Bachelor of Actuarial Studies with the degree of Bachelor of Professional Practice
ASPP18V1
| Minimum number of credit points for the degree | 96 |
| Of your 96 credit points, complete a maximum of 36 credit points at 100 level | |
| Minimum number of credit points at 200 level or above | 60 |
| Minimum number of credit points at 300 level or above | 30 |
| Completion of a designated People unit | |
| Completion of a designated Planet unit | |
| Completion of a designated PACE unit | |
| Completion of other specific minimum requirements as set out below |
In order to graduate students must ensure that they have satisfied all of the general requirements of the award.
Specific minimum requirements:
Credit points
100 level
200 level
300 level
400 level
Balance of credit points required:
TOTAL CREDIT POINTS REQUIRED FOR THIS PROGRAM
| AQF Level | Level 7 Bachelor Degree |
| Overview and Aims of the Program | Macquarie University has been teaching actuarial studies since 1968. It is the first professional accredited actuarial studies program in the English-speaking world, and is the longest running program of its type in Australia. Actuaries analyse and manage the financial consequences of risky events. These risks include risk of death or sickness, risk of natural hazards (cyclone, earthquake, bushfire), and financial risks (shares, bonds, exchange rates). Actuaries analyse and manage the risks of financial contracts, insurance and retirement funds. They also help manage and control financial institutions. Actuaries relate numbers to real life. In this combined degree program you’ll learn to conduct mathematical, statistical, economic and financial analysis for a range of practical problems faced in long-term financial planning and management. You will also get to apply your knowledge and skills through long-tem vocational placements in a range of professional settings throughout your studies. These workplace experiences offer opportunities to develop your professional skills and networks and bring your practical experience back to the classroom to further enhance your studies. Key features: Receive financial support while your study. Accredited by the Actuaries Institute, giving you a head start in your professional exams. Provides a comprehensive understanding in not only actuarial studies but also in economics, accounting, mathematics, statistics and finance. In your final year, your advanced skills will allow you to undertake actuarial projects on insurance liability and risk. Extensive vocational placements alternating with periods of study enable you to apply classroom learning in practical settings: enhancing your learning and your appeal to future employers. Multiple vocational placements during your degree allow you to explore different career options and reflect on your experience to improve your approach to each consecutive placement. Taught by the largest actuarial department in Australia, students will learn from highly experienced lecturers and members of the Actuaries Institute. Many Macquarie actuarial graduates hold senior positions in the financial services industry. |
| Graduate Capabilities | The Graduate Capabilities Framework articulates the fundamentals that underpin all of Macquarie’s academic programs. It expresses these as follows: Interpersonal or social capabilities |
| Program Learning Outcomes | By the end of this program it is anticipated you should be able to: Program Learning Outcomes inherited from the Bachelor of Actuarial Studies: 1. Demonstrate expertise in compound interest theory and practice; 2. Demonstrate expertise in the use of contingent payment techniques to determine expected present values; 3. Demonstrate expertise in the development and application of survival models; 4. Model and critically analyse scenarios involving financial risk; 5. Recommend appropriate solutions to business problems that involve financial risk; 6. Demonstrate communication skills relevant to an appropriate professional environment; 7. Demonstrate an awareness of the challenges facing businesses, and the need for ethical behaviour. Program Learning Outcomes from the Bachelor of Professional Practice: 1. Apply discipline-specific knowledge and skills in new, authentic workplace contexts 2. Demonstrate skills, such as communication and problem solving, relevant to engaging successfully in tasks in a professional environment 3. Demonstrate self-management skills to meet challenges and respond to work-related successes and failures 4. Critically reflect on the application of theory to practice and integrate the deepened knowledge and skills to reflect on the application of practical knowledge in academic programs 5. Apply strategies to work and communicate with professionals from different disciplinary backgrounds 6. Demonstrate initiative, leadership and decision-making in the workplace 7. Develop strategies for action when complexity, ambiguity and/or conflict are encountered in the workplace 8. Develop and apply skills necessary to communicate effectively with different audiences using a range of modalities 9. Develop and apply interpersonal skills required to work constructively and respectfully in a team 10. Behave professionally in the workplace by adhering to ethical standards, sustainable practices, social inclusion, and a commitment to an ethos of global citizenship. |
| Learning and Teaching Methods | This program employs a mixture of lectures, tutorials, practicals, vocational placements and seminars to meet its learning outcomes. Lectures are oral presentations that are intended to present information or teach students about a particular subject. However, lectures are not purely passive experiences, and in many units students will be given problems to work on and discuss in groups before the lecturer summarises the main issues of the problem. Tutorials are smaller classes where students get to work at their own pace on various problems and seek feedback from their tutor. Tutorials allow a level of feedback not possible in the larger lectures. Practicals are usually held in computer laboratories and allow students to gain experience with relevant statistical software. While the majority of the above classes are taught by university staff, several units also employ presentations by industry practitioners. This is particularly so in the Actuarial program's capstone unit, which is also a PACE (Professional and Community Engagement) unit. This unit involves extensive presentations by industry partners, who are also involved and assessing and providing feedback on a major assessment task where students tackle a real world project and provide an oral presentation on their findings. Vocational placements in the Professional Practice component of the double degree involve an extensive period working in a workplace setting. Students work on practical problems under the guidance of a supervisor. The staggered sequence of three placements allows students to apply knowledge and skills developed in the classroom to new and authentic workplace experiences over the course of their program. Workshops and online curriculum enable students to reflect on and articulate how “theory and practice” work together, enhancing students’ capacity for life-long, self-directed learning. The sequence of vocational placements also offers students the opportunity to explore career options in different areas of the actuarial profession and different types of firms, and to network with a range of industry partners. Seminars are offered in units that contain vocational placements. Seminars cover information relevant to succeeding in the workplace, such as adapting to a new office environment, business communication, business ethics, reflection for further learning, soft skill development and translating work experiences into materials relevant for future job searches. |
| Assessment | Most units in the Actuarial Studies component of the double degree include regular tutorial exercises which are designed for students to test their own understanding. These are formative and are not assessed. There are also a range of assessment tasks which are used to determine students' grades. 1. Final Exam. This program is accredited by the Actuaries Institute, the Australian professional actuarial body. To assist in meeting accreditation requirements, many units in the program have an assessment scheme strongly weighted towards a final exam. A unit's final examination is designed to assess a student's command of the entire unit's knowledge and skills. While multiple choice questions are used in some units, most exam questions require longer written answers, which may be either mathematical in nature or word-based. Actuaries do not work in isolation but rather need to be able to explain their results to members of other professions, so exam questions do include scenarios requiring non-technical explanations of the meaning of calculations. 2. Assignments: An assignment may take a variety of formats such as the analysis of data using a spreadsheet or statistical software, the development of a mathematical argument, or the production of a formal report explaining the results of any of the previous items. 3. Quizzes: A quiz is an online assessment. Quizzes usually consist of a short series of questions which may be true/false, multiple choice, or require students to enter a numerical answer. Quizzes are usually computer-marked, their main advantage being their ability to provide fast feedback to students. 4. Presentations: Presentations may be conducted on an individual or group basis. Traditionally they have involved a live oral presentation with appropriate visual aids, but looking forward they may allow students to develop a video presentation. 5. Tests: Class tests are held during class time under normal exam conditions. They allow students to practice their exam skills in preparation for the final exam. 6. Reports: Extended written work. These will form a key part of the assessment for the work placements. In the Professional Practice component of the double degree, indicative assessment tasks include: 7. In consecutive placements throughout their degree, students will participate in learning and teaching activities and complete tasks in which they critically reflect on their application of disciplinary knowledge in the workplace, lessons learned regarding communication with different audiences, personal and professional skill development, professional judgment, application of workplace knowledge and skills in their academic programs, etc. With each successive placement, students will scaffold skills both in reflection and in these knowledge and skill areas. 8. Reports addressing aspects of professional behaviour in the workplace, such as adhering to ethical standards, sustainable practice, social inclusion and global citizenship. Knowledge and application of professional behaviour is scaffolded throughout the degree. 9. Presentations and/or reports to deliver on projects completed in the workplace. |
| Recognition of Prior Learning | Macquarie University may recognise prior formal, informal and non-formal learning for the purpose of granting credit towards, or admission into, a program. The recognition of these forms of learning is enabled by the University’s Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Policy (see www.mq.edu.au/policy) and its associated Procedures and Guidelines. The RPL pages contain information on how to apply, links to registers, and the approval processes for recognising prior learning for entry or credit. Domestic Students International Students |
| Support for Learning | Macquarie University aspires to be an inclusive and supportive community of learners where all students are given the opportunity to meet their academic and personal goals. The University offers a comprehensive range of free and accessible student support services which include academic advice, counselling and psychological services, advocacy services and welfare advice, careers and employment, disability services and academic skills workshops amongst others. There is also a bulk billing medical service located on campus. |
| Program Standards and Quality | The program is subject to an ongoing comprehensive process of quality review in accordance with a pre-determined schedule that complies with the Higher Education Standards Framework. The review is overseen by Macquarie University's peak academic governance body, the Academic Senate and takes into account feedback received from students, staff and external stakeholders. |
| Graduate Destinations and Employability | Career opportunities for actuaries exist in the fields of: Life, general or health insurance Superannuation Banking and Finance Funds Management Investment Risk Management Public Sector: Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Australian Taxation Office Wealth Management Data Analytics Energy and Environment Management Non-traditional areas such as IT, e-commerce, climate change Employers: Life insurance companies General insurance companies Health insurance companies Actuarial and superannuation consulting firms Banks and funds managers Accounting firms Co-op programs are demonstrated to enhance the employability of graduates. A high percentage of co-op graduates are not just employed, they are employed in a field related to their studies. |
| Assessment Regulations | This program is subject to Macquarie University regulations, including but not limited to those specified in the Assessment Policy, Academic Honesty Policy, the Final Examination Policy and relevant University Rules. For all approved University policies, procedures, guidelines and schedules visit www.mq.edu.au/policy. |
| Fitness to Practice Requirements | Students undertaking this program and its associated placements are required to demonstrate that they are fit to practice and compliant with these requirements. Students need to demonstrate that they are able to practice safely and properly throughout their program and placements to meet core learning outcomes. Students identified at risk of not meeting Fitness to Practice Requirements will be notified, provided with support and monitored to assist them in achieving the program and/or placement requirements. Students who fail to meet Fitness to Practice requirements will be permanently excluded from the program. |
| Accreditation | This is an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) accredited qualification. This combined degree is accredited by the Actuaries Institute. It allows you to complete Part I and one unit of Part II of the Actuaries Institute’s professional requirements, subject to your academic performance in the relevant units. |
Inherent requirements are the essential components of a course or program necessary for a student to successfully achieve the core learning outcomes of a course or program. Students must meet the inherent requirements to complete their Macquarie University course or program.
Inherent requirements for Macquarie University programs fall under the following categories:
Physical: The physical inherent requirement is to have the physical capabilities to safely and effectively perform the activities necessary to undertake the learning activities and achieve the learning outcomes of an award.
Cognition: The inherent requirement for cognition is possessing the intellectual, conceptual, integrative and quantitative capabilities to undertake the learning activities and achieve the learning outcomes of an award.
Communication: The inherent requirement for communication is the capacity to communicate information, thoughts and ideas through a variety of mediums and with a range of audiences.
Behavioural: The behavioural inherent requirement is the capacity to sustain appropriate behaviour over the duration of units of study to engage in activities necessary to undertake the learning activities and achieve the learning outcomes of an award.
For more information see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/inherent-requirements