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Finance with a Foundation Year

Entry requirements


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About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time including foundation year | 2024

Subject

Finance

As a student of our Accounting and Finance department within the School of Management at Swansea University, you can expect to receive excellent teaching, driven by our world-class academic team of staff and state-of-the-art Bay Campus facilities.

The Foundation Year is an excellent pathway to gaining the required knowledge and skills in finance before joining Year 1 students of the BSc Finance degree within the School of Management.

If a career as a stockbroker, investment banker or finance analyst excites you or if you see yourself as an actuary, financial manager or data analyst; then this four-year degree offers a great grounding for the financial career of your choice.

The foundation year is taught at The College, on Bay Campus. Located next to the School of Management, The College is the University’s pathway provider and offers a unique learning environment; designed to fully prepare you for the final three years of your degree. Small lecture and seminar classes, state-of-the-art facilities and world-class teaching help you to realise your full academic potential.

The years following your Foundation Year are accredited by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Modules

The foundation Year (Year 0), taught at The College, combines both subject specific and study skill content, to enable successful integration into Year 1 of the Finance programme.

Your first year of study is made up of compulsory modules, ensuring a solid foundation in core disciplines. Compulsory modules are studied by all students on the programme, meaning you are automatically enrolled. Examples of compulsory modules include:

• Foundations of Finance
• Foundations of Financial Accounting
• Economics for Accounting and Finance

Your second and third years will comprise of a mixture of compulsory and optional modules, which you can pick according to your chosen career. Examples of 2nd and 3rd year modules in recent years have included:

• Corporate Finance
• Financial markets and Institutions
• Investments: Assets Equities and Bonds
• Project Management
• Asset Management

For the full programme structure and module breakdown, please visit our webpage at https://www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/som/accounting-finance/

Assessment methods

We offer a variety of assessment methods within our programmes, which can include:

• Examinations
• Class Tests
• Written assignments
• Group presentation

Throughout your undergraduate Finance degree, you will develop excellent research and analytical skills and learn to present your ideas effectively both verbally and in writing. For full breakdown of course structure and assessment, please get in touch with us at [email protected].

The Uni


Course location:

Bay Campus

Department:

School of Management

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What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

82%
Finance

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Finance

Teaching and learning

73%
Staff make the subject interesting
87%
Staff are good at explaining things
75%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
72%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

86%
Library resources
84%
IT resources
87%
Course specific equipment and facilities
81%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

75%
UK students
25%
International students
72%
Male students
28%
Female students
79%
2:1 or above
8%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
B

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Finance

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£20,000
med
Average annual salary
98%
high
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

30%
Business, research and administrative professionals
25%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
16%
Business, finance and related associate professionals

Over 2,000 students graduated with a degree in finance in 2015, and a sign of the strength of the finance industry, numbers are on the up. Over half of finance graduates go into the finance industry, with accountancy and financial advice roles particularly popular. It's also quite common for finance graduates to go into jobs which require you to take more training and gain professional qualifications — finance graduates who take further study are more likely to be studying accountancy than finance. About a third of graduates start their careers in London - but Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham are other popular locations for finance graduates to work.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Finance

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£20k

£20k

£25k

£25k

£30k

£30k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here