Study accounting in Ireland and you have more choice than almost any other subject, with honours degrees from Dublin to Dundalk and 2026 CAO points running from 195 to 567. This guide compares every route, shows which degrees carry the most professional exemptions, and explains why your points total is not your career ceiling.
No undergraduate degree makes you an accountant. The letters that matter (ACA, ACCA, CPA, CIMA) come later, through professional exams and a period of supervised training, usually done while working and being paid. What a good degree does is shorten that road, sometimes by years, through exemptions from the professional exams. So the smartest way to read this page is not "which course has the highest points" but "which course carries the exemptions, the placement and the recruiter relationships that get me qualified fastest". The two are not the same thing.
| UNIVERSITY | CAO CODE | PROGRAMME | AWARD | YEARS | 2026 R1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinity College Dublin | TR081 | Business, Economic and Social Studies (accounting pathway) | BA | 4 | 567* |
| University College Dublin | DN650 | Commerce (accounting major available) | BComm | 3 | 554* |
| University College Cork | CK202 | Accounting | BSc (Hons) | 4 | 520 |
| Dublin City University | DC115 | Accounting and Finance | BA (Hons) | 3 | 509 |
| University of Galway | GY207 | Commerce (Accounting) | BComm (Hons) | 3-4 | 509 |
| University of Limerick | LM020 | Law and Accounting | BA | 4 | 454 |
| University of Limerick | LM050 | Business Studies (Accounting and Finance option) | BBS | 4 | 442 |
| Maynooth University | MH403 | Accounting and Finance | BA (Hons) | 3-4 | 411 |
Points shown are 2026 CAO Round 1 cut-offs; * random selection applied, so not everyone on this score received an offer. Verify at cao.ie/points. Where a duration shows 3-4, the fourth year is an optional placement or international year. All programmes above are covered by Free Fees for eligible EU students (student contribution applies).
Accounting is one of the most widely taught subjects in the country: there is an honours accounting degree within reach of almost every town in Ireland, many at half the points of the highest university routes, and all feeding into the same professional exams.
The qualification that defines your career is the professional one (ACA, ACCA, CPA or CIMA), and it is earned after college, in the same exam halls, whatever your CAO points were. Training firms care about your exemptions, your grades, your placement experience and how you interview. A graduate of a 300-point TU accounting degree with strong exemptions and a placement behind them competes for the same training contracts as everyone else on this page.
| Institution | CAO Code | Programme | Level | 2026 R1 Points | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TU Dublin | TU910 | Accounting (BSc Hons, 3 or 4 years) | L8 | 380 | Aungier Street, Dublin |
| TU933 | Accounting and Finance (BBus Hons, 4 years) | L8 | 311 | Blanchardstown or Tallaght | |
| TU of the Shannon | US845 | Accounting and Finance | L8 | 410 | Limerick |
| US847 | Accounting with Finance (with placement) | L8 | 307 | Athlone | |
| Atlantic TU | AU607 | Digital Accounting | L8 | 323 | Galway |
| AU902 | Accounting | L8 | 316 | Sligo | |
| AU300 | Business - Accounting | L8 | 307 | Letterkenny | |
| AU600 | Accounting | L8 | 307 | Galway | |
| South East TU | SE407 | Accounting | L8 | 318 | Carlow |
| SE408 | Accounting | L8 | 309 | Waterford | |
| Munster TU | MT942 | Accounting | L8 | 307 | Cork |
| NCI | NC022 | Accounting and Finance | L8 | 333 | IFSC, Dublin |
| Dundalk IT | DK810 | Accounting and Finance | L8 | 195 | Dundalk, Co. Louth |
| Griffith College | GC401 | Accounting and Finance | L8 | 270 | Dublin (also Cork: GC201) |
| Dublin Business School | DB521 | Accounting and Finance | L8 | 244 | Dublin |
Points shown are 2026 CAO Round 1 cut-offs; check each course page for duration and placement structure. Griffith College and Dublin Business School are private colleges where tuition fees apply (not covered by Free Fees); NCI participates in the Free Fees Initiative for eligible courses. Level 7 accounting routes with lower entry points, such as TU788 at TU Dublin, ladder directly into these honours degrees.
The spread on this page runs from 195 points in Dundalk to 567 for Trinity BESS, yet every one of these graduates can sit the same professional exams, sign the same audit files and put the same letters after their name. In accountancy the great equaliser is the training contract and the professional exam hall. Partners in the biggest firms in Ireland started in every single institution listed here.
Accountancy has more side doors than almost any other profession, including one that requires no accounting degree at all.
School leaver, technician, Level 7 ladder-climber, mature student or history graduate: the professional bodies examine everyone against the same standard, and the qualification you end up with looks identical. In accountancy, how you started is a story for the Christmas party, not a mark on your record.
English-taught business degrees are plentiful across Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. Dedicated "accounting" degrees are rarer; the usual route is a business, economics or finance degree with accounting modules, followed by the professional exams back home.
A European degree will not stop you becoming an accountant in Ireland, but it may lengthen the exam road. The Irish bodies award exemptions course by course: ACCA has a public exemptions calculator covering universities worldwide, while Chartered Accountants Ireland assesses non-accredited degrees individually, and exemptions in Irish taxation and Irish company law are rarely granted to any foreign degree. Before accepting a place abroad, run the specific programme through the ACCA calculator and query it with the body you are most likely to train with, and get the answer in writing.
Statutory tuition at Dutch public universities and low or no tuition in parts of the Nordics and Germany can undercut the total cost of an Irish degree away from home. Always check the current year’s fee rates.
Hundreds of full business and economics degrees run entirely in English, with large international cohorts and admission that does not depend on CAO points.
Big 4 and multinational finance teams in Dublin prize languages and international experience; a European business degree can be a differentiator at milkround interviews.
Sweden, Finland, Germany and Spain (IE University, ESADE) all offer English-taught business degrees, and because ACCA is a global qualification you can even begin professional exams while studying abroad. One practical note: the autumn milkround for Irish training contracts happens in person and online each year, so students abroad should plan to engage with it remotely in their penultimate year rather than waiting until they come home.
The degree is act one. Professional qualification happens afterwards, through one of the recognised accountancy bodies, and it is the part employers actually pay for. Here is how it works.
| Stage | What you pay | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Degree years | Student contribution of up to €3,000 per year | Tuition is covered by the Free Fees Initiative for eligible EU students at the public institutions above; SUSI can cover the contribution. Private colleges (Griffith, DBS) charge tuition instead. Recent budgets have reduced the contribution, so check the current figure. |
| Professional exams under a training contract | Usually little or nothing | Training firms typically pay exam fees, course fees and study leave while paying you a salary. This makes accountancy one of the cheapest professions in Ireland to actually qualify into. |
| Self-funded professional route | Exam, subscription and course fees per paper | Studying ACCA, CPA or ATI independently means paying the bodies’ registration, subscription and exam fees yourself; current rates are published on each body’s website and employers often reimburse them once you are working. |
Unlike medicine, law or pharmacy, the qualification years in accountancy come with a salary and an employer who funds the exams. For students weighing up professions on cost, this is the quiet advantage of accounting: from the day the degree ends, the money flows towards you.
Indicative salary while training and sitting professional exams, with employers typically covering exam and course fees on top.
The step-change arrives with the letters: newly qualified accountants in Dublin practice and industry typically land in this band, with strong demand nationwide.
Financial controllers, finance directors, tax directors and partners earn well beyond this; a very large share of Irish CEOs and CFOs are qualified accountants.
Audit, tax and advisory in the Big 4, mid-tier networks and local firms in every county; the classic training ground of the profession.
Financial and management accounting inside companies of every kind, climbing towards financial controller and CFO; where most accountants spend their careers.
Dublin’s funds industry, banking, aircraft leasing (an Irish global speciality), fintech, forensic accounting, insolvency and the public sector all compete for the same qualification.
Salary figures are indicative ranges drawn from published Irish accountancy and finance recruitment salary guides and vary by firm size, sector, location and experience.
From researching courses to signing your name as a qualified accountant, in order.
Compare courses on exemptions and placements, not just points, and note the Maths requirements (DCU asks for O4/H6). Leaving Cert Accounting is helpful but not required anywhere; every course starts from scratch.
The CAO application opens for entry the following September.
Apply by this date for the discounted application fee; you can change everything later.
The main CAO deadline, and the hard deadline for mature applicants.
Reorder your choices free of charge. Build the ladder here: university codes at the top in true preference order, then TU and college accounting codes beneath them.
Leaving Cert results, then CAO Round 1 offers. Whatever offer arrives, remember the profession is reached from every single code on this page.
Study, placements and, crucially, the autumn "milkround": the big firms recruit trainees a full year ahead, interviewing penultimate and final-year students each September and October. Diary it; the students who apply early get the pick of the contracts.
Salaried work plus professional exams (CAP1, CAP2 and the FAE on the chartered route, or the ACCA, CPA or CIMA equivalents), with exam fees and study leave normally funded by your employer.
Admission to your professional body, the newly qualified pay jump, and a qualification that travels: Irish accountancy bodies have mutual recognition agreements around the world.
Two courses fifty points apart can differ by a full year of professional exams. Before ranking anything, look up each course’s exemptions with Chartered Accountants Ireland and on the ACCA calculator; degrees like UCC’s CK202, Galway’s GY207 and DCU’s DC115 publish exceptional packages, and that is worth more than bragging rights on points.
A structured placement (UCC’s paid six months, UL’s co-op, the placement years at Maynooth, TUS and elsewhere) very often converts directly into a training contract offer. If two courses are close on your list, the one that puts you inside a firm before graduation should usually win.
If you are certain about accountancy, a specialised degree (DC115, CK202, GY207, MH403) maximises exemptions. If you are business-curious but not committed, a broad degree (BComm, BESS, LM050 common entry) lets you decide later, and the graduate conversion routes will still get you the letters. Both strategies work; choose the one that matches your certainty, not your points.
University codes at the top in genuine preference order, then the TU and college honours degrees, then a Level 7 route. With entry running from 210 to 566 points, almost nobody who wants to study accounting in Ireland is left without an offer, and the ladder, add-on years and professional bodies join every rung to the top.
There is no single best place to study accounting in Ireland, because the qualification that defines an accountant is earned after college, in the same professional exams, by graduates of every institution on this page. What separates careers five years on is not the CAO points of the degree; it is the exemptions banked, the placement seized, the milkround taken seriously and the exams passed first time. Choose the course where you will do those four things best, and the profession will not care where it was.