Finance and Investment BSc(Hons)

Course in brief

Experience the intensity of a career in finance and investment in our real-time trading room on this professionally accredited course.

You will acquire the skills needed for work across the financial sector, enabling you to apply economic and financial principles to business situations in the UK and international economies.

Our real-time trading room, sponsored by financial brokers OSTC, recreates the pressure of a trading floor with up-to-the-minute data from Reuters. There you can apply your skills to real-world financial markets, use simulation software and learn from the expertise of guest traders. Trading sessions are supervised by guest traders who pass on their own extensive trading experience.

A distinctive feature of the course is the optional salaried work placement year, where you can gain valuable experience and make professional contacts for your future career.

The course is accredited by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).

Key facts

Location Brighton: Moulsecoomb

UCAS code N390

Full-time 3 years
With placement year 4 years

Accredited by ACCA and CII

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 BBC–CCC (112–96 UCAS Tariff points), or BTEC Extended Diploma DMM–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
28 points 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.

Course in detail

Course structure

In your first year, you will be introduced to the core principles of finance and investment.

Subsequently, you will specialise in the areas of the course that interest you the most.

There is the opportunity to undertake an optional placement year. This will develop your understanding of finance and investment, enhance your CV and improve your employment prospects.

You will mainly be assessed through group work, presentations, exams and essays.

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.

Business Management with Human Resource Management

Accreditations

This course is accredited by three professional bodies, offering students membership, access to networking events and online resources. Some also offer successful graduates exemptions from their professional 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.

Students who complete the Finance and Investment BSc(Hons) will be exempt from the ACCA's Knowledge papers F1, F2, and F3.

Students taking the Taxation (FA362) option at level 6 will also get exemption from paper F6.

Chartered Insurance Institute

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) is the professional organisation for those working in the insurance and financial services industries.

Depending on your module choices, you build credits towards the following CII exams:

financial services qualification framework at diploma, and advanced diploma level.
insurance qualification framework at diploma level.

Association of International Accountants

The Association of International Accountants (AIA) is a global body for professional accountants and accredits this course.

Students who successfully complete the course will be exempt from AIA papers 1–4.

Year 1

In your first year you will be introduced to the core disciplines of economics, finance, accounting and quantitative research.

Modules

Financial Accounting
Introduction to Finance
Economics
Financial Skills
Academic and Professional Skills

Year 2

In your second year, you will be encouraged to identify which areas of the degree interest you most. You will go on to study these in more detail in your third year.

Modules will build on what you have learned in your first year.

Modules

Corporate Analysis
Finance and Risk Management
International Financial Economics
Monetary Economics: Theory and Policy
Investment Case Study
Professional Practice

Placement year

The optional placement year is 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, Barclays, Merrill Lynch, IBM, Credit Suisse, Dow Jones, Goldman Sachs, FTSE Group, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and OSTC.

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

In your final year you will specialise in the areas of the degree which interest you the most.

You will choose between option modules and may complete a dissertation that will allow you to substantially develop your knowledge in a particular area.

Completing a dissertation will also help you to acquire research skills and may be particularly useful if you are interested in extending your academic experience to a postgraduate level.

Modules

Advanced Treasury Risk Management
Investment Management
Applied Financial Techniques
Economic and Legal Regulation

Options*

Placement project (for students who undertake the placement year)
Dissertation
Financial Econometrics
Behavioural Economics
International Finance
Game Theory in Economics, Finance and Business
Taxation
Applied Strategy

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

Real-time trading room

As part of your course you will have access to modern computing facilities and specialist computing packages, including our real-time trading room, fed by up-to-the-minute data from Reuters.

One of a handful of such facilities across the UK, our trading room sessions are supervised by guest traders and provide you with the opportunity to apply your skills to real markets and real data, and make use of simulation software to recreate the pressure of a trading floor.

Student society

The Investment and Trading Society gives students the opportunity to take part in real-time trading competitions against other universities, guest talks and field trips.

You can also receive advice about applying for jobs, internships and postgraduate posts that can help you towards a higher grade and improve your prospects once you leave university.

Staff profile

Ray Bachan, Course Leader

Ray joined the University of Brighton in 2000. He previously taught economics at the Southampton institute and the University of Sussex from where he received his PhD. He is course leader for the Finance and Investment BSc and currently teaches international and development economics, quantitative methods and econometrics.

Ray is a labour economist with specific interest in education economics and pay determination. He has published widely in internationally recognised economics and education journals.

His recent research has focused on the pay determination process in UK higher education and grade inflation in UK higher education. Both papers received national coverage in the Observer.

Ray’s other recent research interest include issues surrounding student debt, international migration, and race and competitive balance in European football.

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

The course will prepare you for a wide range of careers in finance and investment.

The UK's banking, investment and insurance industry includes investment banks, commercial banks, building societies, broking firms, independent financial advisers and insurance companies. You will be equipped to enter any one of these sectors.

There are also opportunities for graduates to work in the financial or treasury departments of large companies.

The course is highly relevant if you wish to become a management consultant, financial market regulator or active in governmental services where a knowledge of the financial system may be required.

Previous graduates have gone into the following roles:

Pricing Analyst, World Fuel Services
Financial Analyst, Bank Leumi
Trainee Investment Strategist, Jupiter Fund Management
Investment Management Intern, Investec Wealth and Investment
Self-employed Futures Trader, LDN Capital
Business Development Executive, Microdec
IT Consultant, Capgemini
Futures Trader, OSTC
Junior Trader, FME Group
Associate Partner Manager, Amazon.com.

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.

Links with industry

"Our students engage with industry through work placements, projects and guest speakers. This close link with industry often provides our students with opportunities to get a job. This is what the business school is all about."

Aidan Berry, Director of Brighton Business School

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

Two miles north of Brighton seafront, Moulsecoomb is our largest campus. Subjects taught here include architecture, business, computing, construction, engineering, geography, product design, law and pharmacy.

On campus you will find professional-standard facilities including a flight simulator, trading room, design and digital media suites and specialist research laboratories, alongside the library, student centre, a nursery, fitness facilities and Students’ Union. There are excellent public transport links.

The Big Build
A major transformation of our Moulsecoomb campus begins in summer 2018. By summer 2020 there’ll be 400 student bedrooms in new halls of residence (with another 400 by summer 2021), a new academic building and a new Students’ Union and fitness facilities – all created with sustainability, inclusivity and community in mind.

As the development grows it will provide many exciting learning opportunities for our students, ranging from live projects, placements and internships with the companies involved to guest lectures and site visits.

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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

Per Wangel

Per Wangel, an international student from Sweden, shares his experiences of studying Finance and Investment BSc(Hons) and what he felt separates Brighton from other universities.

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Theodore Voegt

Theodore Voegt, Finance and Investment BSc(Hons) graduate, shares how Brighton's degree, and the year’s paid work placement has prepared him for his career in the systematic trading sector of the hedge fund industry.

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Jimmy Meghani

"The best part of my course is the pace of it; it gives a real feel for working in the financial markets; dynamic and vibrant, full of energy and knowledge.

"The University of Brighton has been very helpful. Not just in terms of academic development but also personal development.

"The course will certainly help my career as it has strengthened my academic knowledge of economic and financial theories. It has helped me to get an internship at The Walt Disney Company as a finance analyst and also a summer internship at Bank of America.

"This is a great place to study and you should cherish every moment you have here."