Details of assessment tasks will be provided on iLearn. Please check your announcements and discussion forum regularly (at least twice a week) for announcements about assessment tasks. 

It is the responsibility of students to view their marks for each within session assessment on iLearn within 20 working days of posting. If there are any discrepancies, students must contact the unit convenor immediately. Failure to do so will mean that queries received after the release of final results regarding assessment marks (not including the final exam mark) will not be addressed.

Assessment criteria for all assessment tasks will be provided on the unit iLearn site.

The Macquarie University units Actuarial Control Cycle 1, Actuarial Control Cycle 2, and Investment Management are accredited by the Actuaries Institute.

The Actuaries Institute sends external examiners to review the performance of borderline students and to verify that appropriate exemption standards have been maintained. 

It is the responsibility of the student to apply to Macquarie University to recommend them to the Actuaries Institute for professional exemptions. For information about this process please refer to http://www.businessandeconomics.mq.edu.au/current_students/undergraduate/how_do_i/exemptions_for_professional_examinations

Classes

The Actuarial Control Cycle 2 is a co-taught unit, available to ACST403, ACST732 and ACST832 students. Lectures are offered in three modes – campus classes (North Ryde), city classes (Sydney CBD) and distance education (students can be located anywhere).

Please refer to the University timetable at https://timetables.mq.edu.au/ to find the times and locations of lectures for the campus classes. 

We believe that the best way we can help you to master the Actuarial Control Cycle subject is not by giving traditional lectures where your role is basically to listen, think and take notes.  We have planned the face-to-face classes to be like workshops: a mixture of short "micro-presentations", small group work, discussions involving the whole class, and individual activities.  Most weeks, we will ask you to do some preparatory work - reading, research, writing or just thinking. If you want to get the most out of the classes, do the preparation, and get involved in the classroom work.  

Downloadable lecture recordings

The University audio-visual team usually makes recordings of on-campus lectures. These will be available via iLearn (use the Echo360 tab on the right hand side of the home page). Since the classes in this unit are not traditional lectures but contain periods of group discussion, the recordings will contain some stretches of background noise which you will need to fast forward through.  

Teaching staff

Maggie Lee is the unit convenor and will be taking four weeks of classes including supervising presentations.  Maggie can be contacted via Dialogue on the website, or during her consultation hours.  

Bruce Edwards will be conducting other classes and supervision of presentations.  Bruce is an industry practitioner with a wide range of knowledge across many areas in which actuaries practise.  Outside of classes, the forum for interaction with Bruce will be the website Discussion forums.  

Hong Xie is the teaching administrator, and can deal with any administrative queries related to the unit.  Hong can be contacted via Dialogue on the website.  

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

Textbook

Required texts : Bellis, C, Lyon, R, Klugman, S & Shepherd, J (2010) Understanding Actuarial Management: the actuarial control cycle, 2nd edition, Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

The textbook can be purchased from the Actuaries Institute, at:

http://www.actuaries.asn.au/knowledge-bank/book-shop?id=8

Copies of the textbook are available in the Special Reserve section of the library.

Learning Guide

There is a Learning Guide for each section of work. You should read the Learning Guide before the lectures, and bring a copy with you to classes.

Additional readings will be posted on iLearn.

Technology Used and Required

In this unit, you will need to have access to and to be able to use software to produce overhead slides, software to produce pdf documents, and word-processing software to produce reports.

Unit web page

Course material is available on the online learning management system (iLearn).

The teaching website is integral to this course unit. Passive involvement in this unit greatly reduces the likelihood of achieving the exemption standard of understanding. Interaction with other students and with teachers is very important, and the website is the forum for that interaction.

You will need to be accessing the website regularly to see announcements, read postings and stay informed - at least every couple of days. This is your responsibility and we cannot make any allowances for students who miss important information due to not checking the website regularly.

The website entry page is at: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au

Assumed knowledge

We assume that you have acquired the knowledge and skills included in the syllabi for the Part I (Core technical) subjects and Actuarial Control Cycle I.  

Teaching and Learning Activities

The unit is taught as set out in the Classes section.  The Unit Schedule sets out the assessment and the topics covered in each week of the session  

Teaching and Learning Strategy

You should prepare for each lecture by reading the relevant chapter of the textbook, the Learning Guide, and any other readings posted on iLearn. We encourage all students to actively participate in class discussions and group work.

Exemptions

The Macquarie University units ACST402/731/831/831 External (Control Cycle 1), ACST403/732/832/832 External (Control Cycle 2) and ACST404/771/871/871 External together count for exemption from the Actuaries Institute Part II subject. You will be recommended for exemption from Part II if you attain grades of Credit or better in these three units. If you attain a Pass in one or more of these units, then the exemption will be recommended if and only if a Standardised Numerical Grade (SNG) of at least 60 is achieved in all three units, and the average SNG is at least 65. For students who have completed part of Part II at a different university, each case is considered individually based on the exemption requirements at those universities.

It is the responsibility of the student to apply to Macquarie University to recommend them to the Actuaries Institute for professional exemptions. For information about this process and links to relevant forms, see:

http://www.businessandeconomics.mq.edu.au/current_students/undergraduate/how_do_i/exemptions_for_professional_examinations

The learning objectives, class format and text are all the same as in the last offering. The Learning Guides, readings, lecture slides and lecture recordings are updated each year. The individual assessments are new each year. There may be a change in the order in which topics are covered since the last offering.

Research and Practice

This units uses research in several ways:

• The unit uses research by Macquarie University researchers (e.g. current and former Macquarie staff members are editors and authors of the textbook and other readings);
• This unit uses research from external sources (references will be provided);
• This unit gives you practice in applying research findings in your assignments.