BSc Accounting & Finance

This module builds on previous studies of financial accounting to further develop your ability to prepare financial statements and apply the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards. You will be introduced to the conceptual framework for financial reporting and develop skills in critical evaluation of the regulatory environment.

You will learn how to use quantitative tools for pricing stocks, bonds and derivatives, and for measuring risk and return. You will develop a sound understanding of the main theories and models for valuing financial market instruments, and will become aware of key empirical tests of asset valuation models and their implications.

You will learn to critically assess the factors that determine the optimal investment, financing and payout decisions of a firm. This second-year module builds on the first-year Financial Management module and deepens your understanding of firms’ key financial decisions. You will revisit core tools of project appraisal, valuation, and capital structure and extend them to more complex settings, including payout policies. The module also introduces international corporate finance, risk management, corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions, using theory, empirical evidence and real-world applications.

The module will further your understanding of how accounting is used within organisations for the planning, control and evaluation of activity, with a special focus on the manager's role.  The module covers technical issues in cost management and performance measurement systems, and wider issues concerning the role of management accounting in shaping management structures and decisions in manufacturing and service contexts.

In your second year, you will begin to shape your degree by choosing two accounting or finance elective modules, allowing you to continue to focus your studies around accounting or finance or a mixture of both. Your eighth module can either be another accounting or finance module, a module from a different topic within WBS, or something from another department*.

Examples of the modules that you could choose from are shown below: 

Powerful Accounting: Critical Perspectives

Accounting makes organisations possible and underpins the smooth running of markets. It shapes how we act and what we value. Living in a world influenced by the products of accounting, and using accounting information well, requires critical reflection. In this module we draw on theories, concepts and empirical material to develop your critical understanding of the power of accounting. You will explore how accounting (including standard-setting) works and changes. We investigate its impacts on us, what it enables in economies and societies and what can and does go wrong (how scandals are possible) as well as what needs changing to deal with current challenges.

Economics of Strategy 

In this module, you will examine the longer run aspects of business and the economic environment in which companies operate.  You will gain an understanding of fundamental concepts in micro and macroeconomics, as relevant for the study of strategic decisions of firms; develop a range of appropriate analytical skills, including descriptive, graphical and elementary mathematical methods used in the economic analysis of strategy; develop the capacity to apply analytical techniques to real world business problems and strategy choices.

Finance Reporting 2

Building on Financial Reporting 1, this module aims to develop your understanding of the theories of accounting, the regulatory environment for financial reporting, and the structure of group financial statements.

Business Law 2 

In this module, you will build upon your knowledge of contract law from Business Law 1. You will be able to understand and critically evaluate the concepts and principles of contract law and the importance of contract formation in the business world.

Financial Econometrics 

This module aims to provide a solid training in econometric methods for the empirical analysis of financial markets. The core of the module is an undergraduate-level introduction to financial econometrics, and it is meant to you the student with the quantitative skills needed for carrying on research projects in empirical finance.

Applied Accounting Technology

This module will blend technical expertise with the development of critical thinking, analysis, and reflection. By the end of the module, you will have gained hands-on experience with cloud-based software and created a portfolio of critically reflective work showcasing your understanding of cloud-based accounting and its implications and limitations for the accounting profession and the broader business/societal space.

*Modules from other departments are subject to availability.

This module explores pressing global challenges affecting business and society, such as climate change, digital disruption, inequality, pandemics, and geopolitical instability. You critically analyse these challenges and develop strategic responses through lectures, workshops, and applied projects. The course emphasises interdisciplinary thinking, ethical leadership, and innovation in complex, uncertain environments.

In your final year you can really shape your degree by choosing four accounting or finance elective modules, allowing you to continue to focus your studies around accounting or finance or a mixture of both.

In your final year you will choose three elective modules from a range of subject areas such as: marketing, strategy, entrepreneurship, human resources, customer service management, industrial relations, law as well as accounting and finance. Alternatively you can choose from modules offered through other University departments such as Economics or a language.*

*Modules from other departments are subject to availability.