The Accounting and Finance degree programme shares a common first year syllabus with the Accounting degree programme, providing an essential grounding in a range of business related areas including statistics, economics, law, marketing and management.The second and fourth years of the programme combine the study of the core areas of financial accounting, business finance and management accounting with a diverse range of specialist finance topics. In your final year you will have the opportunity to select areas of relevance and benefit to your career interests.The programme will provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge, both theoretical and practical, through the professional placement year, to take on responsible positions early in a variety of careers in various sectors of the accounting or finance professions.Distinctive featuresDistinctive features of the course include:•the opportunity to learn in a school which achieved 6th place in the UK at Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014;•the involvement of research-active staff in course delivery;•the emphasis on independent learning in a research-led environment;•the emphasis on acquisition of high quality practical skills and the development of innovative ideas;•many of our staff are leading international experts in their fields of research and a significant number are qualified accountants with many years of professional experience. •an opportunity to undertake a professional placement in your third year which may help kick start your professional training and provide you with a competitive edge in the employment market•an accredited degree programme which provides exemptions from certain examinations of many of the major UK professional accounting bodies