N306 Finance with Business Placement BSc Undergraduate  2016

Course Content

Description

The BA Accounting and Finance, BA Accounting and Management, BSc Finance, Masters in Financial Accounting and Masters in Management Accounting degrees share a common first year, therefore it is possible to switch between courses upon successful completion of year one.

Our specialist BSc Finance degree places considerable emphasis on the key quantitative and analytical skills needed to pursue a career in finance and financial markets. The degree prepares you for a career in the financial environment by providing a technical curriculum to strengthen the link between academia and practice. The BSc Finance enables you to acquire a critical understanding of theories, empirical evidence and practical application whilst maintaining a rigorous academic underpinning. In particular you will learn about corporate finance, investments, financial institutions and the vast array of sophisticated financial products traded in today’s global financial markets. Furthermore, you will acquire the quantitative techniques needed to analyse, in depth, financial data and financial securities.

Year 1

In the first year, compulsory modules will provide you with the key fundamentals to examine and evaluate modern financial markets. These included:

• Introduction to Financial Accounting
• Introduction to Management Accounting
• Foundations of Finance
• Introduction to Economics
• Quantitative Methods.
• Students will also choose a further business, economics or language optional module.

Year 2

In the second year you will study three compulsory modules, including:

• Corporate Finance
• Financial Markets and Institutions
• Introduction to Financial Econometrics.

By studying these modules you will be able to examine financial issues and the institutions, markets and securities that facilitate the vast array of financial transactions that occur continuously across global markets. Furthermore you will acquire numerous quantitative tools which enable you to interpret financial data and price financial securities.

The finance modules are complemented by two compulsory economics modules, including:

• Microeconomics
• Macroeconomics and International Finance.

You will also choose one further module from a selection which has previously included:

• Corporate Financial Reporting
• Auditing and Assurance
• Introduction to Taxation
• Or a language.

Year 3

All of our degrees offer you the option of spending your third year gaining practical experience on a business placement. Business placements are one of the best ways to develop your employment marketability and we encourage you to explore this as an option within your degree. You don’t have to select a ‘with placement’ degree pathway on application and can transfer into a placement degree at any time during your second year, once you have successfully gained a job. However, if you do apply directly to the ‘with placement’ course we will start to support your journey into placement in your first year with us.

A placement requires a minimum of forty weeks of work experience between the beginning of July one year and the end of July the next year, and effectively becomes the third year of a four-year degree programme. This allows you to really explore and understand your job and to find out if the career or company is for you.

• You may also combine the business placement with an internship to maximise your experience or split the placement between two organisations and work abroad (subject to your visa conditions).
• You will develop your practical skills, confidence and maturity.
• You can focus on a specific career path and greatly improve your employability (many employers recruit graduates from their placement programme).
• You will improve your chances of your final degree classification by being able to contextualise your studies better, mature your attitude to work, and access a more fulfilling dissertation research subject.
• You will gain valuable job search and interview skills by sourcing the placement yourself but we will support you through the process.

Lots of organisations offer placements, and you can apply to companies directly. Even if a company doesn’t advertise a placement, it’s still worth approaching them – you might be able to create just the right opportunity for yourself. If you need support, you can talk to our Careers, Employability and Enterprise Centre

To ensure you are getting the most out of your experience, we support your placement in a number of ways:

Second Year Workshops: Workshops support you through the placement application process and allow you to develop into a supportive student group to travel along the road of gaining a placement together. They enable you to get to know those students who will return with you in the fourth year. Workshops involve employers, and former placement students act as mentors.

Placement Mentors: We have a mentorship scheme whereby former placement students share their experiences of the application process and placement with second year students and those out on placement. This supports you as a returning student, helping you to slide back into university life easily and helps develop key interpersonal skills for management.

Placement Tutors: Whilst you are on placement you are assigned a tutor who will visit you, liaise with your employer and ensure you gain the most from your experience.

For the Business Placement year the following fees apply:

• Home/EU students 20% of the annual tuition fee
• Overseas students 50% of the annual tuition fee.

*The offer of a place on a ‘with placement’ degree does not imply that Durham University Business School guarantees to find the student a placement. The Business School, in association with the University, will assist students in finding and applying for placements, but it is the responsibility of the student to apply for and to obtain a placement (which is subject to approval by the Business School). In the event that a student is unable to obtain a placement, transfer to the equivalent ‘non-placement’ programme is guaranteed provided the student is eligible to transfer on academic grounds. In line with Home Office rules, students from outside the EU will transfer onto the ‘with business placement’ programme only once they have successfully secured a placement (normally at the end of their second year of study).

Year 4

In the third year you will study three compulsory modules, including:

• Financial Econometrics
• Financial Theory and Corporate Policy
• Security Investment Analysis.

You will also complete a Dissertation which will allow you to analyse, in great depth, your choice of research question in finance. These modules facilitate the development of your theoretical and empirical knowledge of core and topical issues in finance.

You will also choose one module from a selection which has previously included:

• Financial Engineering
• International and Multinational Finance
• Behavioural Finance
• Computational Quantitative Finance.

The course is founded in the disciplines of Finance and Economics and has significant application to practice whilst maintaining a rigorous academic underpinning.

Course Learning and Teaching

Students on this programme learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, informal but scheduled one-on-one support, and self-directed learning, such as research, reading, and writing.

All of these are supported by a state of the art virtual learning environment, Durham University Online (DUO). Seminars and workshops are much smaller groups than lectures, small enough to allow one-on-one interaction with professors and lecturers. Workshops also allow hands-on experience of solving business problems.

This emphasis on small-group teaching reflects a conscious choice to enhance the quality of the learning experience rather than the quantity of formal sessions. In fact, the degree programme is designed to feature fewer formal sessions and more independent research as students move from their first to their final year.

Small-group teaching and one-on-one attention from the personal academic advisor (provided for all students when they enter the programme) are part of the learning experience throughout, but by the final year classroom time gives way, to some extent, to independent research, including a capstone dissertation—supported by one-on-one supervision—that makes up a third of final year credits.

In this way the degree programme systematically transforms the student from a consumer of knowledge in the classroom to a generator of knowledge, ready for professional or postgraduate life. These formal teaching arrangements are supported by “drop-in” surgeries with teaching staff and induction sessions that begin in the week before the start of the programme and continue at key times throughout each year of the programme.

Students can also attend an extensive programme of research-focused seminars where staff and visiting scholars present their cutting edge research.

Admissions Process

Subjects required, level and grade

In addition to satisfying the University’s general entry requirements, please note:

• We welcome applications from those with other qualifications equivalent to our standard entry requirements and from mature students with non-standard qualifications or who may have had a break in their study. Please contact our Admissions Selectors
• We do not include General Studies as part of any offer
• In the absence of three full A-levels we may consider two AS-levels in place of one A-level, providing the AS-levels are in separate subjects
• If Maths is not taken as an A-level subject a grade A in Mathematics at GCSE is essential
• We will be reviewing our entry requirements for 2015 entry in the summer of 2014 and will publish finalised entry requirements for 2015 entry on the University’s website and at UCAS before 1 September 2014
• We are willing to consider applications for deferred entry from those who have well- structured plans for work or travel, for example. We may, however, need to restrict the number of deferred entry offers we make because we have to be careful not to fill too many of next year’s places in advance. However, if you do apply for a deferred place and are unsuccessful, you are welcome to reapply the following year
• If you do not satisfy our general entry requirements, the Foundation Centre offers multidisciplinary degrees to prepare you for a range of specified degree courses.

English Language requirements

Please check requirements for your subject and level of study.

Requirements and Admissions

www.durham.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply

Information relevant to your country

www.durham.ac.uk/international/countryinfo

Fees and Funding

Full Time Fees

EU Student	£9,000.00
Home Student	£9,000.00
Island Student	£9,000.00
International non-EU Student	£16,500.00

Please also check costs for colleges and accommodation.

Scholarships and funding

www.durham.ac.uk/undergraduate/finance 

Career Opportunities

Business School (School of Economics, Finance and Business)

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"A degree from Durham University truly opens up windows of opportunity, I managed to secure a Graduate Accounts position with an international marketing company prior to graduation."

Claudine Andrew BA (Hons) Accounting & Finance (2010)

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Of those students that left in 2014:

• 82% are in full time employment or further study

Of those in employment:

• 96% of those are in graduate level employment
• £29,000 Median Salary

These statistics are based on the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey of 2013/14 graduates. The DLHE survey asks leavers from higher education what they are doing six months after graduation. Full definitions for the DLHE Record can be found here: http://www.hesa.ac.uk/content/view/2889.

Employment development opportunities

The Careers, Employability and Enterprise Centre works closely with the Undergraduate Business Department to ensure that students receive information, advice and vacancies relevant to their needs. A Careers Adviser delivers talks focused on ensuring that students receive the most relevant and up to date advice about professions that are of interest to students in the department.

A wide range of work is carried out in conjunction with the Careers, Employability and Enterprise Centre to develop students' employability skills, including presentations/workshops on CVs, applications, assessment centres, interviews, commercial awareness, leadership, etc. 

Many recruiters of Durham Undergraduate Business School students attend careers fairs and run presentations on campus, including: Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, PWC, Rolls Royce, Lloyds TSB, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, IBM, Accenture, to name a few. Professional bodies like CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) and CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) also attend events on campus.

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"We have had a number of students from the Undergraduate Business School join our Summer Internship Programme who have made a real impact due to their enthusiasm and strong interpersonal skills. These candidates have then gone on to join in Graduate roles."

Neil McGuire, Graduate Recruitment, Ernst & Young

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Examples of career destination:

• Finance/Accountancy/Associate/Deloitte
• Retail/Management/Trainee Manager/Marks & Spencer
• Diplomat/ British Government
• Finance/Investment Management/Analyst/Blackrock
• Health/ Management/Graduate Management Trainee /NHS
• Finance/Accountancy/ Trainee Chartered Accountant/ TindlesLLP
• Car rental/Management Graduate Trainee Programme /Enterprise Rent-a-Car
• Finance/Banking/ Business Advisor/Royal Bank of Scotland
• Engineering & Construction/Graduate Scheme/Balfour Beatty
• British Armed Forces/Officer/Army
• HM Treasury/Policy Advisor/ British Government

Of those students that left in 2014:

• 94% are in full time employment or further study

Of those in employment:

• 97% of those are in graduate level employment
• £22,800 Median Salary

These statistics are based on the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey of 2013/14 graduates. The DLHE survey asks leavers from higher education what they are doing six months after graduation. Full definitions for the DLHE Record can be found here: http://www.hesa.ac.uk/content/view/2889.

A significant number of students progress on to higher level study following their degree; notably at Durham, but also at other prestigious institutions. Some remain within their academic field and pursue higher level research, others take a different role and pursue professional postgraduate programmes, including teaching, law, accountancy, marketing and mathematics.

Open days and visits

Pre-application open day

Pre-application open days are the best way to discover all you need to know about Durham University. With representatives from all relevant academic and support service departments, and opportunities to explore college options, the open days provide our prospective undergraduates with the full experience of Durham University.

Please see the following page for further details and information on how to book a place: www.durham.ac.uk/opendays

Campus Tours

www.durham.ac.uk/undergraduate/visit/campus.tours

Overseas Visit Schedule

www.durham.ac.uk/international/office/meetus

Department Information

Business School (School of Economics, Finance and Business)

Overview

The best start to a career in business begins with learning from the best in the business.

Taught at Queen’s Campus, our degrees are designed to help you understand essential and advanced concepts of business, finance, economics, accounting, marketing and management.

An internationally renowned research-led business school and one of the longest established in the UK, our degrees offer learning that is stimulating and challenging.

Study with us and prepare to stand out from the crowd. With our rigorous curriculum and exceptional teaching, you’ll build world-class foundations for graduate employment or further study. You will also get a taste of real business – learning from expert faculty members and guest speakers, as well as through hands-on work placements and international study opportunities. With our flexible programmes, you are in control and can choose a route that suits your own interests and career aspirations.

The Business School is one of an elite group of institutions in the UK to be accredited by all three major bodies – the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS).

Ranked 2nd in the UK for graduate employability (Business and Management Studies, The Complete University Guide 2015).

Facilities

Queen’s Campus offers superb library and IT services, including a large open access computer area. The library’s excellent collection of books, journals and original source materials in business and finance is complemented by access to online electronic information resources.

You will also use duo (Durham University Online), Durham’s virtual learning environment, an integrated online solution to manage and improve your learning duo offers structured learning content (web pages, lecture notes, interactive applications, audio and video clips) along with communication and assessment tools.

Website

www.durham.ac.uk/business