Strong exam results continue for Semester 1 2022

2022 Semester 1 Results

We have an extensive assessment process involving over 100 Actuaries Institute Fellows to determine the pass lists. The process includes a rigorous review which includes:

• Each question is marked by two independent Fellows. Thus, each student’s examination attempt is partially marked typically by around eight Fellows.

• The subject’s Chief Examiner re-examines all scripts close to the proposed pass mark and prepares a detailed report that is examined in-depth by a member of the Education Strategy Committee (ESC).

• The Independent Examiner for a subject oversees the process, signs off the proposed pass list and reports their findings to the ESC.

• Pass lists are agreed at an examination meeting that involves all ESC members, Independent Examiners and Chief Examiners.

• The entire process is aimed at determining a pass list that is considered fair and final.

Publicly available versions of each Chief Examiner’s report can be via the links below:

• Actuary Program

• Fellowship Program

2022 prize winners

Congratulations to our 2022 Semester 1 prize winners, who have demonstrated academic excellence, sound critical thinking and communications skills. 

Update on the Education Program

The rollout of the Education Program is almost complete. We have started to develop a Banking subject which will be taught from Semester 2 2023.  

This semester we introduced the General Insurance Applications (GIA) subject and the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) subject. The quality of our offering was validated by the international CERA Board who approved our ERM subject as CERA compliant.

Introducing our Chief Examiners for our two new subjects

General Insurance Applications – Jacqueline Reid

Jacqueline Reid is the Chief Examiner for General Insurance Applications (GIA). She has significant worldwide actuarial consulting experience and extensive involvement in the profession. Jacqueline has held the roles of Chair of the General Insurance Risk Appetite Working Party and as a member of the General Insurance Practice Committee and the Risk Management Practice Committee (RMPC). Jacqueline has previously been involved in various roles assisting with the Institute’s 3A and 3B subjects (including drafting the 3B exam for the last eight years). In 2021, Jacqueline joined the Institute’s Education Team to develop and deliver GIA.

What is GIA?

The aim of GIA is to provide students with an understanding of how actuaries work in general insurance in Australia and the legal, regulatory, and professional framework that governs the general insurance industry. This subject also aims to delve into some more specialised technical aspects of general insurance, such as compulsory insurance schemes.

As part of the assessments, students learn to show how the skills and knowledge they have gained in the GIHV (General Insurance and Health Valuation) and the GIHPPA (General Insurance and Health Pricing and Portfolio Analytics) subjects can be applied – including the use of actuarial judgement and an awareness of the business context.

Students appreciated learning from guest speakers who discussed practical real-life examples. Tutorials exposed students to a wide range of industry topics that provided the link between the written materials and professional practice. Importantly, there was a recognition that the detailed course materials do not just serve the exam’s purpose, but also can be used as a guide to day-to-day work.

Enterprise Risk Management – Zachary Tirrell

Zachary Tirrell is the Chief Examiner for the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) subject and has a decade of experience across Australia and the US, in financial services, superannuation, data analytics and health. Zachary is also a scholarship-holding PhD candidate at the Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy and a casual senior consultant at Quantium. Zachary’s research focuses on the risk associated with market access of pharmaceuticals in Australia. Zachary is a member of the Health Practice Committee and is an editor for Actuaries Digital.

He led the successful development and CERA accreditation process for the ERM Fellowship subject.

What is ERM?

The aim of ERM is to promote the concept of the actuary as a trained ERM practitioner, both effective as a Line 1 manager of risk but also capable of moving into specialist risk management Line 2 roles. The course is inherently principles-based, to ensure the skills will remain transferrable for students as they move across different industries and geographies over their careers. The student outcomes of the course align with the growing regulatory expectation that actuaries start adding more value to non-financial risk management.

In this subject, students learn how to apply risk management concepts, skills, and techniques to achieve organisational objectives. ERM explores how risk, defined as ‘the effect of uncertainty on objectives’, should be managed with an organisation-wide approach to support the management of uncertainty on organisational objectives.

Feedback on this semester’s inaugural delivery has been overwhelmingly supportive. Students appreciated the contextualisation of the recent Royal Commission into their studies. The assignment helped with thinking about the ERM process and apply it practically. Those who have previously studied the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) subject through the materials represented a great re-rewrite. Zach was pleased with the constructive nature of some criticism and these will be incorporated into improving future students’ experiences.

The CERA credential

The actuarial education for ERM is well established in Australia. The Institute has awarded the CERA credential to students since 2010. Until this year, the CERA credential could be gained through two different pathways – through accredited universities or passing the SP9 exam offered by the IFoA and attending a local ERM seminar.

This experience has supported the Institute to become the first actuarial association to be an award signatory with its own exam pathway in a decade. The CERA Global Association Board granted the Institute with Award Signatory Status for the ERM subject in March 2022, after an unanimous recommendation by the CERA review panel. The Institute’s development of ERM was able to gain this status through the diligent effort and support of the RMPC and Risk Management Education Faculty (RMF).

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