The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) used to allow direct admission to its
Chartered Accountancy (CA)
course to B.Com (Bachelor of Commerce) graduates who secured 55% in
their final year. But now, the ICAI has made it mandatory for students
to secure at least 54.5% marks in all
semesters in Commerce to be
eligible for direct entry to the CA course.
Last year, the University of Mumbai had adopted the credit-based
grading system (CBGS) in which University results have grades of all six
semesters. To avoid confusion, the ICAI has also adjusted by tweaking
its rules to grant admission to B.Com graduate with an overall pass
percentage of 54.5% in all the six semesters.
The Board of Studies of the ICAI had met last week to decide whether
the overall grades should be taken into consideration for direct
CA admissions over just final-year grades or not.
Students with more than 55% in the final year but low overall
percentage due to poor performance in earlier years of their
undergraduate programme are not happy with the decision. Pranjit Roy, a
recent B.Com graduate, said, “If the institute wanted to make any such
change, it should have announced it earlier. Or the new rules should be
made applicable after two years. There are many students who have not
performed well in the first two years but did marathon studies in the
final year to secure above 55% and clear the eligibility requirements.
Now, they cannot simply go back and improve their performance in the
former two years.”
Now, CA aspirants whose overall percentage does not add up to 55% in B.Com will have to take the
Common Proficiency Test (CPT) instead for getting admitted to the CA course.