Business Finance - BSc (Hons)

Corporate Finance is a rigorous and comprehensive module that is designed to broaden your understanding of the main issues in modern corporate finance.  Corporate Finance is concerned with how businesses raise funds and invest those funds to provide a return to investors. This module aims to equip you with the skills and knowledge required by a   financial manager to make appropriate investment and financing decisions for a business in a global environment.  Financial managers face many varied problems and tasks, and a common theme that underpins this module is the need for financial managers to be able value alternative courses of action and to make a decision on which is the best choice in financial terms.  

This module will develop your skills in both the preparation of financial statements for single and group companies (in accordance with the IASBs Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting and relevant International Financial Reporting Standards) and the analysis and understanding of such financial statements.  This module will also help develop your skills in ratio analysis and interpretation.

This module will introduce aspects of UK taxation to develop knowledge relating to the tax system applicable to individuals and companies. The module will enable you to develop skills relating to the general principles of taxation, the UK tax framework and regulatory environment. The module will introduce the computational aspects of income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax in respect of individuals and introduce corporation tax and value added tax for businesses.  

The module will help you in developing knowledge and understanding of the risk management strategies of corporate organisations, including multinational corporations. They will develop skills on how to identify, classify and evaluate different types of organisational risks. Risk management using both internal and external strategies will be explored. The knowledge of assessing and managing risk associated with cash flows and capital investment decisions will also be acquired. Credit risk will also be introduced. You will be able to understand the ethical issues involved in risk management. 

In this module, you will study the financial management of entrepreneurial firms (small and medium sized) and venture firms. You will first consider different sources of financing for entrepreneurial firms including bank loans, government funding, angels, venture capital, peer-to-peer financing, on-line banking, and various types of private equity as well as the process of obtaining these sources. It will also include innovative ways of raising funds such as crowdfunding. You will then consider short-term financial planning and cash management, which are crucial to the early stages of an entrepreneurial firm’s development. You will then analyse the financial performance of entrepreneurial firms, financial forecasting, and the preparation of pro-forma statements. Following that, you will look at the valuation of entrepreneurial and venture firms, the ways to structure agreements and choose the firm’s capital structure to properly align the incentives between the entrepreneur and investors. You will also analyse the decision-making process of choosing a right mix of financing sources for entrepreneurs. You will then discuss various exit and succession strategies, liquidation events and strategies that enable the entrepreneur to survive during financial distress.

The main aim of this module is to enable you to apply available tools for critical financial statement analysis and other relevant information for investment. The core purpose of this module is to help you develop a thorough understanding of the different uses of financial statements in valuing securities in national and international markets as well as provide the strengths and limitations of each valuation method. Therefore, this module equips you with the basic knowledge and skills necessary for financial statements analysis and security valuation.  

The financial crisis of 2008 exposed the failings of the conventional financial system and an alternate was sort. Islamic Finance is a type of financing activities that must comply with Islamic law (Sharia). The concept can also refer to the investments that are permissible under Islamic Law.  The establishment of formal Islamic finance occurred only in the 20th century and the Islamic Finance sector grows at 15% - 25% per year, while Islamic financial institutions oversee over $2trillion. 

The module offers you with an opportunity to explore and understand how entrepreneurship and innovation contribute to economic and social development. You will become aware with the theory and practice of entrepreneurship in different international contexts through illustrative case studies. Further, you will develop an understanding of the different issues underlying enterprise creation, motivations and strategies of entrepreneurs in diverse settings including corporate, social, women’s and ethnic minority entrepreneurship.  

This module focuses on the tools and techniques used by Operation Managers within service, manufacturing, private and public sector institutions to ensure activities are aligned with corporate and market objectives. The module requires you to apply a range of operations management tools and techniques to given scenarios in order to produce a range of verbal, written and numerical solutions focussed on the efficiency, effectiveness and economy of an operation’s processes. 

This module is designed for the student who wishes to learn how to utilize financial theory in real world applications. The course is practical in nature and will implement computational approach to many financial problems. This module will build upon modules that are covered in year 1 and will link to the year 3 modules. Upon completion of the course, you will be fluent in both Excel as well as financial modelling. Such fluency will position you very well for essentially many financial job. You will also have a nice tool kit of many real world financial models across a very broad range of topics. This combination of fluency of financial modelling and portfolio of models will prove invaluable during both interviews with potential employers as well as execution of finance-related employment tasks. A successful completion of the module would provide you with valuable skills for a wide range of careers in areas such as investment and banking.  

Macroeconomics is a study of different views on how the economy operates at the national and international level. It analyses how actions of different groups of economic agents (including consumers, firms, workers, governments, and the financial system) interact with each other to shape economic processes and outcomes at the aggregate level. This module offers sound knowledge and understanding of macroeconomic theories, debates, and practices at the intermediate level. It develops your skills to apply different macroeconomic concepts and theories to explain the functioning of the national economy, to analyse the potential effects of various economic events and policies on macroeconomic outcomes for the country as a whole and the different groups of agents in particular, and to analyse and understand trends in macroeconomic data.  

A semester abroad is a fantastic opportunity to explore your subject in an international context at one of our partner institutions. Spending a period of time abroad as part of your degree allows you to understand a different culture, and gain specific knowledge about working practices in your host country. Connecting with fellow international students can broaden your network and increase your graduate prospects.

If you choose this option, you will study 60 credits of modules at the overseas partner institution and fewer modules at BCU.

This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake a credit bearing, 40- week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Undergraduate Degree.    The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.  Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.

This module will introduce you to the financial system including the banking system, financial markets and institutions. In addition to exploring the characteristics and functions of financial system, you will be provided with analytic framework that uses economic principles to develop systematic understanding about the determinants of interest rate, the role of monetary policy and bank risk management.  

Financial technology (Fintech) integrate technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and data science into traditional financial services to make them safer, faster and more efficient. It is one of the fastest-growing industries, with companies innovating in almost every area of finance from mobile banking and insurance to cryptocurrency and investment apps, Fintech has broad applications.

This module will help students in developing knowledge and understanding of the underlying principles and concepts relating to corporate finance and give the theoretical underpinnings of financial management in corporates. The course gives a broader understanding of the philosophies behind the financial management decisions, capital structure, dividend policies and current developments in and modern theories of finance. The module will enable students to evaluate research and synthesise information about corporate financial issues and problems, ability to solve quantitative problems, presentation of ideas, and participation in debates. 

This module is designed to encourage you to contextualise current issues and debates in finance by placing them within the historical evolution of finance, and getting you to develop and express your ideas through in-class discussions/debates and coursework essays.

A rise in importance and complexity of international financial management poses a challenge for multinational organizations and those wish to pursue a career in the sector.  This module will provide you an intuitive and real world grasp of the concepts and issues in international finance which includes foreign exchange rate movements, managing exchange rate risks and foreign investment issues faced by of modern companies. A wealth of examples and cases are provided to enable you to see the implications of the subject to business, mostly from a multinational corporation’s perspective. You will be encouraged and supported to undertake case studies and investigate contemporary issues relating to international finance. 

This module covers the attributes of investment in equity and bond instruments. It will enable you to understand, interpret and analyse the risk and return associated with bonds and equities.   The main purpose of the module is to help you develop strategies for managing investments in capital market instruments, considering many investment alternatives that are available in the market today. This will result to the development of transferable skills in managing your money, clients’ investment or employers’ holdings in other companies' securities. In line with this, the module mixes description, theories and computations in relation investment decision making, especially the critical appraisal of many investment choices available in the capital markets around the globe.   

This module will introduce you to investment and portfolio management. The contents of the module cover exciting topics such as fundamental and technical analyses, modern portfolio theory and performance evaluation. You will learn about different asset classes for investment and how to create and manage and investment portfolio. It will enable you to learn how to forecast investment returns and the estimate stand-alone as well as portfolio risk. The module will provide you an opportunity to put finance and investment theory into practice through application of the underlying concepts to investments in financial markets. You will require extensive use of the Trading Room and Datastream Eikon for investment analysis and portfolio management throughout the term particularly for the completion of the coursework. 

This module introduces you to the financial systems, products and services offered by Islamic financial institutions in the Islamic Banking and insurance (takaful) industries. The module will discuss the product features and mechanisms that are specialised due to the Sharia compliance aspect. It highlights the pertinent risk management issues relevant to the financial institutions involved in Islamic financial activities. You will understand how schools of Islamic jurisprudence permit some forms of transactions, but exclude others, through principles such as the requirement of risk sharing within contracts, the avoidance of excessive risk and the use of real contracts.

The aim of this module is to provide insight into the methodological foundations of business research, which will enable you to conduct a substantial piece of disciplinary research. 

The aim of this module is to provide a framework for you to undertake a significant piece of disciplinary-relevant accounting, business or management research. It is founded upon Birmingham City Business School’s teaching and learning philosophy which integrates theory and practice, in this case research practice. A Business Research Project presents a short academic piece of work based, delivered in a “letters” journal article format, which is relevant to your degree programme.