Key financial support for next generation of accountancy talent
A cash prize and bursaries have been awarded by MSCA Legacy Limited, the company formed in 2023 to distribute the endowment previously held by the Manchester Society of Chartered Accountants.
It has broadened the support it offers to students at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), awarding a cash prize to a recent graduate and providing bursaries and mentorship to three postgraduates.
MSCA Legacy awarded the David Illingworth Memorial Prize, named in honour of the late former MSCA and ICAEW national president, to Eve Moores, who graduated from AMBS – which is part of the University of Manchester – this summer with a BA Econ in accounting and finance.
The award was made in recognition of her dissertation analysing the challenges facing the UK’s rail operating companies, and the market in which they operate.
She concluded that nationalisation would achieve the optimum outcome.
Ms Moores said: “I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to complete my dissertation as it allowed me to integrate my accounting skills with a highly relevant social and economic challenge.
“Receiving the David Illingworth Memorial Prize for my project has been an incredible honour, and I look forward to engaging with MSCA Legacy in the future.”
Having completed her degree, Ms Moores has secured a position as an audit associate on PwC’s graduate scheme. She begins her new role at the firm’s Manchester office in September.
Alistair Hollows, chair of MSCA Legacy, said: “AMBS, along with the city’s other universities, plays a vital role in developing the next generation of our profession, and we believe it is important to use the resources available to MSCA Legacy to support this.
“I would like to congratulate Eve on a thoroughly researched, thought-provoking and compellingly argued piece of work. Her dissertation is a great demonstration of how the skills that underpin the accountancy profession can be applied to analyse, and develop solutions to, the real world problems holding back growth in our economy.”
In addition to the award made to Ms Moores, MSCA Legacy is providing mentorship and bursaries to three PhD students at AMBS.
One of these students is researching ways that the best people can be recruited into the profession in the face of reputational damage done by audit-related scandals, another is looking at how accounting rules can best be applied internationally, while the third is examining the role of auditors in monitoring ethical issues.
Prof Chris Humphrey, professor of accounting at AMBS, said, “Our relationship with, first, MSCA, and now MSCA Legacy, is proving so valuable.
“It gives our students and staff ready access to important local professional, business and charity sector networks and an associated diversity of practical accounting experience and expertise.
“The recent extension of the award scheme is a most welcome move and it is exciting to think how this can further develop in the future – and what role it could play, for instance, in serving to advance debate on the future of accounting and auditing and the strategic priorities and responsibilities of the profession more generally.”
As well as its support for AMBS, MSCA Legacy will continue to support and engage with postgraduates at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and the University of Salford.
Mr Hollows added: “Attracting the best talent into Chartered Accountancy and rethinking the processes and scope of auditing to respond to new economic, social, regulatory and technological environments are some of the key issues facing our profession, and the postgraduate programmes at the city’s universities are at the forefront of research into these, and other, challenges.”
