BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance

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Our multi-accredited accounting and finance degree oﬀers you the chance to develop and practise your technical knowledge, skills and expertise, while gaining professional recognition from the world’s leading accountancy bodies.

You will gain a solid grounding in the core elements of accounting and finance, ensuring you are well prepared for a variety of accountancy careers. Topics covered include financial reporting, management accounting, corporate finance, taxation, audit, and computerised accounting systems. You will also have the chance to gain a CIMA-accredited certificate in Sage, which is the UK’s biggest accounting software provider.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has fully accredited this Accounting degree, so you can gain up to the maximum exemptions from a professional qualification when you graduate.

We are a recognised Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) 'Partner in Learning' and, depending on your module choices, you can gain exemptions from ICAEW, with further exemptions offered towards the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants (CIPFA) examinations. This course is also available through Network75, a combined work and study route.

Accredited by

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2023
2024

UCAS Code	Study Mode 2023	Duration	Start Date	Campus	Campus Code
N420	Full-time	3 Years	September	Treforest	A
N/A	Part-time	6 Years	September	Treforest	A
N421	Sandwich	4 Years	September	Treforest	A

UCAS Code	Study Mode 2024	Duration	Start Date	Campus	Campus Code
N420	Full-time	3 Years	September	Treforest	A
N/A	Part-time	6 Years	September	Treforest	A
N421	Sandwich	4 Years	September	Treforest	A

The first year of your accounting and finance degree includes financial accounting, management accounting, an introduction to finance, quantitative techniques and data analysis, the business environment, and business and corporate law. You will also gain the opportunity to gain the Sage Accounting qualification.

Year two studies include financial reporting, performance measurement and control, audit and assurance, corporate finance, Digital accounting and a specialist employability module where you can develop your employability skills and work on live projects with real world businesses.

The final year explores advanced some advanced aspects of accounting and also taxation (option module) to further develop your knowledge and gain maximum professional body exemptions. You will further develop your employability skills, ensuring you are not only well educated but also well prepared to compete in the selection and recruitment processes and add value to organisations through subsequent employment. You will also study two specialist optional modules from a choice including principles of forensic accounting, cases in audit, and the theory and practice of securities trading, where you can use our simulation trading room on campus. The cases in audit module allows our accounting students to work with a number of third sector organisations and carry out assurance engagements with actual clients from this sector.

Year One - Accounting degree

Your first year includes the core disciplines of financial accounting, management accounting, financial planning, data analysis and computerised accounting, the business environment, and business and corporate law. You can also gain the CIMA accredited Sage Accounting Certificate.

Modules studied:

Financial Accounting
Management Accounting
The Business Environment for Accountants
Business and Corporate Law
Data Analysis and Computerised Accounting
Personal Financial Planning

Year Two - Accounting degree

Year two studies include financial reporting, performance measurement and control, audit and assurance, digital accounting, financial management and a specialist employability module where you can develop your employability skills and work on live projects with real world businesses. This module also benefits from an impressive range of guest speakers.

Modules studied:

Financial Reporting
Management Accounting for planning and control
Financial Management
Digital Accounting
Auditing and Assurance
Professional Development in Accounting & Finance 1

Year Three - Accounting degree

The final year explores advanced aspects of accounting and has specialist optional modules, including forensic accounting and financial trading and investment, where you can use our simulation trading room on campus. If you choose the cases in audit module, you will have the opportunity to work with a number of third sector organisations and carry out assurance engagements with actual clients from this sector.

Core modules include:

Advanced Financial Reporting
Information for Decision Making and Control
Strategic Business Partner (a Business Analysis module)
Taxation

You can also choose to undertake a further two modules from the following list:

Professional Development in Accounting & Finance 2
Financial Trading and Investment
Cases in Audit
Forensic Accounting

Teaching

Students on this accounting and finance degree will learn through a mix of lectures, tutorials, workshops, innovative e-learning techniques and directed self-study. As well as our links with the ACCA, you will benefit from regular presentations from guest lecturers representing many aspects of the profession.

Throughout your course, you will get practical experience of the accounting, auditing, and general software packages you will use after you graduate – another skill to add to your CV.

Assessment

Most modules are assessed by a combination of examination and coursework. There is a variety of coursework – helping you develop your employability skills through the use of IT, preparing written reports, and giving presentations.

Accreditations

Our BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance course is Multi-Accredited by world leading professional accountancy bodies including the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants (CIPFA).

Professional bodies set the benchmarks for the standards they expect employees to have, so we’ve made sure these standards are built into our accounting degrees and are a further indication of the quality and industry relevance of the material encountered on our BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance degree. Graduates are exempt from many of the professional body examinations required to become a qualified accountant, including gaining the maximum number of exemptions from the ACCA examinations.

The maximum nine exemptions available from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) for our accounting and finance students who study all three years of our degree.
Dependent on your chosen course, and modules studied, you can earn up to eight exemptions available from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
Exemptions are also given by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) examinations, subject to modules studied.

Placements

You can apply for a one year work placement after your second year of study or short-term placement (up to three months) between your second and third year. It’s a great option if you want a mixture of academic and practical learning, teaching and assessment.

Longer work placements are offered with a number of organisations, and in recent years this has included Atradius – one of the world’s largest credit insurers, Alcatel-Lucent – a global communications industry leader, and the Welsh Government. Names like this on your CV will certainly help you stand out from the crowd.

Facilities

The University of South Wales’ accounting students have access to a financial Trading Room including state-of-the-art computer hardware and software.

The Trading Room will add a new experiential dimension to the accounting and finance courses, allowing simulation of share dealing and decision making incorporating theory and practice.

Through the simulations, you will experience the dynamic and exciting environment of real-time trading in the classroom. You will learn and experience first hand the complex strategies associated with buying and selling, understand the volatility and fluctuations of the market and the uncertainty of risk.

You will be able to assess your individual performance and compete against fellow students. This will give you a range of skills and tools to take into the workplace, ready for a successful career.

Lecturers

Many of our staff are professionally qualified accountants and financial planning professionals who have a wealth of experience in teaching accounting and finance at all levels, including preparation for the examinations of professional accounting bodies.

Simon McCarthy, course leader

We regularly revalidate courses for quality assurance and enhancement

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

The entry criteria below reflect our standard entry requirements for the course for September 2023. However, all applications received by the University are reviewed holistically and individually. Entry criteria for September 2024 is changing and will be published on ucas.com from 8th May 2023. Entry criteria for September 2024 will be updated on our website from the end of October 2023.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions. USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university. Here is a link to our Contextual Admissions Policy.

Other qualifications and experience

We can also consider combinations of qualifications and other qualifications not listed here may also be acceptable. We can sometimes consider credits achieved at other universities and your work/life experience through an assessment of prior learning. This may be for year one entry, or advanced entry to year two or three of a course where this is possible.

To find out which qualifications have tariff points, please refer to the UCAS tariff calculator.

If you need more help or information or would like to speak to our friendly admissions team, please contact us here

Please note that whilst this course does not require a DBS Check for entry, some professions will not consider candidates who have certain types of criminal convictions. Therefore, if you have a criminal conviction and you are considering a particular career path we would recommend that you check with the relevant professional body or refer to their recruitment policy to make sure that your conviction will not disadvantage you.

Typical A-Level Offer

BCC - CDD (this is equivalent to 104-80 UCAS tariff points).

Typical AAT Offer
AAT Level 3 for 1st year entry or AAT level 4 for direct 2nd year entry onto the degree

Typical Welsh BACC Offer

Pass the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma with Grade C/D in the Skills Challenge Certificate and BC - CD at A Level (this is equivalent to 104-80 UCAS tariff points).

Typical BTEC Offer

BTEC Extended Diploma Distinction Merit Merit - Merit Merit Pass (this is equivalent to 112-80 UCAS tariff points).

Typical Access to HE Offer

Pass the Access to HE Diploma and obtain a minimum of 80 UCAS tariff points

Additional Requirements

GCSEs: The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances

International Entry Requirements

We also welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications. Please visit the country specific pages on our international website for exact details.

English Requirements

In general, international applicants will need to have achieved an overall IELTS grade of 6.0 with a minimum score of 5.5 in each component.

However, if you have previously studied through the medium of English IELTS might not be required, but please visit the country specific page on our international website for exact details. If your country is not featured please contact us.

Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee will remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course

August 2023 - July 2024 Fees

Full-time UK: £9000
Full-time International: £14100
Part-time UK: £740 per 20 credits

August 2024 - July 2025 Fees

Full-time UK: TBC
Full-time International: £14950
Part-time UK: TBC

Student Perks

At the University of South Wales, you’re investing in so much more than a degree. We strive to provide our students with the best possible experience, no matter what you chose to study. Whether it’s access to top of the range mac books and PCs, state-of-the-art facilities packed with industry-leading equipment and software, masterclasses and events led by industry experts, or a wide range of clubs and societies to meet likeminded people, better tomorrows start with extra perks.

Each course also has their own unique student benefits to prepare you for the real word, and details of these can be found on our course pages. From global field trips, integrated work experience and free course-related resources, to funded initiatives, projects working with real employers, and opportunities for extra qualifications and accreditations - at USW your future, is future-proofed.

Click here to learn more about student perks at USW.

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

* Obligatory

Item	Cost
Placement expenses:	£0 - £300	The exact cost of attending any placement is dependent upon the its location in relation to the student's place of residence, mode of transportation etc. and therefore cannot be determined at this moment in time. Furthermore, depending upon the placement the student may need to purchase suitable attire (e.g. a suit or formal clothing).
Other : Text books	£300	Some additional text books may need to be purchased.
Additional assessment or memberships: Student membership of professional bodies	£20	Reduced fee membership of ACCA "Accelerate" scheme. Normally £79 but we have a special fee of £20.
Other: : Travel Costs for Work placements	£0 - £300	Placement Year. Travel costs depend on placement location.

Funding

Funding to help pay for (or cover) course tuition fees and living costs

Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

To learn about course fees, funding options, and to see if you are eligible for financial support, visit our Fees and Funding pages.

UK students

Apply via UCAS if you are a UK residing applicant, applying for year one of a full-time undergraduate degree, Foundation Year, Foundation Degree or HND and you have not applied through UCAS before. If you are applying to study part-time, to top up your Foundation Degree or HND, or to transfer to USW from another institution, please apply directly.

International and EU students

Apply directly to the University if you live outside the UK.

Admissions statement

Accountancy careers offer great salaries, travel opportunities and the chance to work your way to the top. All kinds of financial careers will be available to graduates with an accounting and finance degree, in all kinds of organisations. You could work in management or financial accounting, tax-related work or management consultancy. Accounting and finance is an ideal foundation for senior management roles, or even starting your own business.

To give you a head start following graduation the University organises an annual employability conference for its accounting students. Previous attendees have included PwC, Eversheds, JK Accountancy, Civitas Law and Watkins & Gunn.

Our Careers and Employability Service

As a USW student, you will have access to advice from the Careers and Employability Service throughout your studies and after you graduate.

This includes: one-to-one appointments from faculty based Career Advisers, in person, over the phone or even on Skype and through email via the "Ask a Question" service. We also have extensive online resources for help with considering your career options and presenting yourself well to employers. Resources include psychometric tests, career assessments, a CV builder, interview simulator and application help. Our employer database has over 2,000 registered employers targeting USW students, you can receive weekly email alerts for jobs.

Our Careers service has dedicated teams: A central work experience team to help you find relevant placements; an employability development team which includes an employability programme called Grad Edge; and an Enterprise team focused on new business ideas and entrepreneurship.