University of Waterloo School of Accounting and Finance


The School of Accounting and Finance at University of Waterloo is a professional school within the Faculty of Arts. The School was established in 1985 under the name 'School of Accountancy'. Its name was changed in 2008 to better reflect its program offering. Today, more than 1,600 students are enrolled in the School's programs. In September 2009, a new building was officially opened to house the School.
The School of Accounting and Finance offers the largest accounting and finance undergraduate cooperative education program in Canada.
The School's Master of Accounting Program allows students to complete all required CPA modules within 8 months, and is only open to students who complete the School's undergrad programs. MAcc graduates only need to challenge the Common Final Examination and accumulate the required professional experiences in order to become a Chartered Professional Accountant. MAcc and industry experiences gained from co-op is well known among Canadian accounting and finance industries.

Programs of Study

The School of Accounting and Finance offers four undergraduate programs, two graduate programs and one doctoral program. Additionally, the School jointly administers one undergraduate program and one graduate program with the Faculty of Mathematics and one undergraduate program with the Faculty of Science.
The BAFM and BCFM degrees are both CFA Institute's University Affiliated Programs, which recognize academic institutions that embed a significant portion of the CFA Program Candidate Body of Knowledge into their curriculum.

Undergraduate Education

Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management Co-op :
The AFM program offers 6 specializations in areas such as public accounting, finance, entrepreneurship, sustainability, Business analytics, and corporate governance. The first two years at AFM is focused on laying the foundations in accounting and finance, with a focus in people skills, learning, and academic success. The initiative includes experiential learning opportunities such as events, workshops, interactive webcasts, and team-based problem-solving situations connected to courses and extra-curricular situations. Students must then select a specialization from the list below in their 3rd and 4th year:
  1. Professional Accountant Career Specialization
  2. Entrepreneurial Mindset Career Specialization
  3. Financial Leadership Career Specialization
  4. Financial Markets Career Specialization
  5. Business Analytics Career Specialization
  6. Sustainability Career Specialization
Students may choose two specializations at most.
Mathematics/Chartered Professional Accountancy Co-op :
Biotechnology/Chartered Professional Accountancy Co-op :
Bachelor of Computing and Financial Management :
Master of Accounting :
Master of Taxation :
Master of Quantitative Finance :
PhD in Accounting:
According to QS World University Rankings, School of Accounting and Finance ranks 101-150 globally in 2020 for the subject category of Accounting & Finance. SAF also ranks high in the 2019 Global Accounting Research Survey conducted by Brigham Young University:
With co-operative education, many students secured full-time employment before graduation. In 2017, 100% of MTax graduates were employed before graduation, while 98% of AFM, Biotech/CPA, Math/CPA and MAcc students found employment within 6 months after graduation. The co-op employment rate has been consistently at around 97% to 100% with the students placed in Big Four accounting firms, chartered banks, government, non-profit organizations, and non-financial institutions with roles such as staff accountant, financial analyst, tax analyst, investment banker, private equity analyst, data science intern and trader.

UFE/CFE Honour Roll and Gold Medalists

The School of Accounting & Finance has had success in its students and faculty research. Notably, many students who have challenged the Common Final Examination achieves honour roll as well as gold medal.
The National Honour Roll of the Common Final Exam recognizes candidates whose performance in the exam demonstrated academic excellence and exceptional abilities. The candidates listed on the Honour Roll are determined as the top 1% of the first-time writers who wrote all three days. In 2018 and 2019, SAF captured the National Gold Medal consecutively. SAF has obtained 6 national gold medals from the period between 2010 and 2019. The CFE honour roll and successful CFE writers are mostly the Master of Accounting students. In 2018 and 2019, SAF students accounted for 25% and 19% of the Honour Roll recipients respectively - the best performance in Canada.
1 Honour roll count includes the gold medalists.
2 Ontario Gold Medal count includes the individuals who also won National Gold Medal.

CFA Institute Research Challenge

In 2016, School of Accounting & Finance students became the first Canadian team to win the global annual CFA Institute Research Challenge. The CFA Institute Research Challenge leverages the efforts of over 140 CFA member societies, 3,500 member volunteers, and more than 5,000 students from over 1,000 universities. The CFA Institute Research Challenge requires student teams to research and analyze a publicly-traded company and then write a research report on their assigned company with a buy, sell, or hold recommendation.

Student Life

Aside from the clubs/societies available within the University of Waterloo, there are various extra-curricular activities available to SAF students only. The Accounting and Finance Student Association is the government body for the SAF undergrad students, divided into many sub-committees. AFSA is run and governed by a fully-elected Executive Team and a partially-elected Board of Directors. SAF also holds a student-run orientation week for first year undergrad students after the regular Waterloo orientation week, Accounting and Finance Orientation Week .
Furthermore, ACE Consulting Group is also a SAF student-run consulting organization that provides Kitchener-Waterloo entrepreneurs and small business clients with professional consulting services.
The School of Accounting and Finance Outreach & Ambassador Program is a year-long program for current SAF students to represent the School in recruiting, marketing, and connecting with future prospective students.
Other initiatives in relation to SAF academic learning include:
School of Accounting and Finance organizes two national student-run conferences annually: