Which University in HK for Accountancy?

[carmenfantasy]

Hi, I am a foreign student and am interested to apply for a place in one of the Hong Kong universities to study Accountancy.

Please could anybody give me some pointers as to which university I should apply to? I know HKU is obviously the best. How about City U and Chinese U? Which one of them is better for Accountancy?

I am interested to work in HK in one of the Big 4 accounting firms or one of the investment banks (not the top tier ones - cos I don't think I can get in- probably the mid-tier ones) - is there any university employers from these places would prefer?

Thanks

[Charlotte_N]

HKU and Chinese U are the best universities in Hong Kong
if u really need to choose between 3 of them, I'd go for any of these 2

Actually UST is also a good choice for studying business program. Personally I like UST best cos the environment in the campus is great and their business program esp the BBA is ranked pretty high.
Also, there are quite a few overseas exchange students, I guess u will feel more comfortable to be with them?
But the skool life could be tough cos they have quite a lot of quizzes, assignments, projects...

well..if you really want to work in one of the Big 4 accounting firms, you need to be very hardworking and better graduate with 1st honor

[lynx_virux]

HKU and Chinese U (We called CU) are the oldest universities in HK and most people regard them as the best and the most famous universities here. UST is the third university here and people regard it as the third best university. The rest were sort of vocational schools in the past and recognised as univerities in recent years, so people neglect the effort they put and success they have built. Actually each of them provides different programmes and have different strength. Accountancy of PolyU is also good. As far as I've heard, they are the best among Accountancy courses in all universities here. Ofcourse, generally people would put HKU, CU and UST in higher priority.

BBA programme in UST rank pretty high, that's true. That's also true that there are a lot of quizes, assignments, etc.. In fact, the courses in UST is also very intensive and the teaching method there is a bit bad, IMHO. A 4-year programme in American universities would be compacted into a 3-year programme in the UST. A lot of recitation work is required, but i'm not sure whether the same happens in other universities. If I'm right, American accountancy is taught in UST.

Most overseas exchange students (westerners, I mean) in UST stay there for one semester only.

My friend working in Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu doesn't have 1st honor. Having good school result is one of the first few thing to get a chance of interview. Some graduates without an Accountancy degree could also get a job in big-4 accounting firms.

[geo-seb]

I also think you should look consider HKU and Chinese University only. CU offers pretty good Cantonese and Mandarin classes to all students. If you want to have a career in HK with a local degree, it is better to have at least some basic skills in both dialects.

[geo-seb]

I think I should mention that if you study in Hong Kong and get a local degree, you might have to face a lot of problems when trying to start a career here:

Firstly, the immigration department has a policy that it does not easily issue employment visas to people who have studied in Hong Kong before.

Most accounting graduates in Hong Kong (and there are a lot) have good marks, are fluent in Cantonese, English, and also have skills in Mandarin. In order to be competitive with a local degree, you probably need a very good GPA (as close to 4 as possible) and fluency in Cantonese.

Another problem is to convince employers why they should employ you and go through the trouble of arranging a working visa, if they just can easily hire a local person with similar skills.

Even if you are lucky and find an employer, you will always be hired on local terms (i.e. about 9-13k HK$ per month after graduation) and never be able to get an "expat" salary.

I think you might be in a better position if you get your degree and some working experience overseas first, and then come to Hong Kong.

[EddieC]

If you're looking for the best Accountancy Programme, then I would say the programme at CUHK (Chinese University) has the best reputation amongst accountancy firms. The Accoutancy Programme at CUHK is one of the hardest programs to get into and the competition for places is very tough. However, i've noticed that there are not alot of foreign students in the program.

As an accoutancy student myself, I applied to the programs at HKU, CUHK and UST and in the end chose CUHK(therefore i may also be biased) because personally i felt the reputation of the program was the best amongst the three. But overall, you wouldn't have made a bad choice choosing any amongst these three.