgow degree is a BAcc and is much less flexible.
My immediate boss is a CA but his degree is LLB and that is fairly common. As others have said, a degree in accounting isn't necessary to train as an accountant via the graduate training route. I did the CIMA qualification and most of the folk I studied with had business degrees which gave us some exemptions in the exams and stages 1 and 2.

The three accounting qualifications are ACCA (which you mentioned OP), CA (in Scotland you would study for that via ICAS) and CGMA studying with CIMA.

Accountancy and law are both going to be devastated by AI. I am steering my kids away from them.

@snoopyfanaccountantthanks for the detailed info. Just what I was looking for. My FIL is a CA but I’m loathe to ask him any details as he is a bit pompous! He studied over 60 year ago so it was a different time.
@NoelEdmondsHairGelyes there’s that too.

AI has a LONG way to go to replace lawyers given the drivel I have to battle my way through on a daily basis

I would say find out lots more about careers before applying for such focused degree courses. Unless you are really motivated to do the additional study etc to get the professional qualifications (incl. studying whilst working for accountancy) they are tough careers to get started in. There can be an awful lot of business development in these professions too - often on top of doing long working days. Lots of people leave the legal profession which was easier when uni debt was smaller than it would be these days I would imagine

I am also an accountant with an accountancy degree. The results in the Chartered exams are generally better if you don’t have an accounting degree.

I would recommend looking at AAT qualification as an apprentice, you can then move into Chartered accountancy.

DH is CIMA qualified with an accounting degree. He also says don’t do an accounting degree!

Another accountant saying don’t do accountancy…the best accountants I know didn’t (I appreciate may sound judgemental, but it’s true! I work in industry and I find the people who studied it at uni are better at working in practice or in a financial accounting role if in industry).

Lots of graduate schemes will put you through your accountancy exams with no relevant degree needed. Some even refuse to let you have the exemptions an accounting degree allows (it depends what body you are studying with and what degree you did at which uni) these days, so apart from a bit of extra confidence you know what you’re doing there isn’t a serious advantage.

More senior roles in finance are harder to replace with AI but the more junior ones will start disappearing pretty quickly I expect. No idea on that side for law, but definitely worth considering what is more future proof.