BSc Accounting and Finance includes an introductory first year to familiarise you with wider business topics, such as management and marketing.

In your final year, you have the opportunity to put your knowledge into practice by completing an in-depth, independent research project or dissertation. This will give you the chance to further develop vital employment skills in areas of research, time management and critical thinking.

The University of Essex is one of just three UK universities to have received Q-Step Affiliate status, including for our BSc Accounting and Finance course, to support the way we develop the quantitative skills of our graduates.

This means we can provide work placement bursaries to develop your skills in evaluating numerical evidence, analysing data and designing research. We also offer the opportunity to follow a specialised degree path, where you graduate with enhanced quantitative skills. These are evidenced on your degree transcript, to help give you the competitive edge in the graduate job market.

BSc Accounting and Finance is taught at Essex Business School. Our finance group is one of the largest and most respected in the country and our students and staff join us from all over the world.

We not only teach you how financial information underpins leadership, strategy and planning, but how financial decisions can impact society and the economy. We develop your understanding of governance and ethics, so you can take actions for the good of organisations and the wider world.

Essex Business School is an Investment Management Certificate (IMC) Advantage Partner and this course is aligned to the IMC syllabus, the industry’s benchmark entry-level qualification.

Professional accreditation

Accredited by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) for the purpose of exemptions from some professional examinations.

Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations through the Accredited degree accelerated route.

Accredited by the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations.

Completion of this course gives you accreditation exemptions from up to nine professional examination papers with The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Depending on the module options you choose during your studies, you can currently obtain up to seven exemptions from professional examinations awarded by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

This course also enables you to take up to five exemptions for certificate level examinations offered by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

This means that you can gain a professional qualification by taking fewer exams when you graduate, giving your career a head start.

Why we’re great

• Ranked in the top 200 for Accounting and Finance in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2022).
• Q-Step Affiliate Status gives you the chance to follow a specialised pathway in Applied Quantitative Methods.
• We teach you to be accountable, act ethically and make financial decisions that positively impact both organisations and society.

Our expert staff

You learn from academics and industry practitioners whose research continues to have a real-world impact. Many of our highly qualified and enthusiastic team are published in world-leading journals and publications.

Our staff specialise in areas including:

• accounting and economic development in the public and third sectors
• regulation and corporate social responsibility
• finance and banking
• accounting and finance in emerging economies
• corporate governance in developing countries
• contemporary financial markets and their participants

Our staff embed the latest research into your course, so you learn about real-world issues affecting business right now.

Professor of Banking and Finance and Dean of Essex Business School, Claudia Girardone, leads the way in finance research as Director of the Essex Finance Centre (EFiC), our long-established and world-renowned teaching excellence and research centre in finance and banking. Professor Girardone is also Director of Research for Essex Business School and leads on embedding EFiC group research in the curriculum. You will benefit from her application of banking sector performance indicators and corporate governance in our finance programmes.

Specialist facilities

Our BSc Accounting and Finance is based at our Colchester Campus.