The business world requires accounting and finance professionals capable of making informed, strategic choices that empower businesses in a competitive market. This course equips you with the skills to make such decisions across a range of business environments. You gain the understanding and skills to record, interpret and communicate financial information, applying the latest International Financial Reporting standards. In a simulated business environment, you explore aspects of business practice, from regulatory and risk management to the operation and vulnerabilities of financial markets. <br/><br/>**Professional Practice Year**<br/>Take your course over four years and include a Professional Practice Year after your second year of studies. It is an opportunity to apply your learning in the workplace while enhancing your knowledge and skills through fee-free paid practice. It also builds your CV and industry contacts with many students progressing to employment within their practice-year organisation or institution.<br/><br/>**Course Accreditation/Industry Endorsement**<br/>- This course is accredited by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA); Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT); The Association of International Accountants (AIA); and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).  <br/><br/><br/>- Completing relevant accredited course units makes you eligible for exemptions in ACCA, AAT, AIA and CIMA examinations. <br/><br/><br/>**Facilities and Specialist Equipment**<br/>- New business analytics suite to support data analytics, big-data, data mining, SEO and other management skills needed in todays workplace. <br/><br/><br/>- Access to industry-standard applications and platforms to aid practical learning including Sage, Refinitiv Workspace and econometrics software STATA. <br/><br/><br/>- Access to digital learning platforms and knowledge tools.<br/><br/><br/>- A well-equipped trading room to enhance your financial skills. <br/><br/><br/>- Gain competencies in key digital skills such as Excel through SIMnet, our Microsoft Office training platform.<br/><br/><br/>**Partnerships and Collaborations**<br/>- Our students benefit from our collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).<br/><br/>**Your Student Experience**<br/>- Completing relevant, accredited course make you eligible for exemptions from: the first nine papers of the ACCA professional exams (the maximum ACCA exemptions available at undergraduate level); seven out of 15 of the CIMA exams; AIA’s Professional level 1 paper; full exemption from AAT L4. <br/><br/><br/>- Benefit from our connections with top finance and accounting firms, including Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, PwC, and Deloitte, along with professional bodies like the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). <br/><br/><br/>- With our state-of-the-art trading room, experience what it’s like to be on the trading-room floor, reacting to live ‘stock-market’ data and building investment portfolios using data on listed companies from around the world.  <br/><br/><br/>- Learn from masterclasses from industry experts, benefitting from their experience and keeping at the leading edge in the accounting and finance field. <br/><br/><br/>- Enhance your student experience with field trips to major financial institutions such as the Bank of England as well as industry networking events. <br/><br/><br/>- Acquire transferable, professional skills in communication, problem-solving, teamwork and leadership. <br/><br/><br/>- Working with the University’s Research and Innovation Service (RIS), get involved in solving real-life problems for businesses, from start-ups to established corporations, through our business development packages. <br/><br/><br/>- Companies that have benefited from our business development packages include Vauxhall; Drax Technology; the Royal Air Force; Luton and Bedford Borough Councils; and a range of national charities. <br/>