Accounting and Finance and Computing

The BSc Accounting and Finance and Computing at Aberystwyth University is a joint honours degree that brings together the fundamentals of finance, and accounting whilst allowing you to further explore the interactions of organisations, employees and other stakeholders via their digital engagements. In addition to exploring software, hardware and computing techniques an emphasis of logical processes and their effective development and management is achieved; aligning your understanding of Accounting and Finance with the technological support of business operations.

The interaction of accounting and finance and computing is a highly dynamic and innovative environment and a focus of this degree is to broaden your contemporary knowledge of industry developments and the opportunities they create as they happen. You will explore concepts and theories in accounting, financial risk management as well as content and concepts enabling you to understand how technology can solve a wide range of problems such as creating and implementing algorithms; financial accounting; designing, implementing and evaluating software systems to analysing stock portfolios and operating financial markets.

Why study Accounting and Finance and Computing? The Accounting and Finance element of the degree is accredited by the Association for Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA), Chartered Institute of Management Accounts (CIMA), Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). In addition, the computing element of this course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of IT (BCS) on behalf of the Engineering Council, which allows you to develop the skills needed to solve complex problems that include analysis, design, solution choice and implementation.

The recognition from the various professional bodies demonstrate the teaching quality undertaken by the two academic departments ensuring that you graduate with the best possible degree, an instrumental component of our persistent industry recognition as leaders in the UK for teaching excellence. Students on this course will have the opportunity to experience dedicated Linux, Mac OS X laboratories and central servers and have access to robotic equipment including Ardvinos, mobile and sailing robots. Given the applied nature of this degree, you will be taught by academic and industry practitioners ensuring the opportunity for you to be immersed alongside professionals and their attended networks.

What will I learn? The holistic approach of accounting and finance in your first year explores the three key areas of financial accounting, management accounting and financial management. The three key areas of accounting and finance allow you to discover and understand the fundamental principles of these elements of business. Within Computing you will explore themes such as computer infrastructure, its management and optimisation, web-based application development and programming and learning via the application of problems and collective teams solutions to those.

In your second and third year, you will undertake core accounting and finance concepts that include financial and management accounting, the specific rules and practices of accounting in fields such as audit and taxation, portfolio selection and risk management, investment analysis and over-aching business law which governs the actions of professionals within the accounting and financial industries. Within computing, you will explore data structures and the formation and application of algorithms, the process of developing and distributing novel operational software, answering the emerging challenges of business for optimal software integration with business processes.