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In addition to providing you with a solid grounding into the theories underpinning financial markets and the role that accountancy plays in corporate behaviour, this course will provide you with exemptions from the professional examinations of several professional bodies. These include: the Securities and Investment Institute (SII), the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accounting (CIMA).
The course balances theory with practical analysis and looks at the role of financial markets in the macro-economy and how regulation can assist in financial intermediation. You will also investigate how traders manage risk, how insurance markets guard investors' funds, how share prices are determined and what makes global financial markets crash.
Your work will combine an element of coursework with exams and a final year dissertation. You will also be given opportunities to visit financial institutions in London, including the Bank of England.
Graduates of this course have developed careers in banking, accountancy, corporate governance, regulation, insurance and international finance.
During the course you will:
Areas of study you may cover on this course include:
The assessment strategy of the course is designed to allow students to effectively demonstrate that learning outcomes have been met through a variety of activities. In order to capture professional exemptions there is a skew towards terminal examinations and consequently a degree of in-course testing to allow students to prepare for the rigours of the final exam. However each unit will also feature additional assessments demanding that students present a more measured assessment of capability through extended assignment.
The duration of terminal exams at levels two and three will be three hours, once again to satisfy professional requirements.
Where units are not critical to professional exemption, then assessment patterns are freer to capture student performance in more varied ways.
The broad aims of this course are:
Your Academic Director will be happy to advise on the following:
If your yearly results record you as an NP (negotiated progression), what should you do next?
Are your results correct?
If you have a blank against a unit can you prove that you took it and should have a grade?
(you should have a receipt)
Do you have a course handbook, an induction schedule and handbooks for each of your units?
You are entitled to the above range of advice right throughout the year, so be sure to contact your Academic Director as soon as any of the above becomes a problem for you.
In addition you will have a personal tutor who will meet you at an early stage of your studies. During the first level of study, your personal tutor will be the person responsible for delivery of your Business Core Integrated Course. From the commencement of level 2, students will be allocated a personal tutor from the Department of Accounting and Finance.
Team working will be developed across the three years of the course as follows:
At level 1: Students will undertake group projects as part of the Business Core Integrated Course. They will learn to define tasks; designate activities; and reflect on group performance.
At level 2: Students will undertake weekly group presentations as part of Personal Development in Accounting and Finance and will improve their skills in giving feedback to peers.
At Level 3: Students will approach the Advances in International Finance unit as groups in order to scope the allocated study area.
Career:
Students completing the course will have the skills and the knowledge to enter a wide range of International Finance related careers. This might include any branch of financial services, banking, insurance and financial advice.
Further study:
The course will form excellent underpinning for the Departments MSc International Finance and Banking, MSc Accounting and Finance or MSc Investments and Finance. The approval awarded by the professional institutes will encourage professional study.
A foundation degree will be of particular interest if you have completed a Modern Apprenticeship, vocational A levels, BTEC National or equivalent.
Foundation degrees are also particularly suitable if you want to qualify while working.
Many students studying for foundation degrees come to us through work-based routes so you can apply for a foundation degree even if you don’t have traditional academic qualifications.
We welcome applicants with relevant work experience.
We will consider you as an individual and take into account all elements of your application, not just your qualifications. We are looking for both breadth and depth in your current studies as well as enthusiasm for the subject you wish to study.
The general requirement is one of the following:
As a general guide, to apply for a place on an undergraduate course (BA/BSc) at the University you need to have completed your high school education and have the required English qualification.
We have students from all the European Union member countries so we are quick to make decisions on most qualifications.
(Please note that applicants on a full student visa are not eligible for part-time study)
We recommend that you apply directly to the University where possible, as this allows us to offer the quickest turnaround time for your application.
Please read the Direct application instructions before completing the course application form.
Application forms for accommodation in the student halls at Bedford campus and Luton campus are available in the Student life section
APL is available for international students applying for undergraduate (Bachelor degree) study. Please do not use this APL form to apply for postgraduate courses.
Use the APL form to tell us about any non-standard qualifications and/or work experience you have that you think should be taken into consideration with your application. `
The APL form should be submitted at the same time as the course application form.
We regret we are unable to process APL forms from students who have not submitted a formal course application form.
Return your completed application to:
University of Bedfordshire
International Admissions
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
LU1 3JU
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)1582 489326 (non-EU Students)
F: +44 (0)1582 743469
E: international-admissions@beds.ac.uk
For each of the following core skills areas, you should indicate the overarching strategy to developing each one. Reference should be made to explicit units that emphasise each skills area and to how the strategy changes from level to level as the student progresses with his or her study.
Communication
To help with the development of this you will:
Produce essays and reports communicating your findings on a range of financial issues. Some of these will be in the form of assignments, whilst others will be in time constrained settings. These will begin at level 1 with assignments for the Business Core Integrated Course and exams in Introduction to Accounting and Finance, and will culminate in Final exams at level 3 and the Advances In International Finance project.
At level 1, students will report simple findings. At level 2, this will be analysed and classified with strengths and weaknesses concluded. At level 3, students will evaluate the utility of outcomes to various user groups.
Presentational skills will be developed through the level 1 Business Core Integrated Course and be followed up in Personal Development in Accounting and Finance at level 2.
Information Literacy
To help with the development of this you will:
Analyse and report on financial and other information at all levels of the course. In this course information literacy perhaps has a wider range of meanings than in other courses in that the information will be more highly skewed towards quantitative information than qualitative. You will learn how to read and interpret a range of information in all units and will learn techniques of information interrogation in order to make meaning of the data. In the Business Core Integrated Course you will lean and apply simple tools. These will be expanded and explored in Personal Development and in other level 2 units. At level 3 you select and critically appraise information in the Advances unit and in all other units.
Research and Evaluation
To help with the development of this you will:
Explore information in the Business Core Integrated Course at level 1.
Seek, select and apply research to cases at level 2.
Apply research to novel situations at level 3, critically appraising the outcomes of the research.
Creativity and Critical Thinking
To help with the development of this you will:
At level 1, use team-working skills to breakdown problems into their component parts in order to develop known solutions.
At level 2 use skills to create financial and economic models to provide solutions to problems, linking together a range of techniques to synthesise solutions.
At level 3 you will critically appraise financial theory and its utility in solving global economic problems through the Advances unit and in other taught units.
You will be expected to engage with the feedback you are given in order to improve your performance. All assessments will consolidate your strengths and weaknesses in such a way as you can plan to improve your performance. Feedback will be given within three weeks of sitting an assessment.
Your tutors publish their appointments times and you are encouraged to discuss preparation for assessments with them, and the results of assessments once completed. It is your responsibility to make the appointments.
At level 1 your personal tutor will meet with you at pre-appointed times to discuss your progress, but in levels 2 and 3 you will be expected to make appointments yourself.
A degree of testing will take place at all levels of the course, some formative and some summative. You are expected to engage with these tests and to take the results seriously in order to develop plans for your own improvement.
Study skills will be developed at each level and specifically in the following units:
Professional standards are first introduced during the Business Core Integrated Course but are re-enforced during Personal Development in Accounting and Finance. At level 2, students are exposed to employers demands in order to contextualise these standards.
Students are asked to state what modes of behaviour are acceptable in group working situations and what are not. These are then discussed and codified within the unit.
