University of Guyana Achieves Global Standard with ACCA Accreditation and Historic Dual Award Pathway
By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly news|
TURKEYEN, GUYANA — The University of Guyana’s School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (SEBI) has achieved a monumental milestone in commercial education, securing full global accreditation for its Bachelor of Science in Accountancy degree program from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
The landmark achievement was formalized on Monday at the Turkeyen Campus with the signing of a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the university and the global accounting body, executed in partnership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana (ICAG).
Valid immediately from January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2030, the formal accreditation completely restructures how local accounting students transition into professional practice. For the first time in the university’s history, instead of applying for exemptions on a tedious, individual case-by-case basis, any UG student graduating from the BSc Accountancy program will automatically receive exemptions from four core ACCA foundational papers:
- Business and Technology (BT)
- Management Accounting (MA)
- Financial Accounting (FA)
- Corporate and Business Law (LW)
This unprecedented integration leaves graduates with only nine remaining professional papers to complete to earn their full, globally recognized chartered accounting credentials.
Delivering keynote remarks at the high-profile ceremony, Minister of Education Sonia Parag tied the academic breakthrough directly to the rapid, structural evolution of Guyana’s non-oil economy. Parag emphasized that the unprecedented influx of foreign direct investment and massive corporate expansions require an immediate influx of world-class financial oversight, particularly across the sophisticated auditing demands of the energy and agro-processing sectors.
“It has to remain relevant; accountancy is not one of those programs that can be irrelevant,” Minister Parag asserted, praising the technical teams who spent seven years auditing and aligning the curriculum to match international standards. Looking directly to the immediate future, the Minister revealed that the partnership is already engineering a revolutionary, integrated dual-award program set to debut this September. “For the first time in the region, you’re getting a double award—the ACCA and accountancy. This ensures that the University of Guyana remains globally competitive.”
The impending dual-award framework will represent a historic first for tertiary education across the wider Caribbean basin. Under the integrated pipeline, students will concurrently complete their university coursework alongside localized professional modules, allowing them to step off the graduation stage carrying both their standard Bachelor’s degree from UG and an Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business directly from the ACCA.
Outgoing Vice-Chancellor Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin noted that she was constantly reminded of the urgent need for this structural alignment whenever she represented Guyana at international economic and academic summits.
“We have young people in the country and we want them to be able to operate in a professional space as quickly as possible, but as robustly as possible,” Dr. Mohamed-Martin explained, highlighting that blending a traditional academic qualification with a direct pathway to a global professional license provides young Guyanese with an uncompromised “career passport” valid anywhere in the world.
Reaffirming the global institution’s deep operational commitment to the local expansion, Global President of the ACCA, Melanie Proffitt, traveled to the Turkeyen Campus to witness the signing. Proffitt noted that the association regularly partners with forward-thinking universities to anchor national infrastructure, stating that the sheer speed of Guyana’s contemporary transformation requires an elite tier of ethically grounded finance professionals.
“Guyana is experiencing one of the most dynamic periods of growth anywhere in the world,” Proffitt declared. “And with that growth comes an increasing demand for skilled, ethically, globally competent finance professionals. This partnership is not symbolic. It’s practical, intentional, and designed to evolve as Guyana evolves.”
With support from ICAG President Ramesh Seebarran and Council Member Harryram Parmesar, the new curriculum alignment effectively bridges the historical divide between local academic theory and global financial execution, providing the transparent framework required to safeguard Guyana’s massive wealth generation for the next generation.
