Undergraduate open days 2024
Our summer and autumn open days will give you Lancaster University in a day. Visit campus and put yourself in the picture.
Undergraduate Open DaysApply now to make the most of your grades at a Top 10 UK university, with guaranteed accommodation in your first year.
13th for Accounting and Finance
The Guardian University Guide (2024)
15th for Accounting and Finance
The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide (2024)
QS 5 Star rating for Accounting and Finance
Our BSc Accounting and Finance is a flexible, career-focused degree course that lets you take control of your studies as your interests change over the course of your time at Lancaster University. Our students leave prepared to take on challenging roles in Big Four accounting firms, investment banks, and beyond.
You will learn from leading academic researchers and expert practitioners in finance, investing and accounting. The degree provides the perfect blend of theory and practice, taking you to the heart of key questions around the nature of business performance, financial analysis, accountancy skills, investment strategies and financial markets.
Throughout your degree, we encourage you to pursue your interests, develop your strengths, and move towards your ideal career. To enable that, this degree course is highly flexible, letting you specialise your studies based on your strengths and interests.
Our Finance, Accounting and International careers coaches are experts in their fields. They help students gain access to employers and help prepare them for success in their future careers.
The degree is accredited by globally-recognised accountancy bodies:
These accreditations provide graduates with exemptions from many core professional examinations, depending on your module choices, and mean that, on graduation, you will be further along the route to qualifying as an accountant than many of your contemporaries.
As part of the course, there is the option to complete a period of study abroad, subject to availability. You can study one module at one of our partner universities during the summer vacation period at the end of your first or second year of studies. Alternatively, you can choose to spend one term in your third year studying abroad, learning selected modules in a new environment. Students have previously studied in the USA and Australia, among other countries
At the end of your time with us, you will be equipped to work in the fields of finance and accounting, and be ready to progress your studies with further, required professional examinations. Our graduates have gone on to work for Big Four accounting firms, international consulting firms, blue-chip corporations, and global banks and hedge funds.
All our Accounting and Finance degrees prepare you for a wide variety of careers in business, with many of our graduates working with professional firms and financial institutions, as well as large commercial and local government organisations. Roles include trainee accountants, finance managers and banking advisors.
Your degree will also equip you with highly desirable transferable skills which have helped recent graduates find work in the fields of financial customer service, IT support and marketing and communications. Many of our graduates also continue their academic studies and embark on Master's degrees.
Lancaster University is dedicated to ensuring you not only gain a highly reputable degree, but you also graduate with relevant life and work-based skills. We are unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award, which allows you to complete key activities such as work experience, employability awareness, career development, campus community and social development. Visit our Employability section for full details.
Lancaster Management School has an award-winning careers team to provide a dedicated careers and placement service offering a range of innovative services for management school students. Our high reputation means we attract a wide range of leading global employers to campus offering you the opportunity to interact with graduate recruiters from day one of your degree.
A level AAB
GCSE Mathematics grade B or 6 (Applicants with a GCSE Maths grade 5 considered on a case-by-case basis), English Language grade C or 4
IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component. For other English language qualifications we accept, please see our English language requirements web pages.
International Baccalaureate 35 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects
BTEC Distinction, Distinction, Distinction
We welcome applications from students with a range of alternative UK and international qualifications, including combinations of qualifications. Further guidance on admission to the University, including other qualifications that we accept, frequently asked questions and information on applying, can be found on our general admissions web pages.
Contact Admissions Team + 44 (0) 1524 592028 or via ugadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk
Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored foundation pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University degrees. Visit the INTO Lancaster University website for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.
Contextual admissions could help you gain a place at university if you have faced additional challenges during your education which might have impacted your results. Visit our contextual admissions page to find out about how this works and whether you could be eligible.
Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and some which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme to complement your main specialism.
Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, and the University will make every reasonable effort to offer modules as advertised. In some cases changes may be necessary and may result in some combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.
This full-year module is a self-contained introduction to Economics, and can be taken by students both with and without prior knowledge of the subject. It is divided into three parts. The first part provides a thorough introduction to Microeconomics (including the theory of demand, costs and pricing under various forms of market structure, and welfare economics). The second part provides a thorough introduction to Macroeconomics (including national income analysis, monetary theory, business cycles, inflation, unemployment, and the great macroeconomic debates).
The third part of the module, taught in parallel with the first two parts, first covers the key mathematical tools required for a good understanding of Economics (including linear and nonlinear equations, and differentiation), and then shows how the key Micro- and Macroeconomics ideas can help us understand the world around us. In this part, you will participate in economic experiments involving games with and without strategic behaviour. We will also discuss the lessons from the Great Depression and the Great Recession, speculative attacks and currency crises, inequality, democracy and growth, government deficits and inflation, and the macroeconomic implications of Brexit and Covid-19.
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the basic concepts and techniques of Accounting and Finance, which include financial accounting, managerial finance, and financial statement analysis.
An important element of this course is that it provides exposure to the business and financial environment within which the discipline of Accounting and Finance operates, using real-world financial data for actual companies.
The course covers concepts, techniques and interpretive skills that relate to the external financial reporting of companies and their relationship to the stock market, and to the use of accounting information for internal management purposes.
This non-credit-bearing module will allow you to identify your current skills level and begin to collect evidence of skills acquisition. It will cover a detailed analysis of the individual in terms of personality, skills, goals, interests and career ideas, and self-development. Skills development will be considered within an organisational context and will practically focus on teamwork, presentation and communication skills and self-reflection.
The key aim of this module is to equip you with essential mathematical and statistical skills relevant to the disciplines of accounting and finance. The module aims to prepare you for more quantitatively-focused subjects offered across the whole suite of Accounting and Finance undergraduate programmes.
This is a 40-credit module that spans across three semesters. In Michaelmas term, you will cover the topics in mathematics such as functions, differentiation, integration, matrix algebra. In Lent term, the module will introduce the basic statistics. You will learn some of the features of the financial data, the rules of probability and hypothesis testing. In Summer term, the module will introduce financial markets with some emphasis on risk, efficiency and operation.
This module provides an overview of the design and main features of accounting information systems (AIS). It introduces methods used by business to meet the financial information needs of external parties and management and includes systems used for collecting, recording and storing transactions data, internal controls and effective design of AIS. It also provides an introduction to auditing, explaining why audit independence is a key factor in this profession. The module also examines some specific topics in auditing and relates these to the AIS syllabus, including materiality, going concern and the formulation of audit opinions.
The focus of this module is on developing more advanced employability skills for appropriately timed career needs including placements and earlier applications to graduate job schemes. This includes a focus on recruitment practices, engagement with targeted careers support and continued development of skills development within an organisational context
This module provides an introduction to the use of management accounting information for management purposes. This includes an examination of cost-volume profit analysis, the concepts of direct and indirect costs, and various costing methods. The importance of budgets to organisations and their impact on performance are also discussed.
This module covers project evaluation methods, risk, return and the cost of capital (including the capital asset pricing model), corporate financing (including dividend policy and capital structure) and an introduction to options.
This module examines some of the main features of financial reporting by UK companies, the associated regulatory requirements and the concepts that underlie the preparation of general-purpose financial reporting. The module employs a practical, applied approach in exploring several key International Financial Reporting Standards related to topics of current interest and concern, including revenue from contracts with customers and financial instruments.
At the heart of many real management problems are data that needs to be described, analysed and interpreted. Statistical methods are important across the range of Management School subject areas (e.g. accounting and finance, marketing, economics, operations management and operational research). This module develops your ability to describe, analyse and interpret data soundly, making effective use of computer software.
Developing these skills will also help you demonstrate to prospective employers that you have practical skills that can immediately be put to good use to solve problems for organisations either in the public or private sector.
The lecture materials, and the problems you are asked to solve in workshops, reflect the problems that organisations have to solve in practical situations where data analysis skills are required.
Techniques based on mathematics and statistics can be extremely powerful tools in helping to solve organisational problems. This module consists of five such techniques: Forecasting, Simulation, Decision Analysis, Network Analysis, and Linear Programming. The course will explain the business situations in which the techniques apply, and will show how to use the techniques and interpret the results to make better business decisions.
Accounting often finds itself perched uneasily between, on the one hand, economics and, on the other, the law. Much of current accounting practice and many reporting standards require accounts to show the ‘economic substance’ of transactions rather than their ‘legal form’. However, every accountant needs to have some understanding of the law: if s/he doesn’t, their careers may be short!
This second year module (the first of two that, together, are intended to cover the basic accreditation requirements of the professional accountancy bodies) is intended to introduce the area of business law to students of Accounting and Finance. It covers topics such as the nature of the English legal system, the essential elements of contract law, the law of tort and the law of the sale and supply of goods and services
This module provides a detailed analysis of four key Finance paradigms:
The third component of a three part module taught throughout your studies and consists of a project utilising basic skills required by most employers, e.g. report writing, presentations, IT skills, etc. within the context of a topic related to the student's probably employment sector target, e.g. finance, auditing, accounting, etc..
This module deals with accounting for complex entities, addressing concepts, issues and techniques.
It examines accounting for business combinations, goodwill and strategic investments (associates and joint ventures), and other aspects of consolidation, foreign currency translation and earnings per share, all within the context of modern accounting theory.
This module develops students' critical evaluation of advanced financial accounting issues and places this within the international accounting context. Topics covered include the accounting treatments of taxation, pensions and share-based payments. The module also introduces theoretical foundations and empirical research on issues of relevance to accounting practitioners and accounting regulators in topic areas such as earnings management, building on and extending the basics introduced in other modules
This module aims to extend students’ understanding of management accounting, focusing on three distinct approaches to the discipline: conceptual, practical and applied. The conceptual material in the course will seek to develop critical thinking skills for students by inviting them to consider the wide range of philosophical and economic theories that fit with the management accounting paradigm. The practical element of the course will introduce students to new management accounting techniques, including the role of uncertainty in management accounting, management control systems and the use of transfer pricing. The applied material will centre on a series of case study classes in which students will be required to engage with case study material and articulate their ideas about how to help the case organisation solve the particular problems that it faces.
This final year module follows on from the year 2 Business Law module and completes the coverage of topics needed for accreditation by professional accountancy bodies. This module extends students’ knowledge of the law relevant to business by examining company law in the context of financial reporting as well as topics such as intellectual property, data protection and employment law.
This course equips students with the knowledge to apply corporate finance theory to real-world situations. It builds on and extends the concepts covered in the basic financial management courses and introduces advanced topics in Corporate Finance. The major topics covered include capital budgeting, capital structure, corporate valuation, real options, equity financing for startups, IPOs, leasing, short term financing, merger and acquisitions, and corporate governance
The objective of this module is to offer a practical introduction to the workings of today’s financial markets and institutions built on a theoretical base. Moving beyond the descriptions and definitions provided by other textbooks and UK university courses in the field, this module encourages students to understand the connection between the theoretical concepts and their real-world applications.
Topics include foreign exchange, stock markets, bond markets, derivatives, central banks' monetary policy and financial crises. We also look at how trading in financial markets takes place. This module prepares students for successful careers in the financial services industry or successful interactions with financial institutions, whatever their future careers.
This module introduces: the use of accounting numbers in the valuation of businesses; the properties of accounting ratios; accounting quality analysis; financial distress prediction; relationships between share prices and accounting numbers.
This module provides a foundation in banking by familiarising students with the basic business activities of banks, and illustrates the role of banks for the economy while retaining a bank-level rather than a macroeconomic perspective. It also highlights the role of regulation and supervision in the banking industry to differentiate banking from all other industries, and how crises reshape regulation in banking. The objective of this module is to introduce banking and what is special about it into the curriculum to equip students with a basic foundation to pursue careers in the banking industry.
This module provides knowledge that is important to those concerned with financial management in a multinational setting. Areas covered include the relationships between exchange rates, interest rates and inflation rates, forward, futures and options markets, and corporate exchange rate risk management.
The aim of this module is to equip students with the tools necessary to enable them to make the core investment management decisions that managers face on a daily basis as well as the knowledge as to where they can find the information necessary to apply those tools. This course is an introduction to investment analysis, with emphasis on the pricing of equity securities. This course covers fundamental concepts and key issues in asset pricing; modern portfolio theory and its applications; equilibrium theories of asset pricing; portfolio performance evaluation; mutual funds and hedge funds. It provides an entry point to advanced-level subjects and foundational knowledge on the valuation and arbitrage of investment assets.
This module examines the economic rationale for auditing, the structure of the industry and considers some of the problems faced by the auditing industry. Fundamental issues involved in auditing financial statements and financial information systems are examined.
This module investigates the role of ethics in business life. The course looks at this topic from multiple perspectives, considering various theories and models that help to unpack both individual and corporate ethics. The syllabus includes stakeholder analysis and management, corporate social responsibility, different forms of ethical reporting, various codes of governance and conduct, and some ethics-related aspects of UK law.
The main purpose of this module is to give students a thorough grounding in the materials expected of a professional financial analyst and thus prepare students to take the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 1 examination.
As such, it will introduce and review the theories, methods and professional standards relating to financial analysis; help students apply the knowledge and skills developed during this and other modules to the investment problems encountered by professional financial analysts; and prepare students to sit and pass the February CFA Level-1 exam administered by the CFA Institute.
This module is designed as an introduction to econometric and time series methods for the analysis and research of financial assets and capital markets relationships. The focus will be on the analysis of financial data and econometric methods for modelling of financial time series, risk management and forecasting. The key objectives are to i) explain how econometric methods can be used to learn about the behaviour of financial assets; ii) endow students with practical experience of analysing financial data useful for research and practical work in the quantitative finance industry using basic statistical software packages; and iii) endow students with the relevant quantitative skills for advanced studies in MSc programmes.
Investors, business executives, regulators and the accountancy profession increasingly recognise that social and environmental challenges pose significant risks to the financial resilience of business while also providing many novel opportunities. Accountancy plays a major role in effective management of these risks and opportunities to build resilient businesses.
In this module, you will learn about cutting-edge developments in accounting for sustainability for the improvement of business resilience. You will also develop your knowledge and understanding about the importance of awareness of the changing social and institutional context within which organisations operate.
This module gives you an understanding of the economic and social impact of taxation and how these impacts influence the formation of tax policy. It covers the basic principles of UK income tax, corporation tax and other taxes, and teaches you the skills needed to perform basic tax computations.
We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2025/26 entry fees have not yet been set.
As a guide, our fees in 2024/25 were:
Home | International |
---|---|
£9,250 | £24,475 |
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small college membership fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.
For students starting in 2024, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses. Fees for students starting in 2025 have not yet been set.
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
In addition to travel and accommodation costs, while you are studying abroad, you will need to have a passport and, depending on the country, there may be other costs such as travel documents (e.g. VISA or work permit) and any tests and vaccines that are required at the time of travel. Some countries may require proof of funds.
In addition to possible commuting costs during your placement, you may need to buy clothing that is suitable for your workplace and you may have accommodation costs. Depending on the employer and your job, you may have other costs such as copies of personal documents required by your employer for example.
The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.
Home fees are subject to annual review, and may be liable to rise each year in line with UK government policy. International fees (including EU) are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about fees in subsequent years.
We will charge tuition fees to Home undergraduate students on full-year study abroad/work placements in line with the maximum amounts permitted by the Department for Education. The current maximum levels are:
International students on full-year study abroad/work placements will be charged the same percentages as the standard International fee.
Please note that the maximum levels chargeable in future years may be subject to changes in Government policy.
Details of our scholarships and bursaries for students starting in 2025 are not yet available. You can use our scholarships for 2024-entry applicants as guidance.
BSc Accounting and Finance, 2020
The staff and the facilities at LUMS create a professional and friendly atmosphere for studying. LUMS also encourages students to explore yourself and collaborate with people from different nationalities and backgrounds.
BSc Accounting and Finance (Industry), 2020
I can almost certainly say I would not have found my career path without the Lancaster experience.
The information on this site relates primarily to 2025/2026 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. View our Charter and other policies.
Our summer and autumn open days will give you Lancaster University in a day. Visit campus and put yourself in the picture.
Undergraduate Open DaysTake five minutes and let us show you what Lancaster has to offer, from our beautiful green campus to our colleges, teaching and sports facilities.
Most first-year undergraduate students choose to live on campus, where you’ll find accommodation to suit different preferences and budgets.
Our historic city is student-friendly and home to a diverse and welcoming community. Beyond the city you'll find a stunning coastline and the picturesque Lake District.