Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Finance and Business Management With Placement Year

at University of Westminster - Marylebone Campus United Kingdom

On our exciting Master’s programme, you’ll experience first-hand what it’s like to innovate, solving real-life problems and coming up with smart solutions. Inspired by serial entrepreneurs and our academic experts, you will cultivate your entrepreneurial mindset, improving your ability to identify viable business opportunities – whether you launch your own enterprise or support others to do so.

Individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit don’t always start up a new business, but they repeatedly come up with ideas that change the way we live and work, inspiring new products, services and activities that create jobs and spur economic growth. Their innovation, big picture outlook, willingness to take calculated risks and ability to build positive relationships make them an asset to any employer.

On this course, your journey begins in the pre-start-up phase, with the formation of ideas on a possible business venture, right through to potentially pitching your plan to prospective investors or raising money via crowdfunding campaigns. You will be mentored and coached throughout, developing the personal and professional skills needed to envision new products or services capable of attracting investment, then guide them to completion.

Responsive to trends and issues in global financial services industries, our MSc Finance (Banking pathway) degree aims to equip you with the advanced skills to pursue careers in retail, commercial and private banking as a loan officer, private banker, private wealth consultant or to work within the back and middle offices of an investment bank, in risk management, administrative or support services. It combines a broad range of topics, including finance, economics, quantitative methods and big data analysis.

Study with us and, on successful completion, Finance (Banking) MSc students will receive Associate Chartered Banker status with the Chartered Banker Institute. This is the first step on the ladder for professional recognition as Chartered Banker, the gold standard for professionals working in the banking sector.

You'll study a common first semester providing a solid introduction to financial markets, institutions and intermediaries, and the function of banks in relation to these. This allows you to make a more informed choice about your specialist pathway (in Banking or International Finance) for the second semester, where you delve more into retail and investment banking, choosing options according to your interests, for example, in banking technology, compliance or behavioural finance.

The global environmental and energy challenge facing current and future generations of architects and building professionals calls for a deeper understanding of the principles of environmental design, and their effective application into architectural practice worldwide. Over the last decades Environmental Design as a subject area has developed, responding to new research and experimentation, both in academia and in practice. However, buildings claiming to be environmentally conscious do not perform to the expected standards, still heavily contributing to global CO2 emissions and often providing unsatisfactory comfort conditions to occupants. The same can be said for the existing built environment which is largely outdated and underperforming, requiring urgent implementation of effective retrofit strategies not only to improve energy performance, but also comfort, health and wellbeing. This is due to a lack of comprehensive performance prediction and feedback protocols, which are still not common practice in architectural design.

Economics is more relevant than ever to understand contemporary events in the global economy and provide the tools and techniques for business and governments to analyse and interpret the issues and problems they face. Reflecting the needs of both private and public sector employers, our highly practical MSc prepares you to assess business problems, interpret public policy and effectively communicate the insights that economic analysis can provide.

Aimed at those with a genuine interest in the application of economics to real-world situations, this course aims to provide you with an in-depth knowledge of the latest theories, practices and key concepts in economics that underpin public sector policy and business decision making. This includes the various scenarios where we explore opportunity cost, equilibrium and disequilibrium, strategic interaction, market failure and the related concept of externalities.

The focus is very much on developing the practical skills needed by a working economist – the ability to apply economic techniques to complex, multi-faceted business problems and provide specialist advice. You’ll gain hands-on experience of the industry-standard computing and econometrics software used to analyse and manipulate data.

Sound and ethical financial management lies at the heart of every successful business: to generate sufficient income, optimise resources, reduce risk and gain a good return on investments. On this course, you’ll learn to strategically plan, organise, direct and control finances in a rapidly evolving global financial sector.

Our Finance and Business Management degree has been purposefully designed to meet the educational requirements of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI). Although exemptions are not available, our Course will provide you with the necessary set of skills to sit several professional exams.

With an emphasis on learning through practice, it provides a solid foundation of finance theories, systems and procedures, developing your skills for complex modelling and analysis. Gaining a greater appreciation of strategic financial decision-making with a specific focus on ethics and sustainability, you’ll be prepared for a fast track and rewarding career in the international financial services sector or in management.

You will learn to analyse financial markets to forecast financial performance, using real data – live and historic – in our Finance Markets Suite (FMS) with its replica trading floor. You’ll also hear directly from current professionals through guest speakers, field trips to financial institutions and professional training sessions.

Business School graduates have gone on to work for large banks and other financial institutions, including Vanguard, Standard Chartered, Citibank, Société Générale and Paribas, and governmental agencies, such as the World Economic Forum.

Setting you apart in a competitive job market, you’ll graduate with direct experience from a three-month internship and the holistic business knowledge, capabilities and cutting-edge digital expertise demanded by today’s employers.

In the fast-moving global business environment, employers demand multi-skilled, digitally competent graduates with a sophisticated understanding of business and its changing context, one which cuts across the traditional business disciplines that include human resources, management and marketing. To succeed you need a ‘big picture’ approach. You must be capable of adapting to emerging business models, creating new enterprises, leading and managing people effectively and improving processes with digital solutions.

At Westminster Business School, we recognise that future business professionals need the full range of technical and personal development skills – more responsible, resilient, adaptable and versatile than ever before. Our aim is to help you become an aspiring leader and entrepreneur, someone who can add value to any type of organisation. But we believe it’s essential for this transformation process to start early, before you have extensive working experience or have adopted the mindset of one particular employer or business sector. By starting this process early, it’s much easier to develop your skills, learn to think outside the box, and independently lead changes in the business world – wherever your career takes you. It’s also what our employer contacts tell us they’d prefer.

As globalisation encourages companies to operate and trade in multiple locations, and provides more opportunities for staff to work abroad, managing and developing people has never been more critical – or complex. On our MA, you’ll learn to appreciate the unique challenges of international HRM – from the cultural, legal and economic differences to remote relationship building.

Our problem-based approach to teaching means you’ll get to apply what you learn to management problems through assignments and projects based on actual situations. We’ll draw on everyday HR issues in the news, case studies and current examples, at times addressing some of our own students’ workplace experiences. Demonstrating evidence-based HRM, you’ll learn to collect and analyse relevant data and information, developing your ability to identify, evaluate and propose the most appropriate solutions, looking at issues ranging from expatriate employment, employee engagement, managing change and reward management.

Each year, our annual HRM conference offers you the chance to hear direct from a range of guest speakers, who have previously covered issues such as immigration and labour supply, and the impact of EU legislation on employee relations post-Brexit. You’ll also have the opportunity to develop essential HR practitioner skills through a series of practical workshops in areas such as finance, employment law, interviewing, disciplinary and grievance handling, counselling and negotiating. Working in teams, you might simulate dealing with a disciplinary hearing, for example, or conducting a job evaluation exercise. When studying people resourcing, you may participate in an assessment centre or practise your interviewing skills.

Informed by our extensive commercial and professional partnerships within the property sector, this practical Master’s course will prepare you to adapt and excel within the complex and ever-changing real estate market – from valuation and appraisal to the strategic management and development of commercial and residential property assets.

Accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), it aims to provide a challenging, stimulating and professionally relevant course of study that is directly related to the valuation, management and development of real estate property. Capitalising on our excellent industry contacts, course content is informed by leading firms such as Barratt Homes and British Land, as well as Savills and Cushman and Wakefield, who regularly send their own staff to train with us.

Taught by staff who will share their own experiences as surveyors and planners, you'll gain a detailed understanding of the property development and appraisal process, encompassing the financial, physical, legal and social aspects. You’ll also develop the latest management skills and techniques to successfully deliver projects to meet client expectations taking account of any external constraints.

Commercial managers play a key role in the commercial and financial success of construction projects, by monitoring activities to ensure projects are delivered on time, on budget and on quality. Our innovative course delivers the people and project management skills, professional and technical knowledge required to tackle the technical, organisational, commercial, legal and financial issues that can arise.

Fully accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), this course will be of interest if you are a graduate in or with previous construction-related employment and if you are seeking a senior position in the field of commercial management.

It will develop your awareness of the importance of construction projects to clients, and the context within which projects are procured and undertaken, in particular the economic, financial, corporate, legal and regulatory constraints. You'll gain greater knowledge and understanding of the theories, concepts, principles, techniques, and intellectual and practical skills needed for effective procurement, financial control, risk assessment, supply chain management and more.

Whether caused by politics, environmental issues or world health crises, the global economy is ever changing and of growing concern to businesses. Monitoring and predicting the impact of economics on business is now a top priority, raising the demand for graduates who understand how markets work and how local and international issues can affect competition and performance.

Combining the study of economics with general business management, this degree is designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge to analyse individual company and industry performance within the context of global economics. Using live and historical data in our state-of-the-art Financial Markets Suite (FMS), you’ll apply economic theory and practice to real-world businesses, learning how to plan, evaluate economic trends and become better placed to help firms make effective business decisions. 

To help you support future business and management decisions, we’ll examine how and why businesses emerge, exist and expand – studying their global environment, relationship and interactions with employees, providers of capital, customers, competitors, government and other regulatory bodies. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of the economic, qualitative and quantitative techniques and ideas used to analyse and solve business problems in a global marketplace. 

Taught by academics with substantial business experience across the range of business disciplines, through consultancy or knowledge exchange, 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.

You’ll be capable of holding positions of significant responsibility and authority in public companies, private businesses and government agencies. Past Business Management graduates have found successful employment as management, marketing and advertising trainees, as trainee accountants and brand managers, recruitment consultants, retail managers and as assistants in market research, PR and global branding.