By providing a practical and contemporary insight into financial markets and planning, together with a study of effective business operations and decision making, this course offers skills and knowledge employers would value, including tax and financial planning, and international business strategy.
Business
The study of business provides a detailed understanding of the way organisations work, how they operate within their specific environment and the impact on individuals working within them.
This pathway develops a general knowledge of business to complement a more specialised area of study. Modules introduce key themes, specifically, business operations (how it works) and entrepreneurship (creating opportunity within a competitive environment).
You learn how to apply business theory, identify types of business opportunity and address a range of business issues in an imaginative way. Investigating the issues confronting individuals within a business, you will develop an awareness of the problems businesses can face in general, and be able to identify a number of possible responses.
Finance
The Finance pathway is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the principles and practice of finance, together with a foundation of business knowledge and personal transferable skills.
The programme develops the intellectual knowledge and technical skills necessary to ensure that, as you enter the profession, you can cope with new developments and business change, and be able to bring critical and analytical problem-solving skills to contemporary challenges.
It offers breadth as well as depth, embracing legal, taxation, regulatory and institutional issues within a national and international context.
Find out more about Birmingham City Business School!
Key Facts
- We are one of the UK’s most established, respected and largest Business Schools.
- This course offers a combination of skills and knowledge that employers value, including tax and financial planning, and international business strategy.
- The finance element is taught by a Platinum Approved learning partner of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
- Studying a core first year, before moving to subject-specific modules, gives subject flexibility and increases your employability.
- Spend a year working in industry between your second and third study year, getting essential, hands-on business experience.
- In your first year, you get to pitch a business plan in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ and monitor a share portfolio – both for cash rewards.
- 82% of Birmingham City Business School graduates are in employment or further study; with an average full-time salary of £23,677. (note: faculty-based only, 08/09 Destinations Data)
Why Choose Us?
- Sharp, practical insight into financial markets and planning, plus a study of effective business operations and decision making.
- The business pathway prepares you for fast-track training and entry-level management posts, or even to set up your own entrepreneurial venture.
- The finance pathways blends theory with practice, applying it to real-world situations – excellent employment record with many students going on to completing professional examinations.
- Birmingham City Business School is a practice-based, ACCA Platinum Approved Business School – your course is highly respected and entirely relevant to today’s business world.
- Only those institutions meeting the highest standards, such as exceeding the worldwide student pass rate for examinations, are granted ACCA Platinum status.
- Teaching includes case studies looking at the published results of real companies; high profile guest speakers share experience and insight.
- You have the chance of a twelve-month exchange programme in the second year at one of our international partner institutes.
- Local companies respect - and often recruit - Birmingham City Business School’s graduates. As well as helping you find a suitable place for your work experience year, the Placement Office advertises around 1,000 jobs each year.
- Birmingham City Business School welcomes around 3,000 students from over 80 countries, so you have a whole world of experiences – business and social – on your doorstep.
Download the Course Programme Specification
Entry Requirements
A minimum of five GCSEs at grade C or above, which must include English Language and Mathematics GCSEs. Equivalent level 2 qualifications will be considered, however Mathematics and English Language GCSEs at grade C or above are an essential requirement for entry. All Level 2 qualifications must be achieved prior to application.
- A minimum tariff score of 280 points made up of a minimum of two passes A2 Level, two 6 unit or one 12 unit AVCE. Remaining points can be made up from AS qualifications
- Applications are welcomed from those with international qualifications (equivalent to those above) such as International Baccalaureate 32 points, including internationally accredited Foundation courses. You must also have an English Language qualification such as IELTS (minimum score of 6.0) or TOEFL (minimum score 550). Find out more about country-specific entry requirements and qualifications.
- Satisfactory completion of a full-time foundation course of an appropriate type
- The programme welcomes applications from students who have significant relevant work or life experience but who may not necessarily meet all of the published academic requirements for their chosen course. The University must be satisfied that your work or life experience is equivalent to the qualifications that other applicants will be studying. We want all of our students to succeed and will only offer a place where we believe that an applicant is capable of completing their chosen course with a strong final degree classification.
The admissions team will be pleased to discuss individual circumstances with prospective students.
Application Details
The code for this course is NN13.
Search for this course on UCAS
UCAS Information
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is a UK organisation responsible for managing applications to university and college.
UK, EU and international students applying for most undergraduate degree courses in the UK will need to apply through UCAS.
You submit an application via the UCAS website with a list of up to five courses. All choices are confidential during the application process so universities and colleges considering an application cannot see your other choices. Applications must be completed by mid-January of the year that you wish to start university.
You can monitor the progress of your application using the UCAS Apply system.
Fees and Finance
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Fees for students from the UK or EU countries?
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| Start | Mode | Duration | Award | Fees |
|---|
| Sep 2013 | FT | 3 years | BA (Hons) | £7,500 per year |
| Sep 2013 | SW | 4 years | BA (Hons) | See below |
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Fees for students from non-EU countries?
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| Start | Mode | Duration | Award | Fees |
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| Sep 2013 | FT | 3 years | BA (Hons) | £10,100 per year |
The University reserves the right to increase fees broadly in line with increases in inflation, or to reflect changes in government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament.
Where a full-time undergraduate student opts to extend the normal length
of a Bachelor’s degree by an additional year in order to take a full-year work
placement there will be no fee for the additional placement year.
Additional costs
There are no additional compulsory costs for this course however you may wish to purchase text books or additional materials relating to the subject area.
Financial Options and Advice
We have deliberately tried to set fees that reflect the cost of course delivery in order to help our students avoid debt.
Full-time students won't have to pay for tuition fees until after their studies - there are government tuition fee loans available. If you are a full-time student, after leaving university you will start to pay back your loan once you are earning over £21,000 a year, at a rate of nine per cent on any income above £21,000. So if you were earning £25,000, you would pay back nine per cent of £4,000, or £30 per month.
Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis offers key facts on fees, loans and grants:
Financial Support
We offer further information on possible financial support. This includes the type of loans, grants and scholarships available both from the government and from Birmingham City University.
University Approach to Employability
Expertly woven into our curriculum and work experience opportunities, and underpinned by a diligent approach to career preparation and the close involvement of professional bodies, the University views employment as one of the principal rewards for a student's ambition, application and academic achievement. It's why the University is one of the country's top 30 universities* for placing students in graduate-level employment.
Our close links with business and the professions mean that our courses are always relevant, up-to-date and meet the exact needs of the current marketplace. Wherever possible, we involve employers in planning the curriculum, while many of our lecturers come from and maintain their links with industry, ensuring they are up to speed with the latest developments.
Employability will be an integral outcome of your studies.
* Sunday Times University Guide 2012
Employment Opportunities
If you take the Business pathway, you will be well placed for graduate fast-track training and entry-level management posts in a number of industries, including commerce, government, community organisations and charities. You may also use your knowledge to set up your own entrepreneurial venture.
The Finance pathway integrates theory with practice to produce graduates who have a broad knowledge of finance and can apply it in real-world situations. Our alumni have an excellent employment record, with many successfully completing professional examinations following their degree.
Placements
You will benefit from the opportunity to spend a year working in industry between your second and third study year, allowing you to acquire invaluable, hands-on experience ahead of your career in business.
It is an excellent opportunity for you and your placement company. Your work experience allows you to develop a greater understanding of the business world, pick up key transferable skills, and put theory into practice, whilst your placement company can gain from your fresh ideas and enthusiasm.
A note for all full-time students starting a Bachelor’s degree in 2012/13:
If you commence your studies in September 2012 under the new fees regime, and decide to undertake a placement year (making your degree a 4 year sandwich course), please note that you will not be charged a tuition fee for that particular year.
Further Studies
The University is an Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Platinum Approved Learning Partner and, if you wish to continue studying following graduation, you can make an individual application to obtain exemptions from the ACCA course and some exemptions for CIMA qualifications. We are able to prepare you for the internal and external ACCA examinations on a part-time basis.
Alternatively, you could choose to study MSc Accountancy and Finance or MSc Management and Finance on a full-time basis or you may progress to the University’s MA and MSc programmes or complete professional examinations in management or marketing.
Full Time
Full Time (Sandwich)
About KIS data
From September 2012, all universities and colleges are publishing standardised information for all undergraduate courses in the form of a Key Information Set (KIS). The KIS data is designed to meet the needs of prospective students and allow for informed decision-making when choosing a university course.
Putting our students first
We pride ourselves on our student satisfaction levels which have risen from 73 per cent to 83 per cent between 2010 and 2012. Our dedication to improving the student experience is illustrated by our award-winning student engagement, our close links with business and industry and our £180 million investment in new facilities.
Employability facts
Over 75% of business/marketing and accountancy/finance graduates from Birmingham City Business School who responded to our survey entered employment (and/or further study), earning an average full-time salary of over £18,000. Employers hiring these graduates include Stockdale Martin, Morrison's, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank, offering positions such as Account Executive, Commercial Analyst, Senior Business Associate and Hedge Fund Analyst.
Working with your Students’ Union
Improving student satisfaction is a priority commitment shared by both Birmingham City University and its Students’ Union. In its strategic planning, the Union has pledged to be more accessible, more relevant and provide more opportunity to engage with a diverse student community.
The Students’ Union is already a key stakeholder in supporting an excellent teaching experience at Birmingham City University, through joint projects such as the Extra Mile Teaching Awards and the Student Rep scheme, which allows students to share their ideas on how they are taught.
As Birmingham City University moves towards a two campus strategy where it can better support enhanced learning and student support facilities across a two-mile radius, the Students’ Union will also be better able to implement its commitment to improve communication and engage with its valued student membership.
Course Structure
As a Joint Honours degree student at Birmingham City Business School, you will study a core first year before continuing onto subject-specific modules in the remaining years of your course.
This exciting development is designed to offer you flexibility of subject choice and increase your employability.
Course Modules
| First Year |
| Autumn |
Spring |
Credits |
| Accounting and Finance |
30 |
| Economic Environment |
New Venture Creation |
15 each |
| Marketing in Business |
30 |
| Managing Organisations People and Self |
30 |
| Second Year |
| Autumn |
Spring |
Credits |
| Creative Problem Solving |
The Business Entrepreneur |
15 each |
| Business Operations and Logistics |
Contemporary Business Issues |
15 each |
| Business Finance Decisions |
Financial Markets - Risk and Returns |
15 each |
| Tax and Financial Planning |
30 |
| Final Year |
| Autumn |
Spring |
Credits |
| In the final year you undertake a choice of modules totalling 60 credits from the list below. (The modules stated as 'core' are compulsary). |
| International Business Strategy (core) |
30 |
| Financial management (core) |
30 |
| Making sense of organisations |
Business Operations and Systems |
15 each |
| Comparative Financial Systems |
International Corporate Finance |
15 each |
| Statistical Decision Making |
Statistical Modelling |
15 each |
| Modules that run across both terms: Only one can be chosen |
| Business Start Up Project or |
30 |
| Management Consultancy Project or |
30 |
| Dissertation |
30 |
| Placement project |
30 |
Assessment Methods
You encounter a wide range of innovative assessment styles, including business reports, academic papers, case studies, individual and group presentations, portfolios and projects, as well as conventional examinations.