Accounting

Accounting at Essex is about accountability – not just to financiers and investors, but increasingly to a wider range of stakeholders and to our planet and people.

Our undergraduate accounting degrees are grounded in the profession itself. You’ll learn how to prepare accounts and provide financial advice and information to companies and clients, whether they are in the commercial, public or not-for-profit sectors. 

Many of our accounting degrees are professionally accredited by organisations such as ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW. This means you can earn exemptions from some professional exams and give your career a head-start once you’ve graduated.

Our teaching and research in accounting are grounded in how accounting is practised around the globe.

We offer Masters courses for students who want to continue their studies in accounting or business, as well as programmes for students who are new to the subject and want to fast-track to a career in the accounting profession.

Accounting at Essex goes well beyond the preparation of financial statements. We teach you to be accountable, act ethically and make financial decisions that positively impact both organisations and society. We aim to inspire a business-minded and socially driven Essex accounting graduate.

Accounting informs almost all areas of business, from strategy to outsourcing, and operational planning to environmental policies.

To us accounting means more than cutting costs and managing transactions. It’s vital for ensuring accountability by encouraging sound, ethical decision making.

We’re home to world-class researchers and academics and we are ranked in the top 200 for Accounting and Finance in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2022). The University of Essex is also ranked in the Top 175 for Business and Economics in THE World University Rankings by Subject 2024.

We belong to the Social Sciences Faculty within the University, meaning we have strong connections with other departments and can supervise innovative interdisciplinary projects. We support our PhD students to design and conduct the research project they choose, rather than telling them to complete it in a particular way.

We’re pleased to be able to offer a number of integrated PhDs, for students who have a strong research proposal but who do not have previous research or Masters-level study experience.

Our Research Groups and Centres

• Essex Accounting Group
  The accounting group conducts world-class research in five key areas: Accounting, Accountability and Global Development; Publicness and Resilience: Environment, Climate Change and Vulnerability; Capital Markets, Audit, Regulation and Reporting; and Precarity, Exclusion and Social Justice.
• BAFA Accounting and Finance in Emerging Economies
  We carry out research across the fields of accounting and finance, with a focus on developing economies.
• Centre for Accountability and Global Development (CAGD)
  We advance interdisciplinary research in the field of accountability across all sectors, in both developed and emerging economies.
• Essex Accounting Centre
  Our work is interdisciplinary, drawing on religion, sociology, law, politics, government and organisational studies to inform public policy and solve real-work problems for organisations across the globe in the private, public and third sectors.