Banking and Finance BSc (Hons)

Overview

You’re ambitious. You understand the kind of skills you need to get ahead in the banking, financial and commercial sector – and our full-time Banking and Finance course is packed with relevant, up-to-date knowledge. Get essential insights in lectures and practical experience with our Bloomberg Financial Markets Lab in Chelmsford. Take a placement year in industry, and find the right career path for you. Your future is in your hands.

You want to feel ready to look for a job in the sector when you graduate. This means having a strong grasp of the equipment you’ll use in your career. This is why we grant our students access to our Bloomberg Lab from the first year – so you learn in supportive way that’s unique to the university environment. This way you’ll get proper experience of the trading floor and know your way around the financial world before you graduate.

You understand that networking is a smart move for your career. We aim to make the most of our industry connections, and have established links with a number of professional bodies across the banking and finance sectors. Regularly held talks and seminars with experts and industry professionals offer you an insight into the business, and give you a chance to form your own links. From learning from inspiring external guest speakers to participating in workshops in the City, you will actively experience the finance and banking world. Because you won’t learn all tricks of the trade just by sitting in the lecture theatre.

You’ll be able to test your skills during in-class seminars and take them to the next level with tailored extra-curricular activities. Our student-led Investment Group is a supportive society that encourages collaboration and lifting each other up. Together with your peers, you will exchange your ideas, get constructive feedback, take initiative and most importantly – learn not to fear failure, but to build your success on it instead.

Here at ARU, we understand the importance of collaboration in the contemporary business and financial world. So develop your cooperative skills and idea generation with course-based societies – to help you become a stronger player on the job market.

Careers

There are exciting career opportunities across a range of banking and finance disciplines, in both the private and public sectors.

You may find yourself working in a global corporation, a small to medium enterprise (SME) or even for yourself – and it’s not unusual for company CEOs to come from a finance background.

You may wish to move into a role in the financial markets, in areas such as FX management, derivative markets or equity fund management. Or you could opt to gain experience in the banking sector in areas such as credit risk management, or mergers and acquisitions.

You might choose to enhance your education and career prospects further still by taking a postgraduate degree, such as our MSc Accounting and Finance.

We work with employers to make sure you graduate with the knowledge, skills and abilities they need. They help us review what we teach and how we teach it – and they offer hands-on, practical opportunities to learn through work-based projects, internships or placements.

We have strong, established, links with a number of professional bodies across the banking and finance sectors, and you’ll come into regular contact with guest speakers from industry, commerce and the City.

Through our Business School Intern programme, around 35 students each year get a business mentor, work experience, exclusive training and development, and a reference from our Dean.

Modules & Assessment

Introduction to Business Studies
Introduction to Business Law
Banking in Context
Foundations of Finance
Mathematics for Economists
Micro and Macroeconomics
Business Analytics I

Business Analytics II
International Banking
Financial Sustainability
Bank Risk Management
Career Development and Employability
Intermediate Macroeconomics
Quantitative Methods for Banking and Finance

Work Placement – Accounting Finance and Operations Management

Banking Regulation
Monetary Policy
Advanced Corporate Finance
Exploring Business Research
Business Forecasting and Simulation
Financial Investment Analysis

Assessment

We’ll assess your work in a number of ways including exams, coursework, essays and activity-based assignments. Your coursework could include problem-solving activities, consultancy projects, presentations, a computer-based exam, a portfolio based on Bloomberg trading simulation and group or individual reports. You’ll also be able to access support materials through our learning management system (Canvas).

This combination of assessments has been carefully designed with your career progression in mind; it gives you opportunities to develop and improve on the transferable skills employers look for.

This is a 3 year programme (or 4 years with placement)

Alongside your core modules you will pick a number of optional modules. Please note that modules are subject to change and availability.

Where you’ll study

Your faculty

You have a highly active mind and see opportunity everywhere. Now you need theory and life-changing skills to sharpen your approach to management. At the Faculty of Business & Law, you will immerse yourself in a multicultural environment where technology blends with teaching to create a dynamic and innovative learning environment. An environment to help you gain those skills