The Next Generation ACA: what changed in the 2025 syllabus

From September 2025, ICAEW began rolling out the Next Generation ACA — the biggest refresh of the qualification in years. The headline idea is that three themes now run through everything: ethics, sustainability and technology. Rather than being bolted on as separate topics, they’re built into the modules themselves.

How the ACA is structured

The ACA is made up of 14 exams across three levels:

• Certificate Level — the foundations: accounting, assurance, law, tax, business and ethics. On-demand, computer-based exams you can sit throughout the year.
• Professional Level — applies the fundamentals to more realistic scenarios across financial reporting, audit, tax and business strategy.
• Advanced Level — the capstone, integrating everything through case-study-style assessment.

The Advanced Level is also being streamlined from three exams to two from 2027, which is why you’ll see the total described as 14 rather than the old 15.

What actually changed

• Refreshed modules. Several modules were renamed and rebuilt — for example the Certificate Level now includes a dedicated Sustainability and Ethics module.
• Sustainability and tech throughout. Topics like ESG reporting and data analysis appear across the syllabus, not just in one paper.
• On-demand Certificate exams. Certificate Level papers can be booked year-round, so you can move at your own pace rather than waiting for fixed sittings.

What it means for how you revise

The practical takeaway: make sure your study materials are built for the current syllabus. Older question banks and notes may still test retired content or use the old module names — which wastes time and can teach you the wrong emphasis. Practise against questions written for the Next Generation modules, and lean into the ethics, sustainability and technology threads, because they now show up everywhere.

acaunty’s question bank is organised around the current Certificate modules — see the Certificate Level guide for a breakdown, or jump straight into some free practice questions.