BSc Accounting and Finance

Our BSc Accounting and Finance (including foundation year) is open to Home and EU students. It will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entry requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills.

This four-year course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study. During your Year Zero, you study four academic subjects relevant to your chosen course, preparing you for a further three years of undergraduate study, as well as a compulsory English language and academic skills module.

You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK.

After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with Essex Business School.

Our BSc Accounting and Finance degree provides access to our virtual trading floor, where you make use of real-world Bloomberg Market Data Feed (B-PIPE), information and analytics to practice trading stocks and securities in the type of environment found in City finance firms.

You study a wide range of topics and develop your quantitative skills, giving you the flexibility to pursue a career in finance, accounting or business management after graduation. You’ll explore areas such as:

• the preparation of financial statements and budgets
• accounting standards and corporate governance
• financial theory
• portfolio management
• options and futures markets
• risk management

BSc Accounting and Finance (including foundation year) includes an introductory first year to familiarise you with wider business topics, such as management and marketing.

In your final year, you have the opportunity to put your knowledge into practice by completing an in-depth, independent research project or dissertation. This will give you the chance to further develop vital employability skills in areas of research, time management and critical thinking.

The University of Essex is one of just three UK universities to have received Q-Step Affiliate status, including for our BSc Accounting and Finance course, to support the way we develop the quantitative skills of our graduates.

This means we can provide work placement bursaries to develop your skills in evaluating numerical evidence, analysing data and designing research. We also offer the opportunity to follow a specialised degree path, where you graduate with enhanced quantitative skills. These are evidenced on your degree transcript, to help give you the competitive edge in the graduate job market.

BSc Accounting and Finance is taught at Essex Business School. Our finance group is one of the largest and most respected in the country and our students and staff join us from all over the world.

We not only teach you how financial information underpins leadership, strategy and planning, but how financial decisions can impact society and the economy. We develop your understanding of governance and ethics, so you can take actions for the good of organisations and the wider world.

Essex Business School is an Investment Management Certificate (IMC) Advantage Partner and this course is aligned to the IMC syllabus, the industry’s benchmark entry-level qualification.

Professional accreditation

Completion of this course gives you accreditation exemptions from up to nine professional examination papers with The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Depending on the module options you choose during your studies, you can currently obtain up to seven exemptions from professional examinations awarded by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

This course also enables you to take up to five exemptions for certificate level examinations offered by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

This means that you can gain a professional qualification by taking fewer exams when you graduate, giving your career a head start.

Our expert staff

You learn from academics and industry practitioners whose research continues to have a real-world impact. Many of our highly qualified and enthusiastic team are published in world-leading journals and publications.

Our staff specialise in areas including:

• accounting and economic development in the public and third sectors
• regulation and corporate social responsibility
• finance and banking
• accounting and finance in emerging economies
• corporate governance in developing countries
• contemporary financial markets and their participants

Our staff embed the latest research into your course, so you learn about real-world issues affecting business right now.

Professor of Banking and Finance and Dean of Essex Business School, Claudia Girardone, leads the way in finance research as Director of the Essex Finance Centre (EFiC), our long-established and world-renowned teaching excellence and research centre in finance and banking. Professor Girardone is also Director of Research for Essex Business School and leads on embedding EFiC group research in the curriculum. You will benefit from her application of banking sector performance indicators and corporate governance in our finance programmes.

Specialist facilities

Our BSc Accounting and Finance is based at our Colchester Campus.

In our landmark Essex Business School building - the first zero carbon business school in the UK - you’ll see our sustainable approach to business first-hand. Set around a lush winter garden, are a wealth of inspiring teaching and study zones.

Our custom designed building provides you with superb facilities:

• a virtual trading floor with Bloomberg Terminals offering direct use of Bloomberg data, information and analytics
• light and spacious lecture theatres with ‘listen again’ recording to aid your study
• study pods and innovation booths for group working
• a café and adjacent foyer to enjoy on-site fresh food and drink
• study skills support provided by the Essex Business School Learning Team

Discover our trading floor:

Our Colchester building is located on the Knowledge Gateway, an innovation park housing some of the East of England’s most exciting science, technology and creative businesses. Parkside Office Village sits on the site, providing potential opportunities for networking, internships and work experience directly on campus.

Your future

Experience of the dual disciplines of accounting and finance means that you will be well suited to sector specific roles in chartered accountancy and management accountancy as well as more generalist roles such as management consultancy or financial management.

We embed a series of core and specific skills into our undergraduate curriculum for BSc Accounting and Finance to ensure that our graduates are suited to careers in finance, accounting and management roles.

All of our taught modules embed elements of our skills map which emulate the skills which are required by employers of business, accounting and finance graduates, these generally include:

• Academic and cognitive skills
• Research skills
• Technology skills
• Communication skills
• Data analysis skills
• Soft skills

We embed a structured approach to student development and skills support throughout the curriculum and through additional support from the Essex Business School Learning Team.

Our students have gone on to become financial analysts, accountants, hedge fund managers and insurance trainees, with recent graduate destinations including:

• Private Client Tax Senior Associate at PwC - a multinational professional services network
• Treasury Analyst at Hiscox, a multinational business insurance and home insurance provider
• Junior Tax Consultant at Deloitte – the multinational and financial services network
• Global Finance & Business Analyst at J.P. Morgan – global financial services provider
• Junior Consultant - Valuation & Advisory at Cushman & Wakefield – commercial property and real estate consultants

Our accounting and finance graduates enjoy successful careers in their fields.

Additional to the skills development offered by Essex Business School, BSc Accounting and Finance students can also take advantage of the University of Essex Careers Service which focuses in particular on supporting the development of undergraduate employability, including: careers fairs, career mentoring, skills development, careers advice and guidance, placement year support, job opportunities, start-up support and more.

"I chose to study Accounting and Finance because at sixth form I studied accounting, business, economic, maths and further maths so all my subjects were linked to accounting and finance. I realised I liked the subject and chose to study further at university.

I love maths, however, enjoying and loving maths does not equal to being good at maths! But, you’ve got to do something you enjoy. I was doing just BSc Accounting at first but at the end of my first year I changed my degree to BSc Accounting and Finance because I really enjoyed the finance modules in my first year because there was loads of algebra and maths in it so I thought “why don’t I take that up?”. It adds a little more spice to my degree, it’s a dual degree so I can go to both branches and it gives me more options."

Fia Almanda, BSc Accounting and Finance, 2019

Find out more about Fia's story.

UK entry requirements

UK and EU applicants:

All applications for degree courses with a foundation year (Year Zero) will be considered individually, whether you

• think you might not have the grades to enter the first year of a degree course;
• have non-traditional qualifications or experience (e.g. you haven’t studied A-levels or a BTEC);
• are returning to university after some time away from education; or
• are looking for more support during the transition into university study.

Standard offer:

Our standard offer is 72 UCAS tariff points from at least two full A-levels, or equivalent.

Examples of the above tariff may include:

• A-levels: DDD
• BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma: MMP
• T-levels: Pass with E in core

For this course all applicants must also hold GCSE Maths at grade C/4 or above (or equivalent). We may be able to consider a pass in Level 2 Functional Skills Maths where you cannot meet the requirements for Maths at GCSE level. However, you are advised to try to retake GCSE Mathematics if possible as this will better prepare you for university study and future employment.

If you are unsure whether you meet the entry criteria, please get in touch for advice.

Mature applicants and non-traditional academic backgrounds:

We welcome applications from mature students (over 21) and students with non-traditional academic backgrounds (might not have gone on from school to take level 3 qualifications). We will consider your educational and employment history, along with your personal statement and reference, to gain a rounded view of your suitability for the course.

You will still need to meet our GCSE requirements.

International applicants:

Essex Pathways Department is unable to accept applications from international students. Foundation pathways for international students are available at the University of Essex International College and are delivered and awarded by Kaplan, in partnership with the University of Essex. Successful completion will enable you to progress to the relevant degree course at the University of Essex.

English language requirements

English language requirements for applicants whose first language is not English: IELTS 5.5 overall. Specified component grades are also required for applicants who require a Student visa to study in the UK.

Other English language qualifications may be acceptable so please contact us for further details. If we accept the English component of an international qualification then it will be included in the information given about the academic levels required. Please note that date restrictions may apply to some English language qualifications

If you are an international student requiring a Student visa to study in the UK please see our immigration webpages for the latest Home Office guidance on English language qualifications.

If you do not meet our IELTS requirements then you may be able to complete a pre-sessional English pathway that enables you to start your course without retaking IELTS.

Additional Notes

Our Year 0 courses are only open to UK and EU applicants. If you’re an international student, but do not meet the English language or academic requirements for direct admission to your chosen degree, you could prepare and gain entry through a pathway course. Find out more about opportunities available to you at the University of Essex International College.

Course structure

The structure of this course provides you with an in depth look at key areas of both accounting and finance. As well as modules focussing mainly on the numbers you’ll also put these into perspective and learn how managers use accounting and financial information to make decisions.

Year zero provides with you the necessary skills and knowledge in order for you to progress onto your chosen area of study. Successful completion of year zero guarantees you entry to the first year of your undergraduate degree course.

In the first year our current students cover wider business topics that every manager needs to know. However, we are planning some changes to our first year and we’ll be tailoring it more closely to your chosen course. In the second and third year you’ll have optional modules and by picking certain modules you’ll be able to maximise the number of exemptions available to you from bodies such as ACCA.

We offer a flexible course structure with a mixture of core/compulsory modules, and optional modules chosen from lists. Please be aware that we are planning changes to our first year to make it more relevant to your chosen course.

Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field. The following modules are based on the current course structure and may change in response to new curriculum developments and innovation.

We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision for you. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities as described on our website. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to significant disruption, or in response to COVID-19, we’ll let our applicants and students know as soon as possible.

Teaching

• Your teaching mainly takes the form of lectures and classes, the latter involving about 20 students
• You can contribute and interact in lectures through the use of smart technology
• A typical timetable includes a one-hour lecture and a one-hour class for each of your four modules every week
• Any language classes involve language laboratory sessions
• Our classes are run in small groups, so you receive a lot of individual attention

Assessment

• Your assessed coursework will generally consist of essays, reports, in-class tests, individual or group oral presentations, and small scale research projects