Accountant
🧾Keeps a company's books: processes documents, runs payroll and taxes, files returns with the tax authorities and makes sure everything is within the law.
Prospects & pay
What the work is like
💼 Job market
🇺🇸 $105.5k a year on average · +5% jobs by 2035 · 115,300 openings a year
Accountants & auditors — US: Census ACS 2020–24 (full-time), BLS projections 2025–35
🇬🇧 £50k median a year · 59,000 jobs
Chartered and certified accountants — UK: ONS ASHE 2025 (full-time)
🤖 AI & automation
Software and AI automate bookkeeping, payroll and reporting, so far fewer junior accountants are needed. A chief accountant with tax expertise and responsibility stays.
Who it suits
Interests: 🗂️ Order, paperwork, systems, 💰 Finance and economics, 📐 Maths and data.
Key strengths: organisation, attention to detail, maths.
Where to study
- Bachelor's BSc Accounting & Finance
- Course Chartered status: ACA (ICAEW), ACCA or CIMA (UK/EU); CPA (US)
- Apprenticeship AAT Accounting Technician / professional accountant degree apprenticeship (UK)
Key school subjects (A-level / IB / AP): Maths, Economics, Business.
🧗 UK: a degree (ideally accounting), then 3 years of work and ACA, ACCA or CIMA exams; or skip university via AAT and an apprenticeship. US: 150 credit hours (usually 4+1 years) and the CPA exam for a state licence.
Universities
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) London · €33.2k–45.9k/yr
£28,900–39,900 (2026/27, fixed for the degree); A-levels/IB; IELTS ≈7.0; TMUA for some programmes - University of Warwick Coventry · €33.6k–42.9k/yr
Attestat alone not enough: foundation or A-levels/IB; IELTS 6.5–7.0; maths requires STEP/TMUA; 2027/28 fees £29.3–37.3k - Lancaster University Lancaster · €31.2k/yr
IELTS 6.5 (5.5 each); Attestat + foundation at the International Study Centre; Finance 2027/28 £27.1k
🇺🇸 United States
- University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School) Philadelphia · €64.4k/yr
Common App; SAT/ACT required; TOEFL/IELTS/DET for non-native speakers (taken Apr 2025+); aid for internationals is need-aware - New York University (Stern School of Business) New York · €61.3k/yr
Common App; TOEFL/IELTS/DET for non-native speakers; ≈ $103k/yr with housing - University of Texas at Austin (McCombs School of Business) Austin · €37k–44.5k/yr
non-resident tuition (business at the top of the range); TOEFL 4 / IELTS 6.5 / DET 115
🇩🇪 Germany
- Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Frankfurt · €17.2k/yr
Private: €8,600 a semester + €700 fees; online assessment centre (reasoning, English, interview); all English from semester 4 - Goethe University Frankfurt Frankfurt · free
No tuition; DSH-2 at the time of application (DSH-3 for medicine and dentistry); ISZ preparatory school from B1 - University of Mannheim Mannheim · €3k/yr
Non-EU: €1,500 a semester; C1 (TestDaF 4x4, DSH-2) by the deadline; no fully English bachelor's; apply directly
🇳🇱 Netherlands
- Erasmus University Rotterdam Rotterdam · €13.5k–32.2k/yr
Certificate + usually 1 university year; IELTS ≈ 6.5; medicine is Dutch-taught, numerus fixus (400 places), €32,200 - Tilburg University Tilburg · €13.4k/yr
Certificate + usually 1 university year; maths for economics; IELTS ≈ 6.5 - University of Amsterdam Amsterdam · €17.5k/yr
Certificate + usually 1 university year (Diploma finder); IELTS 6.5 (PPLE 7.0); medicine is Dutch-taught, numerus fixus, €34,700
🇫🇷 France
- HEC Paris Jouy-en-Josas · €23k–26.8k/yr
Only bachelor is with Bocconi (Data, Society & Organisations, English): year 1 in Milan, year 3 at HEC - EDHEC Business School Roubaix · €15.9k–23.9k/yr
International BBA: online English test, personality test, online interview; 5 rounds; up to 25% scholarship - Université Paris Dauphine – PSL Paris
Selective licence (file review), in French; foreigners via Études en France *
🇮🇹 Italy
- Bocconi University Milan · €17k–17.7k/yr
Bocconi test, SAT or ACT (equivalent); English B2 (certificate or Bocconi test); fee €17,700 (2027/28) - LUISS Guido Carli Rome · €14k–15k/yr
Private, flat fee regardless of income: €14,000 (2026/27), €15,000 (2027/28); own test or SAT, English B2 - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milan
9 English-taught bachelor's (Communication Management, Finance, Psychology etc.); English B2, selection by documents
🇪🇸 Spain
- Comillas Pontifical University (ICADE) Madrid · €15.8k/yr
Written entrance tests; ADE fully in English, law in English/Spanish; ≈ €15,830 a year - CUNEF University Madrid
Own admission tests; IBE and PPE fully in English - Esade (Ramon Llull University) Sant Cugat del Vallès · €21.3k/yr
Esade Admissions Test (logic, maths, English); BBA in English or bilingual; €21,300 a year
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- Prague University of Economics and Business Prague · €0–5k/yr
Free in Czech; English bachelor's €5,000/yr (2026/27 intake; €6,000 from 2027/28) - Masaryk University Brno · €0–16k/yr
Free in Czech; English €2,700–7,500/yr (Informatics €4,500), Medicine CZK 380,000; Czech ≈B2 + entrance exams - VSB – Technical University of Ostrava Ostrava · €0–4k/yr
Free in Czech; English bachelor's CZK 50,000 per semester (≈€4,000/yr)
Things to know
🪑 Sitting at a computer all day
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