BSc Accounting and Finance

Taught by our world-leading academics, this programme explores accounting and finance through the broader social sciences.

As well as developing your core financial knowledge, you’ll examine the ways institutions and organisations deal with calculation, reporting and evaluation. You’ll look at the interdependencies between accounting and accountability, financial management and risk, performance management and sustainability, governance and regulation, policymaking and change.

The programme explores the role accounting and finance play in societies, economies, institutions, markets, organisations, and even individual behaviours. This interdisciplinary learning means that our graduates are highly sought-after in many areas, such as professional accountancy, investment banking and analysis, management consulting and financial management.

Depending on your chosen course options, you may be eligible for exemptions from some professional accountancy examinations on graduation – giving you a head start in your career.

This programme is accredited by the following bodies for the purpose of exemptions from some professional examinations:

• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) through the Accredited degree accelerated route
• Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA)
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England (ICAEW)

If you'd like to gain further insight into accounting and finance, we suggest that you browse some of these review papers/opinion pieces. Some of the readings are quite academic - don't worry about the details, the aim is to introduce you to some critical issues in accounting and finance.

• Asness, C., G. Hubbard, M. Lipton, and, M. Strain, 2021, American Enterprise Roundtable: Was Milton Friedman Right about Shareholder Capitalism? Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, vol. 33 n.1, 2021. Alternative version available at Was Milton Friedman Right about Shareholder Capitalism? (harvard.edu)
• Ball, R., 2009, The Global Financial Crisis and the Efficient Market Hypothesis: What Have We Learned? Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, vol. 21 n.4.
• Ball, R., 2016, IFRS – 10 Year Later. Accounting and Business Research, vol. 46 n.5.
• Ball, R., 2023, By What Criteria Do We Evaluate Accounting? Working paper.
• Barth, M., 2022, Accounting Standards: the “Too Difficult” Box – the Next Big Accounting Issue? Accounting and Business Research, vol. 52 n.5, 2022. Full article: Accounting standards: the ‘too difficult’ box – the next big accounting issue? (tandfonline.com)
• Christensen, H.B., L. Hail, C. and Leuz, 2021, Mandatory CSR and Sustainability Reporting: Economic Analysis and Literature Review. Review of Accounting Studies, vol. 26 n.3. Free pre-print version at Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review | SpringerLink
• Phalippou, L. and G. Brown, 2022, Should Private Companies Have the Same SEC Disclosure Requirements as Public Companies? A Debate. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, vol. 34 n.3.
• Srivastava, A. and S. Rajgopal, 2022, The Case for Reinventing Financial Reporting in the 21st Century. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, vol. 34 n.4.
• Zimmerman, J., 2016, Private Equity, the Rise of Unicorns, and the Reincarnation of Control-based Accounting. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, vol. 28 n.3.
• Zimmerman, J., 2022, A Positive Accounting Theorist’s Take on the End of Accounting. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, vol. 34 n.4.

For additional readings in Finance, please see the BSc Finance preliminary reading list.

In addition, if you'd like to familiarise yourself with the research areas of some of our accounting faculty members (in bold), you may want to browse the following review papers or pieces written for wider audiences:

• Bhimani, A., 2021. Accounting Disrupted: How Digitalization is Changing Finance. AICPA/Wiley.
  Beaver, W., M. Correia, and M. McNichols, 2011, Financial Statement Analysis and the Prediction of Financial Distress. Foundations and Trends in Accounting, vol. 5 n.2.
• Cascino, S., M. Clatworthy, B. García Osma, J. Gassen, S. Imam, and T. Jeanjean, 2014, Who Uses Financial Reports and for What Purpose? Evidence from Capital Providers. Accounting in Europe, vol. 11 n.2.
• De George, E., L. Shivakumar and X. Li, 2016, A Review of the IFRS Adoption Literature. Review of Accounting Studies, vol. 21 n.3.
• Power, M. ed., 2016. Riskwork: Essays on the Organizational Life of Risk Management. Oxford University Press.
• Servaes, H. and A. Tamayo, 2017, The Role of Social Capital in Corporations: A Review. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, vol. n. 33.
• Van der Stede, W., 2015, Management Accounting: Where From, Where Now, Where To? Journal of Management Accounting Research, vol. 27 n.1.