Academic Requirements
To qualify as a CA, you need to have a university degree with specific business course credits. This is called the Institute's "51-credit-hour requirement." Most public accounting offices in Ontario approved for training CA students hire individuals who have completed or almost completed the academic requirements.
The 51 credit-hour requirement consists of 17 three-credit (or equivalent) courses approved by the Institute in the following areas:
| Financial accounting | 15 |
| Cost and management accounting | 6 |
| Advanced accounting elective | 3 |
| Auditing | 9 |
| Taxation | 6 |
| Business information systems | 3 |
| Finance/financial management | 3 |
| Economics | 3 |
| Law | 3 |
| Total | 51 |
Exemption
If you are a current or past member of a designated accounting body outside Canada, you are automatically exempt from the academic requirement.
If you are a current or past member of a non-designated accounting body outside Canada, you are automatically exempt from 16 of the 17 university courses. You need to complete only one approved university course in Canadian business law.
If you are a current or past member of a non-assessed accounting body outside Canada, or if you are not a current or past member of any accounting body, you must complete the academic requirements. You can ask the Institute to evaluate your qualifications to determine if you are eligible for any exemptions from the academic requirements. See the section Evaluation of Qualifications.