Botswana Accountancy College

The Botswana Accountancy College, or BAC, is a business school located in the city of Gaborone, Botswana. Initially funded and established through a joint venture between The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and Debswana, the college caters for the accountancy and IT tertiary needs for the country. BAC has two main campuses; the main campus being located in Gaborone, and the secondary one in Francistown. The college has collaborations with The University of Derby and The University of Sunderland in England.

History

The college was established in 1996 as joint venture between the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), The Debswana Diamond Company and the Botswana Institute of Accountants, enrolling 349 ACCA, CIMA, AAT and NCC diploma students. The objectives of the college were to reduce the reliance on expatriate accountants and in the long term to be a self funding project. BAC is a company limited by guarantee with three sponsors as the shareholders. The MFDP and Debswana funded BAC until 2007. The Gaborone Campus is located in the Fairground Office Park of south-east Gaborone.

In 2007 BAC opened its second campus in Francistown, located in the city centre at Barclays Plaza, with 45 AAT students.

The BAC location is close to the accounting and financial firms in the area, including Stanbic Bank, BancABC, KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, Grant Thornton, Botswana Life Insurance, BomAid, Botswana Development Corporation and Aon Insurance. The location provides the firms with access to graduated university and college students, as well as permitting BAC students to receive training and potential employment from the firms.

Facilities

Within Gaborone, BAC operates from three closely linked campuses.:^[1]

• Main Campus,
• BIFM (Fairgrounds Office Park Block D building) 2nd Floor across the road from the main campus,
• Fairgrounds Financial Centre, located within the Fairgrounds location.

Student life

BAC offers extra-curricula societies and clubs to students:

• The Business Hive was founded in August 2011. It is an entrepreneurship and finance fraternity to allow students to sample the corporate world during their time tenure at BAC through workshops, training and competitions with Botswana entrepreneurs, mentors and finance professionals.^[2]
• The Debate Society was founded in January 2011. The students have represented BAC across southern Africa in debating tournaments, as well as Berlin, Germany for the World Universities Debating Championship.
• BAC Rugby team

Programs

The college offers accounting, business, insurance, taxation and computing courses, including:

Professional programs:

• CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) - BAC is recognised by CIMA as a Quality Learning Partner,
• ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) - BAC is recognised by the ACCA as a Platinum Learning Partner,
• AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians),
• CIA (Certified Internal Auditor),
• Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Undergraduate programs (Business) in collaboration with the University of Derby:

• BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance,
• BA (Hons) Business Enterprise,
• BA (Hons) Travel and Tourism Management,
• BA (Hons) Business Management.

Postgraduate programs:

• MSc in Strategic Management (University of Derby),
• MBA (University of Derby),
• MSc Information Technology Management (University of Sunderland).

Undergraduate programs under the IT department in collaboration with the University of Sunderland:

• BSc (Hons) Applied Business Computing,
• BSc (Hons) Computer Systems Engineering.

Short business courses for corporate clients:

• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)/Call Centre Management,
• Risk Management,
• Project Management,
• Taxation,
• Balanced Scorecard training.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders in BAC include::

• Ministry of Finance,
• Ministry of Education,
• Debswana,
• Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants,
• Tertiary Education Council.

Partners

• The University of Derby,
• The University of Sunderland,
• The Botswana Unified Revenue Service,
• The Insurance Institute of South Africa.

Sheffield Hallam University

References

External links

• Botswana Accountancy College  Website
• Botswana Accountancy College at the University of Derby

Coordinates: 24°40′49.26″S 025°55′34.4″E / 24.6803500°S 25.926222°E / -24.6803500; 25.926222