A total of 137,000 around the world entered over 173,000 exams.

Alan Hatfield, ACCA executive director- strategy and development, said: “The ACCA Qualification rigorously tests the skills, abilities and competencies that a modern-day accountant needs, with a firm grounding in ethics and professionalism. It prepares students for a rewarding career as a qualified and ethical finance professional.

“Included in our pass rates are students who self-study as well as those who attend tuition. In all cases the results of students who attend ACCA’s Approved Learning Partners (ALPs) are notably stronger than others.

“So, from these results, we can see that quality tuition drives stronger pass rates. This is a consistent message we give to our students, while also offering great support for them with study resources - such as online access examiner’s reports - and a new student wellbeing hub. This includes new resources on mental health, lifestyle and community support, alongside easy access to existing material on studying well, coping with exams and wellbeing at work.

“Examiners note that pass rates are very strong where students have developed the word processing and spreadsheet skills they already or will use in the workplace and apply these to their exams, thus integrating the world of work and exams.”

ACCA is continuing its pioneering work with its exam delivery to offer computer-based exams (CBEs), with many tax and law variants now offered on CBE, with a further roll-out to be completed in June 2020.

Looking ahead to further innovations, in March 2020 ACCA will also be offering its strategic professional as CBEs at specific centres in the UK, Ireland and the Czech Republic and then wholly in those countries from June 2020.

A gradual global roll-out will then take place over the next year, further enhancing the workplace and professional skills as students will also need to use presentation tools within the exam.