Who Awards What: Separating the Degree From the Professional Qualification

Choosing a course involves more than comparing subjects, fees and duration. You also need to understand the qualification you will earn, who awards it and how it supports your future plans.

A degree comes from a university, while a professional qualification comes from a professional body. They serve different purposes and often complement each other, giving you both an academic foundation and focused preparation for a particular profession.

This guide explains the difference between educational and professional qualification, what a professional degree means, and where qualifications such as CA, CS, ACCA fit into your education and career plans.

What Is an Educational Qualification?

An educational qualification (some people call it an academic qualification) shows that you finished a course of study at a recognised school, college or university. Your Class 10 and Class 12 (Plus Two) certificates count. So do degrees like BCom, BBA, MCom and MBA.

Once you reach higher education, the main credential is the degree, and in India the law spells out who may award one. Section 22 of the UGC Act, 1956 limits this right to universities created under a Central or State Act, deemed-to-be universities, and institutions that Parliament has specifically empowered.

So a coaching institute can't award you a BCom, and neither can a professional body simply by offering the course. If you see a BCom + ACCA programme, the BCom part is still awarded by a partner university. That degree supports your eligibility for a master's and for jobs that require graduation.

What Is a Professional Qualification?

If you've ever searched what is professional qualification, here's the plain answer. It's a credential that a professional or industry body awards once you've shown you can work competently in a particular profession.

That's the professional qualification meaning, but earning one usually takes more than clearing exams. Depending on the body, you might have to:

• Pass a set of professional exams
• Complete a fixed period of supervised, relevant work
• Meet ethics and conduct standards
• Keep up CPD (continuing professional development) even after you qualify

Educational Qualification vs Professional Qualification

So, what's the difference between educational qualification and professional qualification? Your degree shows what you've studied, while a professional qualification shows what you've been trained and assessed to do in a specific field.

Factor	Educational Qualification (Degree)	Professional Qualification
Who awards it	A recognised university	A professional or industry body
Main purpose	Broad academic learning	Competence in one profession
How it's structured	Semesters, credits, university exams	Professional exams, work experience, ethics
Career use	General eligibility for jobs and higher study	Specialised roles in that profession

One doesn't automatically stand in for the other. A degree alone doesn't authorise you to provide regulated accounting services, and a professional qualification isn't automatically treated as a degree. Plenty of people in finance end up holding both.

What Is a Professional Degree?

Here's where a lot of students get mixed up. A professional degree is still a university degree; it's just built around one career. Professional degree courses such as MBBS, LLB, BArch and BTech all fall into this group.

Even then, the university and the profession have separate roles. Take law. A student earns an LLB from a university but has to enrol with a State Bar Council and meet the applicable practice requirements before practising as an advocate. One body awards the degree, and another regulates entry into the profession.

That's the professional degree meaning: a career-focused university degree, distinct from a professional qualification.

Who Awards Degrees and Professional Qualifications?

Here's a quick reference worth saving:

• Class 12 certificate: your board, whether CBSE, CISCE or a state board
• BCom, BBA, MCom, MBA: a recognised or deemed-to-be university
• CA: the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
• CMA USA: the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)
• ACCA Qualification: the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

Before you sign up for any programme, ask one question about every certificate it promises: "Which body will award this?" That answer tells you what you're really getting.

Is ACCA a Professional Qualification?

Yes, ACCA is a professional qualification, awarded by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, a global professional accountancy body. There's no "ACCA university", and when people mention an "ACCA degree", they almost always mean the ACCA Qualification.

So what does the ACCA course qualification involve? Under the current structure, the ACCA qualification requirements are:

• Passing up to 13 ACCA exams across Applied Knowledge, Applied Skills and Strategic Professional (eligible exemptions can reduce this number)
• Completing the Ethics and Professional Skills Module
• Meeting the Practical Experience Requirement, which includes 36 months of relevant supervised experience and the required performance objectives

Complete all three and you can apply for ACCA membership.

ACCA is also redesigning its qualification, with exams under the future ACCA Qualification starting in 2027. If you're already studying, ACCA's transition guidance explains how your existing progress will carry over.

Is ACCA a Degree or Diploma?

Neither, if you mean the full qualification. ACCA does award diplomas at certain milestones, like the Diploma in Accounting and Business and the Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business. Think of them as checkpoints on the way to the full ACCA Qualification.

Is ACCA a Professional Degree or Certificate?

It's best described as a professional qualification. It isn't a degree, since no university awards it. And calling it a certificate course doesn't fully describe it, because it combines exams, ethics training and real work experience.

ACCA's Strategic Professional level is benchmarked at master's-degree level (Level 7) on the UK's Regulated Qualifications Framework. That reflects how advanced the content is. It doesn't make ACCA a degree.

Recognition also depends on the country and the role. In India, for instance, statutory company audits are reserved for practising chartered accountants who are ICAI members.

Can a Degree and Professional Qualification Be Pursued Together?

Yes. The usual routes are:

• Integrated programmes: You join a BCom, BVoc or MBA through a partner university and prepare for ACCA at the same time. Your degree comes from the university, and your ACCA Qualification comes from ACCA. IIC Lakshya's integrated degree and ACCA programmes work this way.
• ACCA-linked university degrees: Eligible ACCA students can study for a BSc Professional Accountancy with the University of London, with a March 2027 intake announced. The University of London awards that degree. The older Oxford Brookes BSc option closed to final submissions in May 2026.
• Degree first, ACCA after: Graduates can register with ACCA once their degree is done and may be eligible for ACCA exemptions for subjects they've already covered.

A first-year BCom student who starts ACCA alongside her degree could graduate with her BCom and be well into her ACCA papers. She would be working towards two credentials from two awarding bodies.

Which One Should a Student Choose?

It depends on where you're starting from and where you'd like to end up.

• Class 12 students sure about accounting and finance can pair a degree with ACCA from day one.
• BCom students can add ACCA alongside their course and claim eligible exemptions.
• Graduates looking for specialised finance roles can add a professional qualification on top of their degree.
• Undecided students might focus on the degree first and explore professional options later.

A note for parents: the degree gives your child a recognised academic base, and the professional qualification adds focused, hands-on competence. Together, they can strengthen your child's profile, though neither one guarantees a job or a specific salary.

If you're still weighing it up, the academic counsellors at IIC Lakshya, an ACCA Approved Platinum Learning Partner, can help you map out a degree and ACCA course plan that fits your goals.

Key Takeaways

• Universities award degrees; professional bodies award professional qualifications.
• Professional degree courses like LLB or MBBS still lead to university degrees.
• ACCA is a professional qualification from ACCA. It isn't a degree, and it goes well beyond a diploma.

Degrees and professional qualifications aren't rivals. Once you know who awards what, you can combine them sensibly and choose what suits the career you want.