Accounting and Finance and Economics

Finance and Investment - BSc (Hons)
with a Foundation Year

This is an archived course for 2021 entry
2023 courses

Where better to prepare for a career in the fast paced and global world of finance than at a university which has its very own Bloomberg lab?

Through our virtual trading platform, our CFA-accredited BSc Finance and Investment gives you advanced conceptual knowledge and the hands-on experience to succeed in the fast-paced and competitive world of global finance.

Overview

Do you aspire to be a banker? A portfolio manager? A risk manager? A regulator? As a BSc Finance and Investment student at KBS you develop the kind of in-depth understanding of financial principles to give your career a head start

On this programme you gain the analytical, technical and interpersonal skills required to understand, analyse and address the challenges faced by today's financial market.

The Bloomberg Lab, a dedicated virtual trading floor, enables you to hit the ground running with real time data from real financial markets to apply your newfound expertise to.

Our BSc Finance and Investment degree programme with a Foundation Year

The Foundation Year aims to extend access to university education to students from a wide variety of educational backgrounds and age groups and prepares these students for our three or four-year degrees. On successful completion of your Foundation Year, you move on to the first year of our BSc (Hons) programme, with the option to undertake a Year Abroad or Year in Industry as part of your course.

On our flexible programme, you take a broad range of compulsory modules as well as having the opportunity to select optional modules to tailor the course to suit your career aspirations and interests. You will explore areas such as financial markets and instruments, fundamentals of finance and investments, corporate banking, economics for business, quantitative methods for finance, risk management and business employability skills.

Taught by leading experts from business and the professions on our historical Medway campus, with close links to London, you have excellent opportunities to experience finance and investment in action through hands-on experience via in-class live case studies from our visiting industry experts, enterprise challenges and company visits.

At KBS you are so much more than just a number,

~ Yemurai Machacha, BSc Finance and Investment, 2020.

Experiential learning

Kent provides a variety of employability opportunities for students during their studies. These range from short-term company internship opportunities to voluntary work with local charities and University Business Societies. The central Careers and Employability service also offers an exciting Employability Points Scheme. In addition to this, the Kent Business School specialised team of Employability experts provides support to all our students in personalised 1:1 meetings as well as online support via the

Employability blog. Unique to KBS, our Alumni have access to all employability support for three years after their graduation.

Gaining 1-year long professional experience: Year in Industry

You have the option to take this programme with a year of professional experience, in the UK or internationally. You will be supported by our dedicated in-house Employability and Placements team to identify, secure and enjoy your placement year. For more details, see . You do not have to make a decision before you enrol at Kent but certain conditions will apply. For more information, see Programme Structure and Career sections.

Gaining 1-year cross-cultural experience: Year Abroad

If you would like to enhance your employability skills by widening cross-cultural perspectives, developing a global mind-set or learn another language then you can spend a year studying at one of Kent’s global partner institutions, see Finance and investment with a year abroad. You do not have to make a decision before you enrol at Kent but certain conditions will apply. For more information, see Programme Structure and Career sections.

Extra activities

In addition to your studies, our students can discover how to turn their ideas into a successful business at our ASPIRE centre, which provides practical advice and support to all entrepreneurially-minded students, and runs our Business Start-up Journey initiative. Many of our students get involved with societies including the Kent Business Society, which in previous years has organised: Social events Talks from industry leaders Networking events

An outstanding student experience

Kent Business School is dedicated to ensuring a positive experience for all our students, from induction to graduation, and beyond.

As a Student Success school, we are committed to championing Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, and warmly welcome students from all backgrounds. Your experience is central to what we do, so we will listen to you every step of the way, through our robust Student Voice processes and mechanisms.

Alongside a world-class teaching and educational experience, KBS delivers a wide-ranging package of support, designed to ensure that you can maximise your time with us: Every student is allocated an Academic Adviser from our highly skilled academic staff team, who will meet with you individually to give you personalised guidance on your academic journey with KBS.

Our dedicated Student Support Team, led by the Senior Tutor, are on-hand throughout term time and during vacations to provide confidential, sensitive, pastoral support and guidance to our students. Academic Peer Mentors, recruited from the School’s most experienced undergraduate students, are available to help you to navigate your course and the modules that they themselves have sat, giving you insider access to someone who knows what it’s like to study on your course.

About School

Our School is proud to be in the top 1% of business schools globally to hold accreditations from three large business organisations:

Our programmes offer world-class business education enabling transformative learning experiences built around the School’s fundamental values of sustainable innovation and responsible management practice. Our students are at the heart of all considerations and through engaging teaching, world-class research, professional partnerships and an international community, we create an exciting atmosphere in which to learn and thrive.

All of our programmes at Kent Business School address the challenges of modern global business and we aim to meet industry demands of producing quality graduates by ensuring we unlock our students’ potential, expand their thinking and nurture their talent.

Entry requirements

Please also see our general entry requirements.

  • medal-empty

    A level

    DDD

  • medal-empty GCSE

    Mathematics grade 6 / B and English grade 4 / C

  • medal-empty Access to HE Diploma

    The University will not necessarily make conditional offers to all Access candidates but will continue to assess them on an individual basis. 

    If we make you an offer, you will need to obtain/pass the overall Access to Higher Education Diploma and may also be required to obtain a proportion of the total level 3 credits and/or credits in particular subjects at merit grade or above.

  • medal-empty BTEC Nationals

    The University will consider applicants holding BTEC National Diploma and Extended National Diploma Qualifications (QCF; NQF; OCR) on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us for further advice on your individual circumstances.

  • medal-empty International Baccalaureate

    24 points overall or 12 points at Higher Level

  • medal-empty International Foundation Programme

    Pass all components of the University of Kent International Foundation Programme with a 60% overall average, and 60% in LZ013 Maths and Statistics if you do not hold GCSE Maths at 6/B or equivalent).

If you are an international student, visit our International Student website for further information about entry requirements for your country. Please note that international fee-paying students who require a Student visa cannot undertake a part-time programme due to visa restrictions.

Please note that meeting the typical offer/minimum requirement does not guarantee that you will receive an offer.

English Language Requirements

Please see our English language entry requirements web page.

If you need to improve your English language standard as a condition of your offer, you can attend one of our pre-sessional courses in English for Academic Purposes before starting your degree programme. You attend these courses before starting your degree programme.

Course structure

Duration: 4 years full-time

Our programmes require you to study a combination of compulsory and optional modules, typically taking four modules per term over two terms in each of the three stages of study. The course structure provides a sample of the modules available for this programme. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation.

Foundation year

Foundation Year compulsory modules include:

LZ033 - Introduction to European & International Business

LZ004 - Economics for University Study

LZ013 - Maths & Statistics for University Study

LZ052 - Business Analysis for Foundation Studies

After successful completion of the foundation year, you continue on to the rest of your Finance and Investment course. If you wish, you may transfer to a four year Finance and Investment with a Year Abroad or Finance and Investment with a Year in Industry.

Fees

The 2021/22 annual tuition fees for this programme are:

  • Home full-time TBC
  • International full-time TBC

For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.

For students continuing on this programme, fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.* 

Your fee status

The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.

Additional costs

General additional costs

Find out more about accommodation and living costs, plus general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent.

Funding

We have a range of subject-specific awards and scholarships for academic, sporting and musical achievement.

Search scholarships

University funding

Kent offers generous financial support schemes to assist eligible undergraduate students during their studies. See our funding page for more details. 

Government funding

You may be eligible for government finance to help pay for the costs of studying. See the Government's student finance website.

Scholarships

General scholarships

Scholarships are available for excellence in academic performance, sport and music and are awarded on merit. For further information on the range of awards available and to make an application see our scholarships website.

The Kent Scholarship for Academic Excellence

At Kent we recognise, encourage and reward excellence. We have created the Kent Scholarship for Academic Excellence. 

The scholarship will be awarded to any applicant who achieves a minimum of A*AA over three A levels, or the equivalent qualifications (including BTEC and IB) as specified on our scholarships pages.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

We use a variety of teaching methods, including;

  • lectures
  • small group seminars
  • group projects
  • presentations
  • computer-based situations.

Classroom-based learning is supported by the latest online technologies and learning platforms.

Assessment

Your progress is assessed through coursework and exams. Coursework takes a variety of forms and includes;

  • reports
  • essays
  • group presentations
  • video podcasts
  • online tests and quizzes.

Exams are individual written assessments tested under time-controlled conditions.

As part of your studies it is also possible to take a foreign language module in stage 1 and for students going on a Year Abroad in year 1 and 2 subject to programme requirements. Alternatively, our university also offers language courses as part of extra-curricular activities.

To proceed to the next year you must achieve satisfactory results. Your final degree is based on marks gained in the second and third years (and Placement Year/Year Abroad if chosen) and credits which you build up throughout the whole programme.

Contact hours

Undergraduate students can expect around 8 contact hours per week, depending on year of study and optional module choices made. The remainder of the working week consists of self-guided study based on degree programme content and requirements of specific modules. For a student studying full time, each academic year of the programme will comprise 1200 learning hours, which include both direct contact hours and private study hours.  The precise breakdown of hours will be subject dependent and will vary according to modules.  Please refer to the individual module details under Course Structure.

Independent rankings

For graduate prospects, Business and Management Studies at Kent was ranked 22nd in The Complete University Guide 2021.

Careers

For graduate prospects, Business and Management at Kent was ranked 8th in The Complete University Guide 2021.

Successful KBS graduates: graduate destinations

Finance and Investment is a brand new programme, graduates from other finance programmes as part of KBS find work in public and private sector both overseas and in the UK in a  wide range of companies and organisations, including:

  •  ABN AMRO, 
  • Accenture, 
  • Burgess Hodgson,
  • Baker Tilly, 
  • Deutsche Bank, 
  • Ernst & Young,
  • Fidelity Investment, 
  • HSBC, 
  • KPMG,
  • PwC, Royal Bank of Scotland.

Many of our students also stay local and find job opportunities regionally in small and medium firms or even set-up their own businesses as well-equipped entrepreneurs.

Embedded employability: developing career-enhancing skills

The Backpack to Briefcase scheme provides bespoke career and skills development events and activities for all Kent Business School students. Available from the first year through to graduation, Backpack to Briefcase is designed to prepare you for a successful career after university.

To help you appeal to employers you will graduate with a solid grounding in core business management concepts, theories and skills in a global context but also key transferrable skills such as critical reflection, cultural awareness, creativity and innovation, effective time-management and productive teamwork as well as enhanced confidence, intellectual curiosity and resilience. As a KBS graduate you will be able to demonstrate to your employer how you have developed The Grad Goals.

You can also gain skills by signing up for one of our Kent Extra activities, such as adding much-sought-after analytical skills or computing skills to your degree via Kent’s Q-Step Centre.

Ongoing support: help finding a job

Kent Business School has an excellent international reputation and good links with businesses locally and globally. Our qualified careers practitioners provide support to all business undergraduate students for up to three years after graduation.

In addition, Careers and Employability Service at the University, can also provide advice on how to apply for jobs, write a good CV or perform well in interviews.

Professional recognition

Accredited by the  Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

The mission of the CFA is to lead the investment profession globally by promoting the highest standards of ethics, education, and professional excellence for the ultimate benefit of society.

Apply for Finance and Investment with a Foundation Year - BSc (Hons)

This course page is for the 2021/22 academic year. Please visit the current online prospectus for a list of undergraduate courses we offer.

Contact us

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United Kingdom/EU enquiries

Enquire online for full-time study

T: +44 (0)1227 768896

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International student enquiries

Enquire online

T: +44 (0)1227 823254
E: internationalstudent@kent.ac.uk

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School website

Kent Business School

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