Accounting and Finance

In the first year, you study compulsory modules designed to give you a good grounding in the disciplines required by a modern manager.

Our undergraduate courses in Business and Management Studies, Marketing, Accounting and Finance, International Business and Management and Human Resource Management share a common first year, so you can switch between them at the end of the first year, subject to satisfactory performance.

In the second and final year, you go on to combine compulsory accounting and finance-themed modules with the choice of a list of optional specialist modules which allows you to design a programme of study to suit your needs and interests.

Assessment largely involves a combination of coursework assessments and formal examinations held at the end of each semester. Your first-year assessments aim to measure your progress; the assessments that count towards the classification of you degree are held in the second and final years.

Compulsory modules in the first year

• Business Economics
• Introduction to Accounting and Finance (20 credits)
• Foundations of Marketing (20 credits)
• Foundation of Production/Operations Management
• Organisational Behaviour 
• The Sociology of Work
• Organisational Information Systems
• Quantitative Methods in Information Management
• Student Self Development
• The Macroeconomic Environment of Business

Compulsory modules in the second year

• Business Law
• Financial Accounting (20 credits)
• Management Accounting (20 credits)
• Employability and Enterprise Skills (20 credits)
• Capital Markets, Investment and Finance
• Company Law and Administration
• Economics of Industry
• Financial Management

Compulsory modules in the final year

• Contemporary Issues in Accounting
• Corporate Reporting
• International Finance
• Auditing
• International Accounting
• Taxation (20 credits)

Elective modules, choose one in the second year and five in the final year of a 3-year course or three in the final year of a 4-year course, from a list of 50 covering the specialist areas of

• Accounting
• Financial Management
• Marketing
• Psychology
• Production and Operations Management
• Human Resource Management
• Information Management and Business Information Systems

There are also multidisciplinary modules on subjects such as International Business and Strategic Management.

A number of professional accountancy bodies give exemptions for examinations taken at different stages of their professional qualification, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW), the Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA), and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). This programme entitles students to be eligible for exemptions, but the exact detail of which examinations may be exempted vary depending on the modules taken in their studies at Bradford. For further information, please visit the appropriate websites:

Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA)

The Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW)

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)

All our 4 year programmes offer you the opportunity to take a year's work placement in industry during the third year of the course, and this is assessed as 20 credits of your degree. Placements are real, paid jobs in a wide variety of organisations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors and offer you a valuable opportunity to experience firsthand how business and management concepts are applied in practice and to give you direct exposure to real issues in the workplace.

The placement year is a vital part of your learning and will add significantly to your personal development, self confidence, planning, communication and business acumen skills. Statistics show that students who have undertaken a placement year benefit from a better graduate job, higher graduate starting salary and a better degree outcome.

In a competitive graduate market, valuable experience and employability skills gained from a year’s work placement will differentiate you from the thousands of other graduates seeking work. We find that students return from their placement year with their confidence and personal skills enhanced and ready to implement their focused plan for the future.

The School has an excellent network of organisations that offer placements including IBM, Vauxhall, NHS, GE Money, Pace, Enterprise Rent A Car, Cummins and Peugeot. Together we ensure your placement is appropriately challenging and that you can make a real and positive impact on the business.

Your experience will be monitored and assessed through a credit bearing work based learning module that will count towards your final degree. This module is portfolio based and will develop your ability to reflect on professional work related experiences and recognise the impact on your career development planning.

Placements are not guaranteed, and students will have to invest considerable time and effort in their 2^nd year in securing one, with the support of the dedicated Careers team.

There are opportunities for School of Management undergraduate students to study abroad. This is usually in their 2nd year of studies, see the Study Abroad section for further information.