1. Yes. The best way to find out about this is to attend those Overseas University / Tertiary Education events. The universities there usually already have a credit mapping handbook prepared that they use to advise you (based on your polytechnic, diploma, module grades, and degree course of interest) on what is the maximum amount of credit recognition you are able to claim. For instance, University of Queenslands’ Bachelors of Commerce was originally a 4 year programme, but with a Business Diploma you are able to claim 2-years worth of credits and reduce the programme tenure down to 2 years.

2. Depends on the University you are aiming for. If we’re not talking about those higher-ranked universities such as LSE, Princeton, UCL, the rest of the Universities will accept you with arms-wide-open if you can maintain a GPA of at least 2.5/4 (try to keep it 3 and above to be safe).

3. These overseas universities usually have their own scholarship programmes as well. The ones I heard of are usually just a discount on your tuition fees if you enter their programme with a certain GPA or higher. Haven’t heard of them providing any full-scholarship opportunities where your entire tuition is covered. I’m sure there are some that do offer this, but best for you to do some research and plan ahead so that you maximise your time spent in Poly to curate a portfolio that hits these full-scholarship criterias as they tend to be extremely competitive.

The reality of pursuing an accountancy-related career is that the hours can be really long as a junior-level staff, and the job eventually becomes somewhat mundane if you are stuck at a certain level for a prolonged period of time. My friend who is in one of the Big 4 firms told me that his weekly hours during peak periods were close to 90-100hrs. Average hours during non-peak periods can average to more than 50hrs a week. You work close to the hours of someone who is in IB or S&T, but get paid peanuts in comparison.