Accounting (With Professional Practice Year)

This accredited course provides a direct route to a professional qualification in accounting, opening the way to a range of rewarding careers. It offers a comprehensive knowledge of the main ideas and principles of accounting and finance as well as the skills to apply your knowledge. Using the latest technology, you study business practice and the business environment in which accountants operate before proceeding to corporate law; data analysis; and the advanced study of management accounting, taxation and auditing.

Professional Practice Year
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.

Course Accreditation/Industry Endorsement

• 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).

• Completing relevant accredited course units makes you eligible for exemptions in ACCA, AAT, AIA and CIMA examinations.

Facilities and Specialist Equipment

• New business analytics suite to support data analytics, 'big-data', data mining, SEO and other management skills needed in today's workplace.

• Access to industry-standard applications and platforms to aid practical learning including Sage, Refinitiv Workspace and econometrics software STATA.

• Access to digital learning platforms and knowledge tools.

• A well-equipped trading room to enhance your financial skills.

• Gain competencies in key digital skills such as Excel through SIMnet, our Microsoft Office training platform.

Partnerships and Collaborations

• Our students benefit from our collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Your Student Experience
Completing relevant, accredited course units 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.

• 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).

• 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.

• Learn from masterclasses from industry experts and guest speakers, benefitting from their experience and keeping at the leading edge in the accounting and finance field.

• Enhance your student experience with field trips to major financial institutions such as the Bank of England as well as industry networking events.

• Acquire transferable, professional skills in communication, problem-solving, teamwork and leadership.

• 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.

• Companies that have benefited from our business development packages include Vauxhall; Drax Technology; the Royal Air Force; Luton and Bedford Borough Councils; a range of small businesses and national charities.