Program Overview

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Are you interested in how financial markets operate? Do you want to learn about financial decision making and investment? Would you like to join one of the UK’s largest and most respected finance groups, with some of Britain’s most satisfied students? BSc Finance at Essex Business School course prepares you for a fast-paced career in any area of finance. You have access to our virtual trading floor, where can use real-world Bloomberg Market Data Feed (B-PIPE), within minutes of it being released, so you can practise making business decisions in the same way you might in the workplace. The course examines international financial markets, as well as how finance shapes leadership, strategy and planning within organisations. Topics may include:

• the pricing of securities in financial markets
• risk management
• corporate finance and financial decision making
• business economics
• quantitative methods
• financial modelling
• portfolio analysis

We use real-life examples to apply theory to practice and develop your capacity to analyse statistics. Ethics underpins all of our teaching, so you can graduate with the ability to make sound, responsible financial decisions for the benefit of organisations and their stakeholders. Your first year ensures you receive a fully-rounded business education by introducing you to topics such as marketing, management and accounting. 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 gives you the chance to further develop vital employability skills in areas of research, project management and critical thinking. BSc Finance also gives you the option to follow a specialised pathway in Applied Quantitative Methods (AQM) . With employers looking for graduates with data analysis skills, The University of Essex is one of just three UK universities to have received Q-Step Affiliate status. By completing necessary AQM modules, your quantitative skills are evidenced on your degree transcript to give you the competitive edge in the jobs market. We can also provide work placement bursaries to develop your skills in evaluating numerical evidence, analysing data and designing research. Essex Business School , where this course is taught, is an IMC Advantage Partner . This course is aligned to the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) syllabus, the industry’s benchmark entry-level qualification. The University of Essex is also a member of the CFA Institute University Affiliation Program , enabling us to award up-to six exceptional students each year with a scholarship that goes towards the fees for the CFA Program Level One exam, so you can start your journey of becoming a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Achieving this accolade is one way to enhance your CV if you're interested in pursuing a career in investment management.

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. 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 means that you are able to gain a professional qualification more quickly by taking fewer exams when you graduate, giving your career a head start. Why we're great.

• Essex Business School's finance group is one of the largest and most respected in the UK
• This course is aligned to the IMC syllabus, the industry’s benchmark entry-level qualification
• You have access to our virtual trading floor

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Study abroad

The four-year version of this course enables you to study abroad during your third year. In all other areas, this version of the course remains identical to the standard three-year variant. You can study abroad with one of our exchange partners in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the Middle East, Hong Kong and Japan. In doing so, you experience other cultures and languages, meet new people, and gain intercultural skills that are sought-after by employers.

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Placement year

Like our study abroad option, our placement year variant also extends your degree by a year. You gain valuable business contacts and work experience that can make your CV stand out from the crowd. The Essex Business School Placements Manager can offer bespoke support throughout the process of researching, applying and interviewing for placements. However, it is your responsibility to apply, prepare for and secure your own role. Our students have gained placements with organisations such as BMW, Samsung and Cummins.

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Our expert staff

You’re taught by a group of highly qualified and enthusiastic academics and practitioners with diverse research interests. Their work has been discussed in the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve and we have one of the largest finance groups in the country. Our staff all with wide-ranging research interests and proven academic track records. Their research informs your lectures and seminars, so you learn about the latest issues impacting the finance sector globally. Our staff join us from all over the world and specialise in areas such as:

• bank risk and regulation
• foreign bank ownership
• finance of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
• bank mergers
• acquisitions and financial econometrics
• growth and poverty; drivers of commodity prices.

Joining us from the Bank of England where he was a Senior Technical Advisor with special responsibility for coordinating research activities in Monetary Analysis, Professor Simon Price combines his academic and professional expertise to expertly inform his teaching on our Finance and Banking courses. Professor Neil Kellard , Dean of Essex Business School and member of the Finance Group, studies the commodities markets and whether it is possible to model and forecast the price of commodities in order to predict global crises in food supplies, often considered the trigger for wider political conflict. Watch Professor Neil Kellard discuss his research: Our staff embed the latest research into your course, so you learn about real-world issues affecting business right now.

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Specialist facilities

Our BSc Finance is based at our Colchester Campus . In our landmark Essex Business School building -the first zero carbon business school in the UK- you’ll see our sustainable approach to business first-hand. Set around a lush winter garden, are a wealth of inspiring teaching and study zones. Our custom designed building provides you with superb facilities :

• a virtual trading floor with Bloomberg Terminals offering direct use of Bloomberg data, information and analytics
• light and spacious lecture theatres with ‘listen again’ recording to aid your study
• study pods and innovation booths for group working
• a café and adjacent foyer to enjoy on-site fresh food and drink
• study skills workshops and advice

Discover our trading floor: Our business school is located on the University’s Knowledge Gateway , where you may be able to take advantage of networking and work experience opportunities with businesses located on site.

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Your future

The finance and financial services sector is a huge employer of graduates and the skills you will gain in information security, data and portfolio analysis from your finance degree will prepare you for this very competitive sector of the graduate job market. We embed a series of core and specific skills into our undergraduate curriculum for BSc Finance to ensure that our graduates are suited to careers in finance, banking and management roles. All of our taught modules embed elements of our skills map which emulate the skills which are required by employers of finance graduates, these generally include:

• Academic and cognitive skills
• Research skills
• Technology skills
• Communication skills
• Data analysis skills
• Soft skills

We embed a structured approach to student development and skills support throughout the curriculum and through additional support from the Essex Business School Learning Team . Our students have gone on to become financial analysts, risk analysts, hedge fund managers and insurance trainees, with recent graduate destinations including:

• Investment Banking Analyst at Credit Suisse - a leading financial services company
• Audit Associate at EY - a multinational professional services firm
• Executive at PwC - a multinational professional services network
• Treasury Analyst at Hiscox , a multinational business insurance and home insurance provider

Our finance graduates enjoy successful careers in their fields. Additional to the skills development offered by Essex Business School, BSc Finance students can also take advantage of the University of Essex Careers Service which focuses in particular on supporting the development of undergraduate employability , including: careers fairs, career mentoring, skills development, careers advice and guidance, placement year support, job opportunities, start-up support and more. Essex Business School is a symbol of innovation and growth. Here the teaching is alive and always up-to-date. I chose to study BSc Finance here because I am fascinated by the strict relationship between the world we live in and the financial markets. Movements in the price of a stock represent most of the information that is in circulation. Studying finance is knowing how to deal with the upside downs of the entire economical system. Virginia Nicodemi, BSc Finance, 2019