Sunday 25 February 2018

How Academic Mania can help you get your OBU BSc (Hons) Degree


How Academic Mania can help you get your OBU BSc (Hons.)  BSc applied accounting Degree

Since the RAP is quite distinct from appearing in exams, it requires a very different attempt as well. At the time when most people begin their career in accounting, they don’t have much experience with writing a formal report and therefore find it a little difficult. But don’t worry! We have all been through this and we are here to guide you now. Some students who have not been pursuing their studies for some years may find it very difficult to decide on a topic or company for their RAP. In these cases, we not only help you select your topic/company but also guide you on how to research, evaluate, analyse and present your work effectively.
On our Academic Mania website, we offer you our own OBU pages and forums that you can use to get expert advice from contributors who have themselves gone through the OBU RAP process to acquire the degree and have a vast experience of years in guiding students on how to prepare the RAP submission. Your communication with both contributors and students at our forums will be TOTALLY FREE OF COST, so that you can get help, support and guidance anytime. Everyone here is dedicated in sharing their success stories and advice and thus helping you achieve what is meant for you. So as long as you are ready to put in the required effort, we can guarantee that the process of preparing for your RAP will be smooth, ending in a good grade on your report and acquiring the BSc (Hons.)!

Sounds too good to be true - Where’s the catch?

We have a pleasant surprise for you here – there is no catch! There is no buying or subscribing, no taking our or stupid demands from our side (although there are some rules and requests - mentioned below). This is possible mainly because our contributors acknowledge how difficult it is to find good reliable advice in some parts of the world and can understand the level of frustration in trying to work alone on something so new that you have no experience about. Some of us (like myself) were quite fortunate to have some wonderful support when we were going through the same process and now we think it’s time for us to give something back and propagate forward what our mentors taught us. Since many of us are dedicated professionals, all we want is to guide and motivate other students in improving their skills and knowledge base and therefore it gives us all a great deal of satisfaction in realizing that we have made a difference in peoples’ lives whom we might not even ever get to meet, by making their lives easier for them and probably done our purpose on this world. This is the basic principle on which Academic Mania works!

What can you expect from this site?

As has been mentioned already, expert advice from contributors who know all about the OBU RAP is what you will get from our site. In case you have a query or a helpful comment, you can post it on the appropriate forum and share with others – a good healthy interaction among participants not only reduces the problem but most likely solves it in most cases too! There’s already some great advice on our forums, but if you haven’t been able to find some it may be because it has been posted in the wrong forum and we tried to answer it there so that the user gets the response. But other users probably can’t find the posts they have been looking for. So as soon as we are done with editing our forums to make them more user-friendly and easier to use in the upcoming months, you will find your desired content right where it should be. Most of our contributors are regulars and check the forums several times a week or daily  to see if there is something that needs answering. So if you are not posting something that we really find ourselves unable to answer, you will get a quick response back in the form of a posting/comment on the forum. We are not the best people however to answer questions related to the administrative working of OBU and its degree – for that you will have to contact OBU directly (contact details in their Information Pack). Other than this, one of us can give you some solid advice for most queries. To take it or not is up to you then!

What we expect from you?

Mutual respect is the fundamental hallmark of our site. Never forget that our worthy contributors provide their time and expertise voluntarily and for free. So if you don’t like an advice to your post either by a contributor or a fellow student, don’t abuse them. Rather, you have the liberty to just simply ignore it if you don’t want to heed it.
As has already been said, many people ask queries under the wrong forum. Before making a new forum, just check to see if a forum on the same topic already exists (even if in an older submission period). Especially when you start a new forum, be very SPECIFIC. Don’t use titles like ‘Help, Urgently Needed’ or ‘Advice Required’ etc. as it is very frustrating for us to find out the problem later. Instead, just mention a little bit of your issue in the topic e.g. ‘Models – Choosing appropriate ones for Topic 13’ or ‘Marker Feedback on Analysis’.
The basic essence of forums is to share information and experience so that everyone anywhere in the world can take benefit from them. So unless you have been specifically asked by the contributor to email them, please avoid doing that. This service is free and is made available to a wider community, therefore it is definitely not meant to replace your project mentor. However, it is evident that we are together far more knowledgeable than your mentor. So in case your mentor can’t answer a RAP question, we definitely can! You can try us.
Trust me, there is no need to ask other students for samples of their work since OBU provides RAP exemplars and quite a lot of advice in their Information Pack. Moreover, we have a lot of great sources of information here and can guide you to other suitable sites/sources should there still be a need, so that no one remains unclear about how to attempt the RAP. To prevent the very serious accusations of plagiarism, we will remove any posts that contain a sharing of work previously submitted to OBU or requesting for it. Since we at Academic Mania are determined to follow through and run this programme on ethical grounds, we encourage our students to adopt the same approach. So however unfortunate it may seem however hurt we may be in doing this, we do hold the right to suspend any account from both the OBU site and Academic Mania, of any user that is found violating our rules and regulations or is maliferous to the site or to other students. Hence, it is possible for you to lose more than you gain if you choose to break the rules, so it’s always better to steer clear of danger.
So please take a good look at our Forum Rules. Unlike many other sites, they have been kept simple and clear and free of all those hideous terms and conditions, so that they can be understood by all. More importantly, this site is free and parties trying to use our forums for promotion or advertisement of their own businesses or services must abstain from this practice. Academic Mania does not have a need to fund the site using advertisements (for technical support of the site, we have overheads and some permanent members of staff but we don’t wish to transfer this information on to students).
You can ‘favourite’ us or add our site to your browser’s ‘bookmarks’ so that we are a single click away whenever you need help anytime during your RAP process. Remember to share our site with your friends, fellow students and colleagues or anyone else who you think might be considering entering the ACCA OBU degree programme as everyone should benefit from a good information source.

Best of luck on your journey to gain the OBU BSc (Hons.) in Applied Accounting. May you succeed with the best results! 

Thursday 22 February 2018

RAP Submission and Assessment Criteria : BSc applied accountancy Project


Submission

You get an opportunity to submit your work biannually, in May and November. Before your work is accepted, you will have to pay a RAP submission fee, covering the administrative costs and grading, and obviously you must also be up-to-date with your ACCA account and subscription.
If you are confused and wondering as to why it takes so much time in confirming your result while exam results are expected to be displayed in nearly half this time, the answer is simple: the University’s governing body in the UK regulates the degree and lays down particular prerequisites and controls before a degree can be confirmed. Moreover, since OBU and ACCA are generating this programme in affiliation with each other, both bodies are involved in the procedural delays.

Submission Period 30 deadlines:

Latest date to complete the Professional Ethics module
31 March 2015
Earliest submission of RAP online
1 May 2015
Latest submission of RAP online
20 May 2015
RAP and BSc degree results dispatched
23 September 2015

Submission Period 31 deadlines:

Latest date to complete the Professional Ethics module
30 September 2015
Earliest uploading of RAP to Oxford Brookes University site
1 November 2015
Latest uploading of RAP to Oxford Brookes University site
18 November 2015
RAP and BSc results dispatched
Wednesday 25 March 2016

Submission Period 32 deadlines:

Latest date to complete the Professional Ethics module
Thursday 31st March 2016
Earliest uploading of RAP to Oxford Brookes University site
Sunday 1st May 2016
Latest uploading of RAP to Oxford Brookes University site
Wednesday 18th May 2016
RAP and BSc results dispatched
Wednesday, 21 September 2016

The submission must be made online at the Oxford Brookes University submission portal website by the last date of submission. The link will expire at 12:00 AM (midnight) GMT on the date mentioned on the projects submission dates page. If this date is exceeded and you still haven’t submitted, you will have to wait for the next session to submit your RAP.
In case of any difficulties in uploading your Research and Analysis Project, please refer to the ACCA Office at Oxford Brookes on acca@brookes.ac.uk

Submission Fee Period 30

The submission fee for period 30 of the Oxford Brookes Research and Analysis Project (RAP) is £191.00.
With submission of any project, a project submission fee has to be paid to Oxford Brookes.

Acceptable formats for uploading Research and Analysis Projects:

Microsoft Word (or similar software) must be used to prepare the Report and the written SLS. You will also have to demonstrate some IT expertise by preparing Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint Presentations etc. Also, you will have to upload your files between specific dates (as stated in the Info Pack) to receive your graded result after just a little over 4 months of submission.

.doc
Word 97
.docx
Word 2000
.rtf
Rich text format
.txt
Plain text
.wpd
WordPerfect
.odt
OpenOffice / LibreOffice
.pdf
PDF file – only allowed for appendices
.xls
Excel – all versions – only allowed for appendices
.ppt
PowerPoint – all versions – only allowed for appendices

Assessment Criteria

The Research and Analysis Project (RAP) is usually the first actual intellectual work that most of the students will ever have to produce. Moreover, the RAP is quite different from regular exams such that you have to conduct a whole research, analyze it and derive conclusions from the analysis all by yourself as this can definitely not be done by using only textbooks and other literature. OBU also understands that every mentor is different and there is always some flexibility in the level of support and counsel provided to students by their different mentors.  Therefore, OBU gives you 3 opportunities to pass the RAP. In case you fail, the marker or moderator will give you a feedback regarding the areas in which you failed as well as about what was done wrong or omitted. This is definitely so unlike other exams where you have to figure all this out by yourself. This guidance helps immensely in resubmissions. Mostly, all you have to do for resubmission is change the topic and/or keep the areas that you passed but focus entirely on the areas that you failed. However for some topics (especially topics 8 and 15), you will have to update the financial information and analysis to show the most recent financial statements available (otherwise you can be failed in areas of Evaluation and Analysis, and/or Understanding of Models and/or Application of Models this time, depending on the assessment criteria you haven’t passed previously).

Assessment Criteria in relation to RAP

 The Criteria in Appendix 1 of the current Information Pack shows how the Research and Analysis Project (RAP), Skills & Learning Statement and the Presentation are going to be assessed. These are divided into 3 areas:

Technical and Professional Skills

To get an overall pass on your Research and Analysis Project (RAP), you must pass all the following four criteria. In essence, these skills would customarily tell the grade that will be given to the RAP if you pass at the first attempt. These are:
·         Understanding of accountancy/business models
·         Application of accountancy/business models
·         Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions
·         Presentation of project findings
Moreover, you must also be graded as competent in the Graduate Skills in order to pass the overall RAP.

Graduate Skills

There are three graduate skills in which it is compulsory for you to show competence:
·         Communication
·         Information gathering and referencing/citations
·         Information technology

You will unfortunately fail the RAP if any on the above seven criteria does not meet the minimum assessment criteria. In case you fail however, you have to update your report in the future according to the new figures and values, make the necessary improvements in the areas failed and resubmit (before the 10 year time limit is exceeded) to secure an overall pass. If you have ever failed in either Technical & Professional Skills and/or the Graduate Skills, the highest grade that you ever get even on a resubmission is going to be a grade C pass. 
For BSc applied accountancy Project click here :

Monday 19 February 2018

The Role of the Project Mentor: Oxford Brookes Project , BSc applied Accounting , OBU THESIS, OBU HELp

The Role of the Project Mentor

The Role of Project Mentor

Completing the RAP requires you to have a project mentor. The mentor must be someone who seems to you like an appropriate person to steer you through the RAP process and guide you through its different stages. People usually misinterpret the function of the mentor. Since the degree demands pondering over research questions by yourself and conducting your own research, it would be unfair to expect the mentor to be knowledgeable in your specific topic area and know explicit scholarly research methodologies that you mean to use.

According to the OBU Information Pack, the project mentor has two fundamental roles:
·         To guide you and give feedback at suitable times during your RAP activities, and hence support your RAP preparation
·         To assure the Oxford Brookes University as your project mentor that  you have committed no plagiarism in preparing your RAP

OBU particularly believes that the mentor must not ‘give you detailed advice on the structure and content of your Research Report or write any part of it’. Moreover, knowing what to do in order to meet the assessment criteria to pass is also your own job, and must not be expected from the mentor. The following are however the qualities that are worthwhile to be there in a mentor:
·         Is easy to talk to and really wants to help students complete their objectives
·         Listens with interest and motivates you to gain more by questioning your methods
·         Regards the secrecy of your research and is reliable
·         Seeks novel ideas and addresses problems during the research
·         Gives a good and healthy feedback on the research to help you improve
·         Has good communication skills and believes that there must be no communication gaps for a healthy participation
·         Motivates and encourages the student
·         Helps the student in acquiring their aims and objectives
·         Helps the student in raising the appropriate questions, ponder in an organized way, learn to use suitable assessment methods and analyse the findings to draw conclusions from them
·         Is neutral in cases of conflict and does not pass a critical judgment
·         Gives slight guidance but makes sure student has liberty in making decisions
·         Is well-informed and skillful
·         Understands the methodologies even if he/she is not an expert on the subject

How to choose a Mentor

Please note that you will have to work intimately with your mentor to seek his/her guidance and feedback, therefore use the list above in selecting your mentor diligently. You need to make sure you can have a sound relationship with your mentor with no future regrets as you would be expected to have at least 3 meetings with him/her at different stages of your RAP preparation and completion. Therefore seek advice from students who have already been through the RAP process by seeking recommendations and feedback from them on their own past mentors in order to select your own.
The current OBU guidelines state that persons in these categories might be suitable:
·         Your teacher at College or University
·         A senior colleague at your workplace, e.g. your line manager
·         A qualified Chartered Certified Accountant
If your chosen mentor does not fit the above criteria however, you can send a copy of his/her CV to the ACCA office for approval. The approval will most likely be given if the proposed mentor is a member of a recognized professional institute or organization and/or has a degree of equivalent qualification.
Since this might also not be possible in some cases, you can also find a mentor on OBU’s register of listed mentors (listing requires completing the OBU mentoring course). Please acknowledge that listing only means that the particular mentor has received suitable mentor training, but no mentor is in any way endorsed or recommended by OBU. Every mentor sets his own fee for using his/her mentorship and it is not under the control of OBU whether they are listed or not.
It is proposed however that from 2015 onwards, it will be compulsory to use a listed mentor. Listing will still not imply recommendation by OBU, but a mentor might be removed from the list if he/she is evidently not performing the mentoring role sufficiently.

The OBU RAP Information Pack contains further information directly intended for the mentor, so you will need to make sure your mentor goes through it once you have made a choice and chosen a mentor. 
What is OBU project? Click here!
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