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For UK adults without A-Levels
Yes. But accountancy is one of the very few professions where you may not need a degree at all, and any page that does not tell you that is selling you something. Here are all the routes, including the ones we cannot place you on.
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Ask this question online and you mostly find university course pages and Reddit threads. The course pages assume you want a degree. The Reddit threads keep pointing out that you might not need one. Both are partly right, and which applies depends on what you actually want.
If your goal is to become a qualified accountant, there is a well-established route that does not involve a degree:
AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) is a professional qualification you can start without A-Levels, often while working. From there you can progress to ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW chartered qualifications. Many practising accountants took exactly this path.
You do not need a degree to qualify as an accountant in the UK. AAT into ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW is a genuine, widely respected route.
That route tends to be cheaper, and you can usually earn while you study. Its trade-offs are that it is slower for some people, more self-directed, and it does not give you the campus experience or the broader business education a degree does.
A degree tends to make more sense if you want the wider business grounding, you want a university qualification for its own sake or for roles outside practice, you want the structure and teaching of a taught course, or you are changing career and want a clean, recognised credential.
Check the current requirements directly with AAT, ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW before deciding. We are not going to pretend the degree is the only option.
An extra year at the front of the degree, taught at the university, covering academic writing, quantitative methods and business fundamentals. Useful here precisely because it builds the numeracy first.
Suits you if maths is the part you are worried about and you want it taught from the beginning.
A one-year college qualification designed for adults, usually in Business or Social Sciences. Some include a maths or accounting unit, which helps for this subject specifically.
Suits you if you want a recognised qualification in hand before committing to three more years.
An AAT Level 3 or Level 4 qualification is accepted by some universities as entry to an accounting or finance degree — and it may also carry exemptions from parts of it.
Worth knowing: acceptance and exemptions are decided course by course. Never assume — ask the specific university.
A Level 3 BTEC in Business, or an HNC or HND in Accounting or Business, is already a recognised entry qualification in its own right.
Suits you if you already hold one — an HND may even allow entry partway through a degree.
The general picture is on Study at University Without A-Levels, and the choice between the first two on Access to HE vs Foundation Year. If you are already working, the study format matters as much as the route — see doing a degree while working full time.
For most Accounting and Finance degrees, no — but this is the subject where numeracy matters most, and it would be dishonest to say otherwise.
What you actually need is confidence with arithmetic, percentages, ratios and reading data. Courses teach the accounting from first principles. Most will expect GCSE maths at grade 4/C or an equivalent, and some ask for higher.
Highly selective universities are more likely to want A-Level maths. Applied accounting and finance degrees, and courses with a foundation year, are far less likely to. Check the specific course, for the specific year of entry.
If numbers genuinely worry you, Business Management is a meaningfully less numerical degree that still leads into commercial roles.
An accredited accounting degree can exempt you from some professional exams later, which saves real time and money.
But exemptions are granted course by course, by each professional body, and they are reviewed. Two degrees with the same title at different universities can carry different exemptions, and a course accredited three years ago may not be today.
Check the exemption position for the specific course with the professional body itself — ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW — rather than relying on a prospectus, or on this page.
Student Finance England decides whether you can be funded. We cannot, and neither can any admissions service.
It depends on your residency and immigration status, whether you have studied at university before, and whether the course and provider are designated for funding. Previous higher education study, including a course you began and did not finish, is the factor that catches people out most often.
Check your own position at GOV.UK: student finance and who qualifies. Amounts and repayment terms are published there and change annually, so we do not repeat them.
Worth knowing: student finance and professional-qualification funding are not the same system. AAT and ACCA study is usually self-funded or employer-funded, which is part of the comparison above.
StudyUKToday is a free admissions support service. We do not charge students.
For UK-based adults we work with a UK admissions partner whose team places students on in-person Accounting and Finance degree courses at partner institutions in London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham, with classes two days a week.
If the honest answer for you is AAT rather than a degree, we will say so — we cannot place you on an AAT course and we would rather tell you that than sell you three years you did not need.
They are a separate organisation from StudyUKToday. If your enquiry is suitable and you tell us we may, we share your name and mobile number only, with your explicit consent, and we will tell you who they are first. Their admissions team and the university make the decisions.
Not sure which of these applies to you? Answer a few questions and we will tell you which routes are realistically open — including if the answer is none of them.
Check your optionsYes. Foundation years, Access to HE Diplomas, AAT qualifications, BTECs and HNDs are all recognised entry routes. Requirements are set per course, so check the specific university and year of entry.
No. AAT progressing to ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW is a well-established route that does not require a degree and can often be studied while working. A degree suits you if you want the broader business grounding or a university qualification in its own right.
Usually not, but this is the most numerical of the business subjects. Most courses expect GCSE maths at grade 4/C or equivalent and teach the accounting from first principles. Highly selective universities are more likely to ask for A-Level maths.
Possibly, but exemptions are granted course by course by each professional body and are reviewed periodically. Check the specific course with ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW directly rather than relying on a prospectus.
Often, yes. AAT Level 3 or 4 is accepted by some universities for entry to accounting and finance degrees, and may carry exemptions from parts of the course. Acceptance varies, so ask the specific university.
Only Student Finance England can confirm that. It depends on residency status, previous university study and whether the course and provider are designated. Note that AAT and ACCA study is a different funding system, usually self- or employer-funded.
Answer a few short questions and we will tell you which routes are realistically open to you. It takes about a minute, there is no application, and it costs nothing.
StudyUKToday is not Student Finance England and cannot confirm your funding. We are not a university and do not make admissions decisions.