Accounting with Innovation

The innovators of the 21st century will bring together arts, science, engineering, humanities and enterprise to deliver innovative products, services and ways of living. They will be team players with a breadth of skills and qualities that enable them to work across specialisms and cultures.

This course combines in-depth subject specialism at the University of Bristol alongside interdisciplinary, practice-based learning. In conjunction with your accounting studies, you will apply your subject knowledge by translating ideas into innovative solutions, which may include plans for digital and creative enterprises, both social and commercial.

The accounting aspect of this course will broaden your knowledge in the discipline. This includes providing an insight into accounting institutions (for example, the IASB and ISSB (International Accounting Standards Board and International Sustainability Standards Board), accounting regulations and accounting techniques that are used by organisations in financial markets and beyond. The course is rigorous and draws on theory, cutting-edge research, and practice to prepare you for your future career. You are kept up to date with current events through research-led teaching by academic experts in the fields of accounting and finance.

Group work is a core component of teaching and learning in Innovation. You will come together with students from other innovation disciplines, such as psychology, anthropology and business and management. Each subject contributes a different perspective on a challenge as you identify needs and develop ideas. By drawing on your unique ideas and views on the world, you will learn from your subject and other students to develop innovative solutions together. You will also develop personal skills with opportunities for individual development and pursuit of topics and projects driven by your interests and values.

By the time you graduate, you will have a portfolio of work ranging from live client projects to planning your own entrepreneurial venture. You will have learned how to evaluate the potential of products and services, and how to sustain new endeavours including through financing. Importantly, you will have cultivated a network of peers and advisers who have worked with you through your studies.

For the first 2 years of this course, teaching for your Business School units will be delivered on the Clifton Campus where you will gain a thorough understanding of accounting. For your 3rd year onwards, your Business School units will be taught at the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, opening 2026, where enhanced links with businesses will provide students with real-world knowledge, networks and skills to succeed once you graduate.

The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be located in the University’s new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, where your Innovation units will be taught throughout the course of your degree. Here, a new Centre student hub, Active Learning Studios, a hands-on Maker Space and event spaces will provide the backdrop for challenge-led learning.

If you elect for other optional units, these may be taught in Clifton.