Studying Accounting in Australia: Courses, Costs and Career Path

Studying accounting in Australia usually means one of two routes: a 3-year Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Accounting straight out of high school, or a 1.5 to 2-year Master of Professional Accounting if you already hold a non-accounting bachelor’s degree. Either way, the qualification only becomes professionally useful once it is accredited by CPA Australia or Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), and finishing the degree is really just the first half of becoming a fully qualified accountant, not the whole journey.

This guide walks through the actual course options, real tuition figures pulled directly from university fee pages (not aggregator estimates), what CPA Australia and CA ANZ require after you graduate, which ANZSCO occupations accounting qualifies you for, and genuine Australian salary and job market data. If migration is part of your plan, our guide to skills assessment and the skilled occupation list covers exactly how an accounting qualification gets checked against PR requirements.

TL;DR

• A Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Accounting takes 3 years; a Master of Professional Accounting for non-accounting graduates takes 1.5 to 2 years, depending on the university.
• Confirmed international tuition: UNSW’s Master of Professional Accounting runs about AUD 62,000 for the first year (AUD 96,000 total), ANU is about AUD 56,120 a year, and Melbourne’s equivalent postgraduate accounting degree is about AUD 60,992 a year.
• Graduating is not the finish line – you still need to complete the CPA Program (6 subjects) or the CA Program (9 subjects plus 3 years of mentored practical experience) to become a fully qualified CPA or Chartered Accountant.
• Typical accountant salary in Australia is around AUD 88,000 (SEEK), with 139,100 people currently employed as Accountants (General) according to Jobs and Skills Australia.

How to become an accountant in Australia: the three course routes

SEEK’s own careers guidance lays out the same two-track structure that every university follows: complete an accredited bachelor’s degree straight through, or complete an accredited postgraduate qualification if you already hold a degree in something else. There is no shortcut around a formal qualification, and no legitimate path into the profession that skips accreditation from a recognised professional body.

Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Accounting (3 years)

Most Australian universities offer accounting either as a major within a Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Business, or as a standalone Bachelor of Accounting. Both run 3 years full-time and cover the same core competency areas professional bodies require: accounting fundamentals, audit and assurance, business law, economics, financial accounting and reporting, finance, management accounting and taxation. This is the standard entry point for school leavers and international students starting an undergraduate degree. If cost is your main concern at this stage, our guide to cheapest bachelor degrees in Australia compares accounting against other common undergraduate choices.

Master of Professional Accounting (1.5 to 2 years)

If you already have a bachelor’s degree in something unrelated to accounting, a Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) is the standard conversion pathway, and SEEK confirms it typically takes 2 years full-time. In practice the exact duration varies by university – ANU and UTS run 1.5-year versions, while Monash, Sydney and Melbourne run closer to 2 years. Universities are explicit that this pathway is meant for people without an accounting background: UNSW’s own course page states plainly that if you already completed a Bachelor of Accounting or an accounting major, you should not apply for the MPA, since you would be repeating content you already covered.

Most business schools state clearly on their own course pages whether a given degree is accredited by CPA Australia and CA ANZ, and several of the larger providers (UTS, for example) are also recognised by CIMA, ACCA and the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA), which matters if you are considering a career outside Australia as well.

What accounting degrees actually cost in Australia

International tuition for accounting degrees varies a genuine amount between universities, and the only reliable figures are the ones pulled directly from each university’s own fees page, checked at the time of writing. Three are confirmed directly this way: UNSW’s Master of Professional Accounting is priced at roughly AUD 62,000 for the first year, AUD 96,000 for the full degree. The Australian National University quotes an annual indicative international fee of about AUD 56,120 for its 1.5-year MPA. The University of Melbourne’s postgraduate accounting degree (branded Master of Management, Accounting rather than literally “Master of Professional Accounting”) runs about AUD 60,992 a year.

A few practical points on cost that apply regardless of which university you choose: fees are indexed most years, so the figure quoted when you apply is rarely the figure you pay in your final year; course fees are separate from the Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) you are required to hold for the length of your visa; and a Master of Professional Accounting, because it is a full second qualification, generally costs more in total than simply completing a Bachelor of Commerce with an accounting major from the start, even though the master’s takes less time. Our cost of living guide is worth reading alongside your tuition budget, since day-to-day expenses add up over a 3-year degree.

Finishing the degree is only half the qualification

SEEK’s own guidance is direct about this: after graduating, you become eligible to join a professional accounting body, and you then need to complete that body’s accreditation program to actually become a qualified CPA or Chartered Accountant. Skipping this step is common among international graduates who assume the degree alone is the qualification, and it is one of the more expensive misunderstandings to correct later, since both programs take real time and money.

Both programs are built around the same idea: technical subjects studied part-time alongside real work, plus a multi-year practical experience requirement supervised by your employer or a mentor. CA ANZ’s Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting itself can be completed in around a year of full-time study, or spread over two-plus years part-time, but the 3-year Mentored Practical Experience requirement runs alongside it rather than after it, since most candidates work full-time in an accounting role while studying. CPA Australia’s program is self-paced subject by subject, and most candidates take roughly 3 years to finish it while working, though this depends heavily on how many subjects you take per study period.

Choosing between the two bodies mostly comes down to where you plan to work. CA ANZ is generally considered the stronger credential for public practice, audit and larger corporate finance roles, and carries more international recognition through mutual recognition agreements with equivalent bodies overseas. CPA Australia is broader and includes strong representation in management accounting, government and the Asia-Pacific region specifically. Many accountants only ever need one; check what the specific roles or firms you are targeting actually ask for before committing to a program.

What an accounting degree actually qualifies you for

Accounting is not one single job title. It covers six main ANZSCO occupation codes: Accountant (General), Corporate Treasurer, External Auditor, Finance Manager, Management Accountant and Taxation Accountant. Which one you end up nominated under (for a visa) or working as (day to day) depends on the specific role, not just the degree, since a single accounting qualification can lead into general practice, tax, audit, management accounting, treasury or corporate finance. If you are also thinking about how this fits into a PR pathway, all six of these occupations use the same three professional bodies for the mandatory skills assessment: CPA Australia, Chartered Accountants ANZ and the Institute of Public Accountants, and applicants can choose any one of the three – covered in full in our skills assessment guide.

Accounting salaries and job market in Australia

Jobs and Skills Australia’s own occupation data puts 139,100 people currently employed as Accountants (General) nationally, with a 22% part-time share, a 54% female share, and a median age of 40. SEEK’s live careers data (checked directly, not an aggregator estimate) shows a typical accountant salary of about AUD 88,000, with 8,483 accountant jobs listed on the platform at the time of writing, and a job satisfaction score of 3.9 out of 5 based on 205 accountant reviews. For comparison, SEEK lists a typical Management Accountant salary of about AUD 115,000, reflecting the jump in pay that tends to come with seniority and specialisation.

Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide, which tends to skew toward candidates with some post-qualification experience rather than pure graduates, quotes a wider Sydney-market range: accountants broadly sit between AUD 103,550 and AUD 125,350 depending on percentile, financial accountants land in a similar band, and senior financial accountants and senior management accountants move into the AUD 125,000 to AUD 158,000 range. Genuine graduate-level starting salaries sit well below these figures, generally reported in the AUD 55,000 to AUD 67,000 range in the first year, before CPA or CA qualification and experience start driving pay upward. Our in-demand jobs in Australia guide covers how accounting compares with other career pathways graduates commonly consider.

Is accounting the right degree for you?

Making the most of your time as an international accounting student

A few practical, non-migration-advice points worth knowing early rather than discovering after you graduate. Most accounting graduates who studied in Australia become eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), which grants full work rights and is commonly used to complete the practical experience component of the CPA Program or CA Program locally. A structured Professional Year Program, generally 44 weeks including a 12-week internship, is specifically designed for accounting (as well as engineering and IT) graduates and is a common way to build local experience, industry contacts and a stronger resume entry while working toward professional accreditation.

CPA Australia also runs a provisional skills assessment specifically aimed at the 485 visa’s Graduate Work stream, available to holders of a relevant Australian bachelor’s degree or a sufficiently large accounting-related master’s degree. None of this is a substitute for checking current visa rules directly with Home Affairs or a registered migration agent, but knowing these programs exist before you graduate makes it much easier to plan your final year of study around them rather than scrambling afterward.

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Enrolling in a course before confirming it is accredited by CPA Australia or CA ANZ for your specific campus and intake year, not just checking the university’s general reputation.
• Assuming the degree itself is the finished qualification – budget for the CPA Program or CA Program, both in time and cost, from the start.
• Comparing university fees using aggregator estimates rather than the university’s own current fees page, especially for the postgraduate accounting programs where international pricing is not always clearly displayed.
• Choosing a nominated ANZSCO occupation for visa purposes without checking it genuinely matches your actual coursework and intended role.
• Leaving the Professional Year Program or provisional skills assessment research until after graduation, when planning ahead in your final year gives you more options.

Ready to think about permanent residency? Our PR pathway guide for accounting and business graduates covers the six eligible accounting occupations, assessing authorities and visa options in detail.

Frequently asked questions