Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Accounting and Business Management

at University of Westminster - Marylebone Campus United Kingdom

Modern organisations increasingly rely on digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things, Big Data, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and data analytics, to improve their business processes and provide increased value to customers. However, integrating these new technologies into existing operations can prove complex and costly – it requires a unique skillset that combines business acumen and digital competence.

Open to graduates from any subject area, this course is ideal for aspiring digital business professionals who want to enhance their skills and career prospects by becoming business oriented, but with sufficient understanding of the latest technology to envisage, plan and manage digital initiatives successfully. It will prepare you to manage digital business challenges and lead at the forefront of digital transformation. 

Building surveying offers an exciting, dynamic profession focused on the physical, functional and economic performance of buildings – new builds, building control, refurbishment work, restorations, maintenance and design.

Fully accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE), our degree aims to equip you with the professional and technical skills and knowledge needed to become a building surveyor.

You may be called on to report and advise on the condition of various property assets, identifying defects and structural problems, designing, specifying and administrating refurbishment projects or interpreting the meaning of 'repairing obligations' in a lease, for example. You could go on to work in private practice, the public sector, building control, property management or the conservation of historic buildings.

Our construction courses share a common first year, allowing you to gain knowledge of the different professional roles and the interdisciplinary nature of the modern construction industry. At the end of the second year, should your interests change, it's possible to switch pathway. You’ll mix with students from across the various pathways, broadening your social circles and networks, and be taught by our professionally qualified lecturers, who will share their experience of working in the property, construction and surveying sectors prior to joining academia.

Our central London location and numerous industry contacts, which include Great Portland Estates, Mace, Lendlease, The Portman Estate and The Crown Estate, enable us to invite practising professionals to give guest lectures and regularly contribute to the course. They provide buildings as case studies for coursework, learning materials (drawings, reports, client briefs etc.) and come into the University to give face-to-face formative feedback on students’ work. We aim to create authentic learning activities to ensure you are business-ready for employment.

This degree is designed to equip you with a unique set of accounting and managerial skills to analyse and evaluate company and industry trends. You’ll learn how to receive, interpret and communicate financial and other information in a globalised profession. Gaining a deeper understanding of how finances affect company performance, you’ll be better placed to help firms make effective business decisions. Upon completion of the degree, students will be eligible to apply for eight CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) exemptions and up to six ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). 

In this fast-changing business world, there is a shortage of graduate talent with both accounting and business management education and skills. Our course covers management accounting, business and management education, and financial strategy. Generating value for the organisations you work in, you’ll look to the future, analysing the performance of business, advising or creating strategies to solve problems, adapt to changing circumstances and market conditions. 

Taught by academics with professional experience as accountants and managers, there is an emphasis on learning through practice, so you graduate with the breadth of knowledge and capabilities to respond proactively and creatively to contemporary business issues and challenges. Throughout the course, you’ll also develop a range of transferrable skills highly prized by employers, such as critical evaluation, self-direction and problem-solving, as well as a sound grasp of analysis, presentations and negotiation techniques.

Optional work placement/study abroad year

Between Years 2 and 3, you can take an optional work placement or study year abroad. The work placement year is a one-year full-time business work placement.

Past students have completed placements in a variety of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and prestigious organisations, including Barclays Bank, British Airways, Disney UK, IBM and the National Health Service (NHS).

The study abroad year allows you to follow a programme of study at one of our partner institutions, giving you an opportunity to experience life in another country and learn Business from a different cultural viewpoint.

You can also choose to split your year abroad into a first semester exchange and a second semester work placement, both conducted overseas.

People are arguably an organisation’s most important (and expensive) resource in a global knowledge economy. To successfully adapt to the fast-paced, competitive environment, businesses must deploy staff effectively, developing their full potential.

Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), this exciting, stimulating and challenging degree aims to provide a solid grounding in business, alongside specialist skills in people management, leadership and development. Benefiting from the shared experiences of staff and students, many of whom continue to work in this profession, you’ll learn to appreciate the organisational, commercial and societal factors that shape company and individual behaviour.

With an emphasis on learning through practice, we consider how human resources (HR) fits into the structure of businesses and management with the functions and systems needed to support these. You’ll hear direct from practitioners currently working in industry. For example, previously lectures have been given by a representative from Save the Children UK and the general secretary of NAPO, the trade union for probation and family court staff.

You’ll develop key human resource skills in planning, organisation and control, gaining hands-on experience of common business computing and software used by HR professionals. Using specialist software in the HR Analytics module, you’ll interpret real-life data, looking for correlations around diversity or absence, for example, as you would in the workplace.

Top reasons to study with us

• Learn to understand human behaviour and how to drive a successful business through its people
• Programmes are delivered by a multicultural and international teaching body, who come from professional practice and/or regularly publish in top international journals
• Excellent industry links and opportunity to undertake an internship which has enabled previous students to gain experience with Disney, Warner Bros, London Fire Brigade, Goldman Sachs, Accenture, HSBC, L'Oréal, Enterprise Rent a Car, McDonalds Head Office, Debenhams, start-ups and charities including Marie Curie and Cancer Research
• Opportunities to participate in field trips to see work in practice, with past students visiting Mintel
• Outstanding facilities and access to the software widely used in industry: Bloomberg, NVivo and SPSS
• Past graduates have secured jobs as HR officers and managers within the retail and leisure sectors, among others

The expansion of new media technologies and sophisticated customer profiling – covering everything from media consumption to recreational preferences – have increased the choice and importance of creative decisions in marketing strategy. Developed with input from current ‘marcomms’ practitioners, our professionally-focused degree will equip you with the creative and specialist knowledge, skills and capabilities to select the right media channels and craft the most effective messages.

You can also boost your employability by gaining additional qualifications with the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) and/or the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). Our status as a CIM Graduate Gateway institution entitles you to apply for exemptions from modules on its professional qualifications, while you can gain IDM’s Award in Digital Marketing during the Digital Marketing Essentials module.

Top reasons to study with us

• Professionally-focused course with chance to gain additional professional qualifications from the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
• Digital Marketing Essentials module incorporates content for IDM Award in Digital Marketing and the final-year Direct and Interactive Marketing module provides opportunity to gain the IDM Diploma in Digital Marketing
• Marketing degrees share a common first year, giving greater flexibility when choosing your specialism
• Option to spend one semester or one year studying abroad at one of our partner institutions, gain valuable work experience, or a combination of both. For example, one previous student worked as a marketing executive for ICG Medical
• Opportunity to study a foreign language as an optional module in each year of study
• Hear from experts and mingle with marketing students by joining the student-run Westminster Marketing Society or gain experience working for the student-run Westminster Business Consultants
• Optional placement year to gain valuable work experience, for example, one of our previous students spent six months working as a podcast assistant for MailOnline, while another worked at IBM
• Guest lectures from industry practitioners have previously included speakers on Google analytics and from organisations such as IBM, Tableau, Coca Cola and LinkedIn
• Programmes are delivered by a multicultural and international teaching body, who come from professional practice and/or regularly publish in top international journals

This exciting programme is designed with input from financial firms, public and private companies. Our aim is to combine theoretical learning content with practice to give you a deep understanding of modern financial theories together with learning about how companies make investment, financing and acquisition decisions. It will prepare you for a career in the dynamic, highly regulated world of financial services. 

Developing core quantitative and analytical skills, you’ll learn how to prepare and interpret financial data and managerial information. This education will enable you to develop your expertise to evaluate financial issues to  confidently make financial decisions. You will gain a broader understanding of the socio-economic, legal and professional environment within which finance operates. Graduates from this programme will be better placed to provide expert guidance to both professionals and non-professionals to solve complex real-world problems – the scope of the subject areas is broad ranging from graduates taking on roles from corporate financial management to highly analytical areas of the field in financial risk and investment management.    

The University is also recognised by the Chartered Financial Institute (CFA) as a University Affiliated Program partner. A fair proportion of the CFA Program Candidate Body of Knowledge is embedded in this specialist finance degree.  

You’ll be taught by academics with professional experience in investment banking, derivatives, asset pricing, Treasury Management, algorithmic and high frequency trading, pricing and hedge fund trading. Theoretical aspects of your learning are seamlessly blended to develop  practical skills using our state-of-the-art Financial Markets Suite (FMS). The learning resources facility provides  access to a rich source of  financial and market data.

As well as a firm grounding in investment, finance fundamentals and general management, you’ll be able to study a wide variety of specialist finance modules, such as portfolio management and securities analysis. With the City of London's global financial institutions on our doorstep, you’ll begin building your professional network from day one. We also have guest lecturers and industry speakers, from big brokerage firms and asset management companies. 

The course enhances your analytical abilities, together with team-working, problem-solving, communication skills and commercial awareness needed to meet the needs for talent in a changing global financial world. The skills and knowledge you develop will open up a range of careers in the skills necessary for a successful career in the financial services industry, economic consultancy, government departments or in regulatory agencies. With further study, you could also progress to professional finance qualifications from the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (CFA) and the CISI. 

Our course was designed with input from a range of industry professionals with expertise in financial markets, institutions and financial regulation. To retain currency and relevance, we receive ongoing feedback from the School of Finance and Accounting’s Employability Advisory Board, whose members include practitioner representatives from Vanguard, JPMorgan and Global Structured Finance, as well as former students now working in the finance industry who provide suggestions on how to improve future employability for students. As much as 70% of the BSc Finance course content is in line with the CFA’s study units’ syllabuses.

Buying and renting property for professional or personal purposes is one of the most important – and expensive – decisions for a business or individual to make. Real estate offers a dynamic and exciting career requiring a skillset combining economic, interpersonal, management, planning, public policy and sales expertise.

Accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), our degree covers all aspects of real estate, including buying and selling, valuing, developing, planning, managing and investing in various property markets – commercial, industrial and residential.

Our professionally oriented course has been designed with input from major employers, capitalising on our excellent industry contacts, which include Barrett Homes, Savills and British Land. With the headquarters of many major property firms close by, our central London location enables us to invite a wide range of professionals to give guest lectures and regularly contribute to the course. They provide work placements, content for coursework and help with assessment, providing a valuable practitioner perspective.

We arrange various site visits, so you can experience real-life estate strategies and see developments from construction through to completion. In the past, for example, students visited Lendlease’s nearby Elephant Park development, part of a £2.3 billion regeneration programme on 28 acres of land in the centre of Elephant and Castle. There are also optional international field trips, which have previously included visits to Brookfield Properties and Cushman and Wakefield in New York, as well as Savills in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

The course will allow you to complete the academic requirements of membership status of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. There are opportunities to enhance your CV by attending our Employer evenings and you can choose to undertake a year’s placement after your second year.

Recent graduates have found work within large and small property companies, local authorities, developers, health trusts, investment firms, landed estates and many other property-related areas.

Biologists claim we’re living through the sixth mass extinction of species, while climate scientists suggest there’s little more than a decade to cut the risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and extreme poverty. Sustainability is the most pressing concern of the 21st century. Companies across the globe are being forced to consider their impact on people and the planet to achieve the outcomes of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Climate Agreement.

The UK was the first major nation to formally back a pledge to cut carbon emissions to practically zero by 2050, followed soon after by the EU. Having spent decades internationalising operations and supply chains, organisations now have to reduce their carbon footprint, minimise climate and environmental risk, enhance resiliency and integrate sustainability into their operations, but few know how to do this.

Our exciting MSc responds directly to the urgent demand for a new type of professional – those who not only possess core business management skills, but also understand corporate sustainability, want to make a difference and, more importantly, have the skills, creativity and innovation to lead positive (and profitable) change.

Corporate sustainability management is critical to the long-term viability of businesses, many of whom are under increasing scrutiny from a concerned society and mounting pressure from expanding regulations. They need people who appreciate the wider context of their operations and stakeholder relationships – people capable of spotting and solving problems, coming up with practical and feasible solutions, then pushing through change.

Construction management is integral to the success and smooth running of a construction project, from effectively tracking development and staying on budget, to improving communication across all levels of the project. Fully accredited by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE), our degree incorporates real-life professional practice from the outset with the opportunity to learn direct from industry professionals and experience projects first-hand.

You will learn about the technologies of domestic, industrial and commercial building, construction processes, planning and programming, construction health and safety, and project life cycle assessment. Our rounded curriculum means that you will also gain the knowledge of people management, leadership and the business management of construction that organisations need to succeed in this dynamic profession.

Top reasons to study with us

• Courses are professionally oriented, producing graduates capable of dealing with the technological and managerial processes associated with the production and post-construction life of buildings
• Programmes are delivered by a multicultural and international teaching body, who come from professional practice and/or regularly publish in top international journals
• Opportunities for internships and/or a placement year. For example, one student recently worked at Barratt Homes

In today’s fast-paced global business environment, strategic marketing influences every aspect of business, informing decisions about how to create and maintain consumer demand, increase profit, build reputation and stay ahead of the competition. Incorporating the latest digital and analytic marketing practices, our Master’s reflects the ever-changing nature of this exciting profession.

Internationalisation and digitisation have fundamentally shifted marketing contexts: types of businesses, products and services, channels and communication media, and consumer behaviour are changing rapidly. Businesses of all shapes and sizes – large or small, global or local, innovative or traditional, public or private – now compete for the same market. Marketing professionals can steer a company toward success through innovative product development, savvy pricing strategies, creative communications and timely market insight.

The aim of both the MA and MSc is to improve your managerial effectiveness in the increasingly digitised, automated and globalised field of marketing. It will deepen your understanding of the relationship between marketing and the wider organisation, as well as the organisation and its customers, enabling you to adopt a holistic forward-looking approach to marketing to achieve long-term sustainable competitive advantage.