Bachelor of Accounting/ Bachelor of Laws (Honours)

This is a five-year double degree that puts accounting and law together in one qualification. You graduate with a Bachelor of Accounting and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours). The combination makes sense because tax, corporate governance, insolvency and commercial advice sit right where the two fields meet. Western Sydney University runs it across the standard academic year, with semesters and units of study carrying credit points. You will complete the law component at honours level, which means a research thesis or major research project in your later years.

What you actually study

On the accounting side, expect financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, taxation law and corporate finance. The law side covers the subjects required for admission to legal practice in Australia: contracts, torts, criminal law, property, equity, constitutional law, administrative law and civil procedure. Later units let you specialise in areas like corporate and commercial law, employment law, or international business transactions. Because it is a double degree, some units count towards both awards, which is how five years covers what would otherwise take longer separately.

Work-integrated learning is built in. Law students at Western Sydney often take clinical legal education units, working in community legal centres or university legal clinics under supervision. Accounting students complete practical units and may take placements with firms, government agencies or corporate finance teams. The honours component in law means a supervised research thesis, usually in your final year, on a topic you choose with your supervisor.

Structure and credit points

Australian bachelor degrees are normally three years full-time; this double degree runs five. An honours year on its own adds one year, but here the honours is embedded in the law component, so you finish with an honours-level law degree without adding time. You will accumulate credit points across units, typically 10 credit points per unit at Western Sydney, and you need to pass the required number for each award. The degree is listed on CRICOS as 108429G for international students.

Who it suits and what you need

This suits school leavers and mature-age students who want to practise law but also want a strong grounding in accounting, or who want to work in forensic accounting, tax advisory or corporate governance where both skill sets are valued. It also suits people already working in finance or accounting who want to move into legal practice. International applicants need to meet English requirements. For law, the published standard is IELTS Academic 7.0–7.5 overall, or an accepted equivalent such as TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic or Cambridge C1 Advanced. The Department of Home Affairs sets a separate English threshold for the Student visa itself. While studying, your visa allows up to 48 hours of work per fortnight during term. After graduating, you may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream, which lets you stay and work in Australia for a period depending on your qualification. Confirm all details, including tuition and current English requirements, on the official Western Sydney University page and the CRICOS register.

• Solicitor or barrister, after completing the required practical legal training and admission process, you can practise in commercial law firms, community legal centres or the bar.
• Tax accountant or tax adviser, accounting firms, corporate tax departments and government revenue agencies hire graduates who understand both tax law and accounting.
• Auditor or assurance professional, professional services firms, public sector audit offices and internal audit teams.
• Forensic accountant, investigating financial crime, fraud and disputes for consultancies, regulators and law enforcement.
• Corporate governance or compliance officer, banks, insurers, listed companies and regulators need people who can read both the numbers and the law.
• Insolvency and restructuring analyst, specialist firms and advisory arms of large accounting networks.
• Management consultant, strategy and risk practices that serve financial services and government.
• Legal counsel in financial services, in-house roles at banks, superannuation funds and fintechs, often after a few years of practice.