Accounting and Finance BSc(Hons)

Course in brief

ACCA Gold Learning Partner status and excellent links with local firms make the University of Brighton the place to launch your career in accountancy and finance.

Taken over three years, or four years with a placement, this course is accredited by five professional accountancy bodies and prepares you for roles across the financial sector.

You will study economics, business law and ethics to gain an understanding of the legal, corporate and social contexts in which accounting and finance operate, and develop skills in recording and summarising financial transactions.

The four-year route offers the opportunity to take a salaried placement year with prestigious firms.

The University of Brighton is an ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Gold Learning Partner, which means we are recognised as providing high quality standards of tuition and excellent student support.

Key facts

Location Brighton: Moulsecoomb

UCAS code N420

Full-time 3 years
With placement year 4 years

Accredited by ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA, and AIA

Book your open day place

Apply now with UCAS

Start in 2018: how to apply

Entry criteria

Entry requirements

A-levels or BTEC
Entry requirements are in the range of A-level BBB–CCC (120–96 UCAS Tariff points), or BTEC Extended Diploma DDM–MMM. Our conditional offers typically fall within this range.

We will generally make you an offer if your predicted grades are at the top of this range. If your predicted grades are towards the lower end of this range we may still make you an offer if you have a good GCSE (or equivalent) profile or relevant non-academic achievements.

International Baccalaureate
30 including 16 at Higher level.

Access to HE Diploma
Pass with 60 credits overall. Units in accounting, finance, business or management required. At least 45 credits at level 3, with 24 credits at merit or above.

GCSE (minimum grade C or grade 4)
At least English language and maths.

Foundation degree/HND
May enable you to start the course in year 2. Relevant subjects required.

Studied before or got relevant experience?
A qualification, HE credits or relevant experience may count towards your course at Brighton, and could mean that you do not have to take some elements of the course or can start in year 2 or 3.

For non-native speakers of English
IELTS 6.0, with 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in the other elements.

International equivalencies

International equivalencies by country

Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visit our language institute

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For academic preparation courses.

Course in detail

Course structure

The course takes three or four years to complete, depending on whether you opt for a placement year. It is taught through a mixture of seminars, lectures, workshops and tutorials. Assessment consists of coursework and exams.

The programme will provide you with a thorough understanding not only of accounting and finance but of their real-life business environments. You will also gain practical skills such as project management, time management, presenting and budgeting.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. If you apply to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through our applicant portal.

Accreditations

Accreditation means that this course meets the standards set by a relevant professional organisation. This course is accredited by five professional bodies, and successful completion of specific modules offers exemptions from professional exams. You may also benefit from student membership, access to networking events and online resources.

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CIMA

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) is the world’s leading, and largest, professional body of management accountants.

Students may obtain exemption from the foundation level Certificate in Business Accounting and from Operational and Management levels. Depending on module choice, students could be exempt from all fundamental level papers.

ACCA

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the global body for professional accountants. As an ACCA Gold Learning Partner, the university is recognised as providing high quality standards of tuition and excellent student support.

We are also part of the ACCA Accelerate programme, which gives you an opportunity to register early with ACCA and accelerate your career in finance.

Depending on module choices students could be exempt from all fundamentals level papers.

Students will obtain exemptions from all the Fundamentals Level - Knowledge papers (F1 to F3).

For Fundamentals Level - Skills, exemptions are granted for papers F4,F5,F7 and F9 with exemptions possible for papers F6 and F8.

ICAEW

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is a world leading professional membership organisation that promotes, develops and supports more than 147,000 chartered accountants worldwide.

For the Professional Stage papers the exemptions granted (depending on module changes) are Accounting. Management Information, Law and Financial Management (for all students).

There are also exemptions in Assurance and Principles of Taxation if FA364 Audit and Assurance and FA362 Taxation are passed.

CIPFA

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is the only professional accountancy body in the world exclusively dedicated to public finance.

Depending on your module choices, and successful completion of those modules, you may obtain exemptions from some exams in the CIPFA Professional Certificate or the Professional Diploma.

AIA

The Association of International Accountants is a global body for professional accountants that accredits this course.

Should you successfully complete your course you will be exempt from AIA papers 1–6 and 8–10. You can also gain exemptions from papers 7, 11 and 12 depending on which module options you choose.

Year 1

In your first year you will be introduced to various aspects of accounting and finance.

The Academic and Professional Skills module will help you to develop the confidence and self-awareness needed to get the most out of your degree.

Modules

Financial Accounting
Management Accounting
Economics
Financial Skills
Academic and Professional Skills

Year 2

Second year modules build and expand on the topics of first year to develop your understanding of business environments.

Modules

Financial Accounting and Reporting
Corporate and Business Law
Business Ethics and Corporate Governance
Financial Management
Management Accounting Systems
Case Study Analysis

Placement year

The optional placement year gives you a great opportunity to gain professional experience, contacts and the chance to earn up to £22,000 with some of the biggest names in commerce and industry.

Our students have been on placement with companies including American Express, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Dow Jones, Ernst & Young, the Financial Services Authority, FTSE Group, HM Revenue and Customs, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and The Bank of England.

If you impress your employer during the placement year, there is a chance that you will be offered a full-time position once you graduate.

Final year

By your final year at Brighton, you will have a sufficient grasp of accounting and finance to be able to specialise in areas of particular interest and shape your career development.

Modules

Financial Reporting: Theory and Practice
Finance and Risk Management
Management Control Systems
Advanced Case Study OR Placement Project

Options*

Audit and Assurance
Taxation

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability

Staff profile

Sue Endean – Course Leader

After completing a degree in finance and accounting at Lancaster University, Sue worked for eight years in the city office of Neville Russell (now Mazars) while qualifying as a certified accountant.Before moving to accounting training in 1990 (with Chart Foulks Lynch) she managed the Newmarket office of chartered accountants Hardcastle Burton concentrating on clients in the horse-racing industry.

In 1992 Sue joined the University of Brighton to teach financial accounting and taxation on undergraduate and professional programmes.

Course statistics

Unistats and key information sets

Unistats enable you to compare information when choosing a UK university course. All UK universities publish Unistats data on their website.

Programme specification

The programme specification is the approved description of each course. They are updated following course changes, and give a detailed breakdown of the content and structure of the course.

Programme specification

These charts give an indication of how much time you will spend on different activities at each level of the course, and an indication of the balance of assessment by coursework, and written and practical exams. For courses with option modules, actual proportions will depend on the modules you choose.

Find out more about how the academic year and degree courses are organised, and about learning and assessment activities you might get to grips with at Brighton. More specific information about this course is detailed in the programme specification (linked above). You can find out also about the range of support we offer to help you adjust to university life.

Overall workload

Assessments

Careers and employability

Many of our graduates complete professional exams with the major accountancy bodies and go on to be chartered accountants. Others pursue careers as bankers, corporate treasurers, financial advisers, traders, investment analysts and stockbrokers.

The degree also opens up career options in non-financial organisations that rely on experts in accounting and finance. The skills learned on this course can be used to move into roles such as general management, where financial expertise will give you an advantage.

During your studies you will build up exemptions from the professional accounting exams from professional bodies such as the Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), making you attractive to firms who can quickly train you up to be a fully qualified accountant.

Previous graduates have gone into the following roles:

Client Relationship Manager, Union Bank of Switzerland 
Tax Accountant, Grant Thornton 
Financial Analyst, Experian
Business Analyst, American Express 
Auditing Associate, PricewaterhouseCoopers 
Payroll Assistant, Swandean Hospital 
Accounts Assistant, Aegis 
Operations Manager, IVS.

Careers advice and support
Careers Service provides help and advice from the very start of your studies, on subjects including careers counselling sessions, CV checking, mock interviews and advice on setting up your own business. Find out more on our careers service website.

Careers counsellor
The Business School's career development advisor, Christina Keiller is available to help you to write your CV, prepare for interviews and plan your career. She also works closely with tutors to ensure that our courses teach vocational skills as well as academic ones.

Entrepreneurship network
Beepurple is the university’s entrepreneurship support network. They offer free support for any student or graduate with their business ideas, freelance plan or social enterprise project. Beepurple run events throughout the academic year, designed to equip you with skills that will improve your employability and help you grow a successful business. By taking part in beepurple activities, you will meet like-minded people, hear how other recent graduates have set up their own businesses and gain key enterprise skills that will help you stand out from the crowd.

For more information visit beepurple

Mentoring scheme
Momentum is our award-winning mentoring scheme. It pairs students with professionals who wish to share their experience. Students and their mentors meet regularly to exchange ideas. The scheme helps students to develop new skills and enhance their career prospects.

Fees and funding

Your fees

UK/EU (full-time) 9,250 GBP

International (full-time) 12,900 GBP

If you choose to take the professional placement (sandwich) year offered on this course you will pay a reduced fee during this year. Our fee for the professional placement year is £1,230 for home students and £2,000 for international students. This fee may be subject to small increases, in line with inflation.

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2018–19.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full- or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Location and living here

Location

About Brighton

Forward-thinking and welcoming, the city of Brighton & Hove is a community of creative and diverse people who share values like sustainability and inclusivity – just like its university.

Miles of pebble beaches, hundreds of bars, restaurants and clubs, a packed calendar of culture, music and sport and great independent and high street shopping attract visitors from all over the world. By the end of your course you’ll still be finding new things to enjoy about the city.

The Brighton Festival, England’s largest arts festival, takes place every May – as does the Great Escape Europe’s leading industry showcase for new music, 300 bands perform over three days at venues across the city. Major events celebrate Pride, digital culture, cinema, photography, food and the winter solstice. Our own Brighton Graduate show is a highlight, turning the university into the largest exhibition space in the south east as we celebrate the outstanding creativity of our students.

As a student here you’ll have a unique opportunity to experience what the city has to offer. Volunteering and placement opportunities enable you to play your part in the events, organisations and communities that make Brighton such a compelling place to be.

Campus where this course is taught

Moulsecoomb campus

Just two miles north of Brighton city centre and the seafront, Moulsecoomb is the largest of our five campuses with more than 8,000 students. A wide variety of subjects are taught here, from engineering and product design to business and law.

Students benefit from many professional-standard facilities, including a flight simulator, design and digital media suites, and specialist research laboratories. The campus library, Aldrich, offers long opening hours and a diverse collection of books and journals for students from all subject areas.

Sports enthusiasts will enjoy our basketball and badminton courts, fitness suite and climbing wall. The campus is also a few minutes walk from the South Downs National Park, providing a great place to relax during the summer months.

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Accommodation

Brighton

Our Brighton halls of residence are located across the city in Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

Grand Parade is in central Brighton and has one hall of residence, Phoenix Brewery, within walking distance.
Moulsecoomb is two miles from the city centre and also has one hall of residence, Moulsecoomb Place, on campus.
Varley Park offers the biggest choice of student accommodation with ten halls of residence.
Falmer campus has two halls of residence: Great Wilkins and Paddock Field.
Varley Park and Falmer are around four miles from Brighton centre; there are good public transport services nearby.

Aside from halls, you have the option of Unihomes, which we let out to our students on behalf of private landlords. We recommend Unihomes and House Share when you’re balancing learning with placements, shifts and other commitments, because they give you more choice and flexibility.

You can also choose to join the many students who live away from campus in private rented accommodation. We have a list of high-quality, university-endorsed private sector accommodation and can help you find housemates to move in with.

Find out more on our accommodation webpages and if you have any questions, our accommodation team will be happy to help. You can contact them by email at accommodation@brighton.ac.uk or by telephone on 01273 644100.

Paddock Field

Moulsecoomb Place

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Moulsecoomb campus map

Find out more

Finance and economics news

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Student views

Hristo Stoyanov

"The most useful aspect of the course was definitely the fact that most of the teachers had a rich experience of working in industry. This contributed towards my understanding of complex issues as they illustrated lectures with examples from their professional background.

"The quality of teaching is high and every time we had some issues they were instantly resolved by the course leader. The university also provides peer-assisted study sessions (PASS) for Accounting and Finance students which is extra support for everybody who needs it.

"If you choose the right modules during the third year you can get exemptions from all F papers for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification. This is highly respected by all employers and can give you a huge advantage when both applying for and actually doing your work."

Louise Newson

"While studying at Brighton I gained a broad range of knowledge which I now use in my job as a trainee auditor nearly every day. A number of modules I studied allowed me exemptions within my professional qualification which has given me a head start in my ACCA.

"The placement year allowed me to understand how a smaller business works in relation to the larger firm I now work for. The business school were very supportive during my placement year and my overall journey through university has given me the confidence to take on the challenges of the working world, including applying for Deloitte, a company which I never would have had the confidence to go for otherwise."

Oliver Dewdny

Oliver Dewdny shares his experience of studying Accounting and Finance at Brighton Business School, and how the course and placement opportunities have helped prepare him for his career.

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Nhung Nguyen

Nhung Nguyen, an international student from Vietnam, shares her experiences of studying Accounting and Finance BSc(Hons), and how a year’s paid work placement helped her to decide upon a career in taxation.

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