We are absolutely delighted to announce that ACCA Live Online lecturer Hafeez Qazi has been named Accountant of the Year by the Association of International Accountants (AIA).
An academic and professionally qualified accountant, Hafeez has a wealth of accountancy experience in diverse sectors stretching from textiles to healthcare. He is also a highly knowledgeable lecturer across a range of professional accounting qualifications including ACCA, CIMA, and further postgraduate qualifications in the field of management accounting.
We caught up with Hafeez at his central London office and asked him what this award means for him personally.
"LSBF tutors are encouraged to go the extra mile and give our students a unique learning experience." - Hafeez Qazi, ACCA & CIMA Lecturer, LSBF
Hafeez, congratulations on your success. To be singled out from so many thousands of professionals is an incredible achievement.
Thank you, I have to say that when I first received the nomination I was completely shocked. To be given such recognition from among the thousands of accountants working across the industry was an enormous surprise, and then to be announced as the ultimate winner is absolutely thrilling!
Could you tell us a little about the AIA, and how you were originally shortlisted for the award?
The AIA has about eight and a half thousand international members who are all professional accountants. I am a member of the AIA myself, and I was informed one month ago that I was to be nominated for the Accountant of the Year award due to my efforts in accountancy education. Simply being nominated was a real honour in itself.
Four of my fellow AIA members were shortlisted, and then it was a case of each of us being voted for by our peers from the professional accountancy industry. The vote also went public, and I’m very humbled to say that quite a few of my ACCA and CIMA students voted in support of my nomination, for which I would like to extend my sincere gratitude.
Your Accountant of the Year title comes in recognition of the positive impact you’ve had not just professionally, but as a highly regarded lecturer as well. Why did you initially decide to move from professional practice into full-time teaching?
Before joining London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) almost nine years ago I’d been working as an accountant across various industries, from banking to textiles. My career as a lecturer began with teaching CIMA at the University of Wolverhampton, one of InterActive’s current academic partners, and I’ve been gradually building my role as a tutor to this day.
I find teaching ACCA and CIMA at LSBF both challenging and extremely rewarding; the school really does give a lot of autonomy to its lecturers. For example, we have the freedom to produce our own materials which we feel are right for our students, rather than simply relying on pre produced publications. And we can offer one-to-one coaching as well, as much as we feel each individual student requires, so there really is a great deal we can offer.
And I must add that LSBF has always been highly supportive of these kinds of teaching methods. We are encouraged to go the extra mile and give our students a unique learning experience. And this is my philosophy as far as teaching goes, that a lecturer should guide the student to a point where exam success is almost a certainty.
If you would like more information about studying accounting qualifications online with LSBF’s faculty of industry professionals such as Hafeez, please visit the professional qualifications section of our website.
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