BSc Accounting & Finance

The ability to make informed decisions in complex organisational settings is a core skill for business, accounting and finance students. Decision Making in Action helps you understand how strategic, operational, financial and human factors interact when managing a firm.

Through lectures and practical workshops, you will experience the complexity of business decision-making in dynamic market conditions. The module develops your ability to interpret data, weigh competing priorities and make integrated decisions under uncertainty.

You will reflect critically on performance, ethics and leadership, and build the confidence to connect analysis with action in realistic business situations.

Preparation, interpretation and evaluation of financial statements is central to accounting and finance. Financial Reporting 1 introduces you to major theories of accounting, the regulatory environment for financial reporting, and the techniques that underpin current reporting practice.

You will prepare, critically evaluate and discuss relevant sections of the annual report including published financial statements or extracts from financial statements for individual companies. The module develops an understanding of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as they apply to UK listed companies and explores how these regulations shape the financial statements as they are presented to shareholders. The module will also consider the other parts of a company's annual report, and think about the mechanisms in place to ensure that company reporting is fair, transparent and meets the regulatory requirements.

Through structured accounting problems and applied reporting examples, you will build the technical and analytical skills needed to prepare, analyse and critically evaluate financial statements.

Understanding how financial markets operate is essential for students of accounting and finance. Finance 1: Financial Markets introduces you to the tools and concepts used to price financial assets and measure risk and return.

You will learn how investors trade off risk and return through portfolio choice and the Capital Asset Pricing Model, and how to price bonds, forwards and options.

The module develops your understanding of the main theories used to value financial instruments. You will also connect financial theory with evidence from real financial markets and current events.

Understanding how firms make investment, financing, risk-management and payout decisions is central to corporate finance. Finance 2: Corporate Finance develops your ability to analyse the financial decisions made within firms, and to understand how these decisions are shaped by corporate governance, risk, capital-market conditions, taxation, financial distress, asymmetric information and international financial environments.

You will learn how firms evaluate investment opportunities, estimate the cost of capital, value firms using different approaches, and assess the drivers of corporate value. The module covers capital budgeting and risk analysis, capital structure, equity and debt financing, valuation of levered firms, corporate risk management with derivatives, real options, payout policy, mergers and acquisitions, and international corporate finance. You will also consider why firms raise capital, how they choose between financing sources, and how financial decisions affect shareholders, creditors and other stakeholders.

Through structured numerical problems, critical discussion and real-world examples, you will develop the ability to apply corporate finance theory to practical decisions. You will practise solving quantitative problems, interpreting financial information, evaluating empirical evidence, and writing informed critiques of key topics in corporate finance. The module also connects theory with current financial practice and employability, helping you build the analytical judgement expected in finance-related roles.

Using accounting information for planning, control and evaluation is vital for effective management. Management Accounting for Decision Making and Control builds on the core concepts introduced in Year 1 and deepens your understanding of how accounting is used within organisations.

The module focuses on the manager's role in using accounting information to support decisions and influence performance. You will examine technical issues in cost management and performance measurement systems, alongside wider questions about how management accounting shapes organisational structures and decisions.

Through applied examples from manufacturing and service contexts, you will develop the ability to analyse accounting information and understand its role in managerial decision-making and control.
 

In your second year, you will begin to shape your degree by choosing two accounting or finance elective modules. This allows you to focus your studies on accounting, finance, or a combination of both areas.

Your eighth module can either be another accounting or finance module, a module from a different topic within WBS, or a module from another department*.

Examples of the modules you may be able to choose from are shown below:

Powerful Accounting: Critical Perspectives

Accounting is not only a technical practice; it also has social, economic and political consequences. Powerful Accounting: Critical Perspectives introduces you to theories, concepts and empirical material that help you understand the power of accounting in organisations and society.

You will explore how accounting, including standard-setting, works and changes over time. The module encourages you to consider what accounting enables in economies and societies, what can go wrong, and how accounting practices might need to change in response to current challenges.

Through critical reading, discussion and applied examples, you will develop a deeper understanding of accounting as a powerful institutional practice and strengthen your ability to analyse its wider impacts.

Economics of Strategy 

Economic of Strategy provides important tools for understanding strategic decisions. This module introduces you to the longer-run aspects of microeconomic and macroeconomic concepts that are relevant to the strategic choices firms make in competitive and changing environments.

You will develop analytical skills including descriptive, graphical and elementary mathematical methods used in the economic analysis of strategy. The module will help you understand how firms respond to markets, competitors and wider economic conditions.

Through real-world business problems and strategic examples, you will learn to apply economic reasoning to organisational choices and develop your capacity to analyse strategy in an evidence-based way.

Finance Reporting 2

Financial Reporting 2 builds on Financial Reporting 1 and develops more themes by looking at further theories and IFRS Standards which govern UK-listed companies' published financial statements and apply to many other jurisdictions as well.

In this module we continue to strengthen your ability to prepare, read and critically evaluate published annual reports, and specifically look at the structure and preparation of group accounts and consolidation techniques.

Through applied reporting tasks and critical analysis of annual reports, you will develop the technical and evaluative skills needed to interpret complex accounting information in context.

Business Law 2 

A deeper understanding of business law helps you analyse commercial issues and evaluate legal arguments. Business Law 2 builds on your knowledge of contract law from Business Law or Fundamentals of Business Law and extends your ability to work with legal sources and reasoning.

You will study the tort of negligence, with a focus on liability for professionals. Your existing knowledge on contract formation will be extended to consider factors which can make a contract void or voidable, including mistake, misrepresentation and undue influence.  The module also considers potential liability for a business in two important areas; money laundering and corporate manslaughter.

Through discussion and applied legal problems, you will develop the ability to analyse legal questions critically and communicate legal arguments clearly and persuasively.

Financial Econometrics 

Analysing financial data rigorously is essential for empirical work in finance and financial economics. Financial Econometrics introduces you to the principles and techniques of modern econometrics and statistical investigation in finance.

You will learn how to select appropriate model specifications and econometric approaches to answer research questions in empirical finance. The module will help you understand how financial data can be modelled, tested and interpreted.

Through applied analysis and research-focused examples, you will assess the robustness and power of statistical and econometric techniques and develop confidence in using them to analyse financial data.

*Modules from other departments are subject to availability.

Understanding and responding to complex global challenges is essential for future business leaders. Grand Challenges in Business explores pressing issues affecting business and society, including climate change, digital disruption, inequality, pandemics and geopolitical instability.

You will critically analyse these challenges and consider how organisations can develop strategic responses in uncertain and changing environments. The module emphasises interdisciplinary thinking, ethical leadership and innovation.

Through lectures, workshops and applied projects, you will develop the ability to connect business knowledge with wider social, technological and environmental issues, and to propose responsible responses to complex problems.

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.*

*Modules from other departments are subject to availability.