CEO Message – Membership, Competition and Pathways to the Profession

Prof. Janek Ratnatunga
Prof. Janek Ratnatunga, CEO, ICMA Australia

At the Annual General Meeting held on November 26, 2014 it was reported by the Membership Committee chairman that the Institute had a 5% increase in CMAs; a 3% increase in Designation memberships, and an overall membership growth of 13%.  Although membership growth is not a KPI of ICMA, which instead aims for quality by positioning itself as the only specialist professional body for senior executives with education programs at the master’s degree level; members still represent the lifeblood of the Institute.  The ICMA takes pride in being exclusive, and strives to differentiate itself from the volume-end of the market which is crowded with professional bodies catering to undergraduate level school leavers. The overall membership of the ICMA (including students) now stands at approximately 10,400 members in 50 countries, with the majority residing in Australia.

To facilitate its educational objectives the Institute has accredited a number of universities which have master’s degree subjects that are equivalent to the CMA program. Some of these universities also provide in-house training and examinations of the CMA program. Accounting graduates can do CMA accredited units at these universities to qualify for CMA status. The universities accredited and the details of the subjects accredited are listed on the CMA Website.

Competition for members is intensifying. Many of ICMA’s competitors are now targeting senior members by blatantly copying ICMA’s educational strategies and membership pathways. As such it is good to remind members that your Institute offers a number of Membership pathways which are listed on the home page of its website. Please be ambassadors for the Institute and recommend to those you think worthy the benefits of CMA membership.

To counter competitive moves two additional pathways were recently introduced by ICMA:

Distance Education Scholarship Program: The ICMA is now providing its CMA program via Distance Education at a discounted price in selected countries in South Asia and Africa where there is no Recognised Provider Institution or the travel distances to a CMA program is prohibitive.

Emerging Professional Scholarship Program: The ICMA will be offering up to 100 scholarships per university annually to the top accounting graduates at selected universities in Australia and Asia to undertake the ‘CMA Emerging Professional’ Scholarship program on the completion of their degree.

Selected universities have entered into a simple agreement with ICMA, that they will nominate annually the top 100 graduating students who will be eligible to be awarded the scholarships by ICMA. The university will contact such students with the news that they have been awarded a scholarship for their professional studies in management accounting. It is up to the students themselves to accept/decline the scholarship. Those accepting will need to fill out the scholarship application form, and attach an endorsement letter from the ICMA designated academic at the university.

Details of the Emerging Professional Scholarship Program are provided elsewhere in this newsletter.

Best Wishes to all members in their professional life.

 

Happy Holidays!

 

Professor Janek Ratnatunga, CMA, IMAP

CEO, ICMA Australia

About Prof Janek Ratnatunga 1129 Articles
Professor Janek Ratnatunga is CEO of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants. He has held appointments at the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the Australian National University in Australia; and the Universities of Washington, Richmond and Rhode Island in the USA. Prior to his academic career he worked with KPMG.