Unisans perform well in accountancy competence examination

The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) released its second Initial Test of Competence (ITC) examination results on Friday, 5 November 2021. The College of Accounting Sciences (CAS) celebrates the performance of its former students who participated in the examinations.

Says the Acting Executive Dean of CAS, Mandisa Gandela: “Although the 59% national pass rate is 5 percentage points lower than the 2021 first sitting (April 2021), Unisa achieved an improved pass rate of 52% as compared to 39% for the first sitting in 2021. This is a significant achievement, given that all but 50 of the 2002 candidates who passed are repeaters.”

CAS had a total of 1381 candidates, which constituted 69% of all candidates who wrote the examinations. The 719 candidates who passed the second sitting join the 625 candidates who passed in April, bringing the total number of Unisa (CAS) candidates who passed the 2021 ITC to 1344. In absolute terms, Unisa continues to provide the highest number of passes, whereas the second-highest contributing institution produced 354 passes for the 2021 ITC exams. This translates to a 64% contribution to national passes for the second sitting and an overall 37% contribution to the national passes for 2021.

Unisa’s contribution towards the transformation of the CA profession

“It is evident that the university’s contribution towards the transformation of the CA profession cannot be questioned,” says Gandela. “There has been significant improvement and the results are evident of such. We have, however, identified a performance gap between black and white candidates. Our black candidates have achieved an average of 55%, compared to an average of 69% achieved by white candidates. This is a concern to us, and we wish to close this gap that has existed for years. 62% of black candidates who were successful studied at Unisa, with 48% of those being Africans.”

In terms of gender transformation, female candidates comprise 58% and male candidates 42% of the total who took part in the examination, with a national pass rate of 60% and 57% respectively. A pass rate of 56% and 55% was achieved by black female and black male candidates respectively.

Improvement plans

The college says that it will continue to make every effort to ensure that students are prepared for all SAICA assessments. Plans include:

• Enforce stringent application of the examination entry requirements (40% per module) or explore an effective approach for this purpose.
• Apply fair discretion to adjustment in the Final Mark Compositions thresholds.
• Implement an integration model for teaching and assessments.
• Provide extra tutorial support funded through external sources.
• Discontinue supplementary examination concessions.
• Continue with ITC examination preparation workshops.

Read also: Unisa makes a significant contribution to transforming the chartered accounting profession

*Submitted by Ntsako Mohlaba, Communication and Marketing Specialist, College of Accounting Sciences