You may be eligible to apply for exemption from one of the Specialist Applications examinations (SA0) if you have a written a postgraduate dissertation or thesis on an actuarial or financial subject. A non-actuarial MSc, Postgraduate Diploma, MPhil or PhD in an economics, finance or finance related discipline will also be considered.

In this case you will need to include with your application form

• Documentary evidence of the qualification gained
• A copy of the dissertation
• Supporting letter from an actuary about the relevance of the material covered in the dissertation to actuarial work

You will not be awarded an exemption for SA0

• If sufficient syllabus coverage is not found
• If you hold a Master degrees or postgraduate diploma in Actuarial Science or Actuarial Management from and agreement university, as the qualification should give exemption from other subjects
• If you submit a dissertation completed at undergraduate level as part of a Bachelors degree

Alternative Specialist Applications Stage subject (SA0)

If you are a candidate for Fellowship you may undertake some original research as an alternative to one of the Specialist Applications subjects set by the profession. You will have to nominate to the profession a possible topic for research indicating how this will fit into current actuarial knowledge on the topic. On completion of the work the you will submit a dissertation which will be assessed by both supervisors and by a third independent person, approved by the Board of Examiners for this purpose.

• Regulations for the award of SA0 - Specialist Applications Dissertation subject. Oct 2005 [pdf]

Process

The candidate will need two supervisors for the research from the start. One will be nominated by the profession to take an overview of the work and to ensure a practical orientation towards actuarial work. One will be nominated by the university or company with which the candidate has links. This second supervisor will be the Director of Studies. At least one of the supervisors must have experience of research work and supervision of candidates for research work.

A plan of work for the research, which will be expected to be of the level of an MPhil or research degree must be agreed with the supervisors and the Board of Examiners. This is likely to require work over two years of part-time study.

The candidate will not be formally accepted for SA0 until both supervisors are in place and the plan of work has been submitted. At this stage the student must pay to the Profession on 50% of the total fee for SA0.

On completion of the work the candidate will submit a dissertation which will be assessed by both supervisors and by a third independent person approved by the Board of Examiners for this purpose. It is anticipated that a viva may normally be held at which the candidate, the examiner and at least one of the supervisors are present and the candidate will be expected to defend his/her work. Each supervisor will be required to sign a statement that the dissertation is the original work of the student.

The examiner must be an expert in the field of the dissertation and must have previous experience of examining research work. Approval for the examiner must be sought at least six months before the proposed examination date.

The outcome of the assessment may be:

• (i) Pass
• (ii) Pass with minor modifications
• (iii) Resubmit after further work
• (iv) Fail

The Actuarial Profession will also encourage the successful candidate to submit a paper(s) to an actuarial conference, the BAJ or appropriate journal on the work that she/he has completed or while the work is processing. A copy of the project report must be given to the Actuarial Profession. The BAJ will publish abstracts of dissertations which are published in other forums.

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