This course requires 104–120 UCAS tariff points including a minimum of 2 A-levels or equivalent. We are happy to consider a combination of qualifications and grades to meet the overall tariff, for example A-levels A*CC, ABC, BBB or BCC, BTECs DDM or DMM. You can use the UCAS calculator to see how your qualifications equate to UCAS tariff points.
If you do not meet these you may want to consider our Foundation Year, a one-year course that will prepare you for degree-level study.
If English is not your first language you'll need IELTS (Academic) 6.0 with minimum 5.5 in each components, or equivalent.
Why study BA (Hons) Accounting & Finance at BU?
Gain a comprehensive overview of the sector in your first year, with the flexibility to transfer to a different specialism within accounting and finance at the end of the year
Meet industry-leading practitioners and professionals through fieldwork, seminars and assessment activities
Opportunities to study abroad at one of our international partner institutions
Gain industry experience and enhance your employability by undertaking an optional 30-week placement which can be completed anywhere in the world
90% of our graduates are either employed or studying fifteen months after graduating.
Foundation Year: We have a Foundation Year option for those who do not meet the entry requirements for the degree course. This additional year of study will give you a grounding in Business & Management, building your confidence, knowledge and skills for further study. After successful completion of the Foundation Year, you will progress to the full degree.
UCAS Code: N420
With foundation year: N421
More Info: CLick here
Foundation Year
Core units:
Fundamentals of Business & Management: This unit aims to develop your understanding of the business context across industry and sectors globally. You will cover the key issues and challenges facing businesses going forward and the essential role of people in dynamic, resilient and complex organisations. You will explore key functional business areas including marketing, finance, accounting, economics, people management, and organisational behaviour.
Academic & Professional Practice: You will build your confidence in both academic and professional skills. This unit will cover the academic skills which will be required at degree level study and you’ll practice them throughout the unit with support from key university services including the library and study skills team. There will also be the opportunity for you to reflect on and develop your own professional skills through interactions with employers, careers services and online resources.
Fusion Business Project: You will undertake a business project based on a real issue or problem. The Fundamentals of Business & Management unit will support you in understanding key issues and challenges which could form the basis for your project. Projects will be undertaken in workplaces, community settings or part of research processes related to your chosen field of study. You will be allocated an academic mentor who will support you in developing and undertaking the project.
Year 1
Our particular focus in the first year is to ensure that you understand diverse areas like law, economics, accounting, business management, quantitative analysis and finance in the context of how a business is run, thus focusing on the connectivity between these areas in the world of business.
Core units
Economics for Accounting & Finance: You'll develop an understanding of the operation of markets, including the interaction between related markets along with an understanding of the impact of economic policies on business and society in the context of a global economy.
Introduction to Accounting: This unit aims to provide you with a sound foundation in the fundamentals of accounting, together with a basic understanding of the regulatory framework.
Business Context: This unit will equip you with the understanding of how to translate knowledge in economics, law, statistics, finance, accounting in a business context.
Law for Accounting & Finance: This unit will embed the core legal principles and concepts within the legal environment for a graduate operating in the finance sector.
Introduction to Quantitative Analysis: This unit will develop your understanding of basic mathematical principles and how they are applied in accounting and finance. It will provide you with the essential techniques used to collect, present, analyse and interpret data and show how quantitative methods may be used to provide reliable management information.
Introduction to Financial Markets: As an introduction to financial markets, you will gain a level of conceptual understanding that will allow you to critically evaluate the fundamentals of finance and its implications in the current scenario.
Year 2
The second year emphasises on embedding subject related skills like a working knowledge of accounting software and excel skills whilst also ensuring that you learn softer skills such as presentation skills, assessment centre practice and CV building experience. The aim is to ensure that you are ready to successfully engage with the placement recruitment process.
Core Units
Management Accounting: Providing you with the practical ability to deal with fundamental cost and management accounting issues.
Financial Reporting: You'll expand upon your theoretical knowledge of financial accounting and critically apply the principles to a consideration of alternative methods of accounting and to the practice of accounting in more advanced applications.
Corporate Financial Management: You'll cover the theory relating to investment, financing and dividend decisions and apply appropriate techniques to assist with the three key decision areas
Accounting Information Systems: You will progress and enhance your IT skills through the use and application of industry-standard software. The unit will also provide an understanding of the accounting profession and put the use of such software into context. You will learn how to apply business process thinking in SAP ERP Information systems as tools within financial and management accounting.
Choose one unit from Option Block A:
Business Tax Planning: This unit will equip you with a working knowledge of the UK taxation system as it impacts upon business decision making and encourages you to critically evaluate the principles underlying the UK system of taxing business.
Asset Valuation: You will gain a thorough understanding of the structural overview of the financial markets, particularly the role and impact of financial market participants. You will be able to analyse and evaluate equity securities market using appropriate valuation concepts and techniques, particularly fundamental analysis.
Choose one unit from Option Block B:
Money, Banking & Financial Markets: This unit aims to provide a solid grounding in monetary economics and the financial system. It seeks to provide a basis for understanding and analysing the working of financial markets and for assessing the relative effectiveness of monetary policy as a means of tackling macroeconomic problems.
Audit & Control: The unit's main emphasis is on the statutory audit process, although the work of internal audit will also be considered.
Placement year
You may choose to complete an optional (minimum) 30-week work placement which can be carried out anywhere in the world. The placement year offers a chance to gain experience and make contacts for the future.
Final year
The final year will emphasise on embedding research skills, which will ensure that you are able to apply this important transferable skills to your graduate role. We achieve this by exposing you to the impactful research conducted by our senior academics and professors in the department, therefore enriching your grounding in different methods of research. This will then be applied in either a research study context or to the study of a live company, thus ensuring that you can demonstrate research application.
Core units
Advanced Accounting Theory & Practice: This unit will develop your understanding of the theoretical aspects of financial reporting and teach you how to apply this to technical issues.
Contemporary Issues in Accounting & Finance Research: You will develop an appreciation for current research in accounting and finance and become equipped with a broad range of research skills. Key topics will include, hypothesis formation; ethical procedures; questionnaire designs; and quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
Option Block C (choose one)
Investment Management: You'll explore the current features of capital markets and savings products which will prepare you for business and personal investment.
Perspectives on Business Strategy: This unit gives you insights into the differing perspectives used to develop and implement business strategy. From its roots in finance and economics, the field of strategy has developed its own language, tools, models and methodologies, which are used throughout businesses and other organisations in many parts of the world. This unit introduces you to that language and gives you experience working with the toolkit and understanding its limitations.
Option Block D (choose one)
Company Study: This unit will enhance your skills in both computerised and non-computerised information retrieval, analysis and presentation.
Research Study: The aim of the unit is to provide you with the opportunity to develop skills in conducting effectively a research project, and acquire specialist knowledge within an area relevant to your programme of study.
Option Block E (choose one)
Risk Modelling & Management: This unit aims to provide you with a significant awareness and understanding of risk within a modern business environment and the risk management processes necessary to control such risk.
Financial Regulation: The unit provides insight into key financial regulatory theories, forms and rationale of regulation that are highly relevant to those seeking to operate within the financial services sector.
Derivatives & Alternative Investment: The unit starts with the historical precedents, runs through current developments and emphasises the technical details of valuation of all derivatives and alternative investment. This unit also provides problem-based analysis of Alternative Investment strategies, focusing on governance and valuation.
Option Block F (choose one)
Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Reporting: This unit will equip you with the ability to account and report on environmental topics with emphasis on both regulatory as well as the reporting framework needed to account for environmental issues. You will gain the ability to critically appraise the usefulness of such information.
International Taxation: The aim of this unit is to provide a technically and academically challenging examination of the issues in international taxation faced by multinational corporations and individuals.
Advanced Management Accounting: This unit will cover the role of management accounting in all aspects of management control systems, particularly in the development and use of performance management systems and the strategic control of organisations.
Business Taxation: The unit will cover the effects of taxation in the various stages in the expansion of a business, from sole trader to corporate group and provide you with a thorough understanding of the tax regime faced by businesses in their most common forms and of the more common tax planning strategies that may be adopted.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
A degree in Accounting and Finance will prepare you for a variety of roles in organisations of all sizes and from many sectors. You’ll have an excellent grounding in accounting before going on to specialise in business in your second year, ensuring that you keep your career options open. Some of our alumni go on to work for companies such as Airbus, Arcadia, Barclays Bank Plc, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, HMRC, IBM, Miscox, Threadneedle Investments and Vodafone.
Within fifteen months of finishing their course, 90% of our students are in work or further study.
There was insufficient data to publish information specifically for this course. This is either because the course size is small or respondent numbers were low. Therefore, the data displayed is from across the last two years.
OSHC: 624 ($) GBP per year
