BSc Accounting

Why we're great.

• This course gives you exemptions from many professional exams, giving your career a head start.
• We are ranked in the Top 175 for Business and Economics in THE World University Rankings by Subject 2025
• We teach you to be accountable, act ethically and make financial decisions that positively impact both organisations and society.

Study abroad

The four-year version of this course enables you to study abroad during your third year. In all other areas, this version of the course remains identical to the standard three-year variant.

You can study abroad with one of our exchange partners in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the Middle East, Hong Kong and Japan. In doing so, you experience other cultures and languages, meet new people, and gain intercultural skills that are sought-after by employers.

Placement year

You may decide to opt for a placement year, where you develop your professional skills and build a network of business contacts. A placement year can give you a career advantage by showing future employers that you are a dedicated and experienced professional.

The Student Development Team can offer bespoke support throughout the process of researching, applying and interviewing for placements. However, it is your responsibility to apply, prepare for and secure your own role. Most recently, our students have gained placements with organisations such as BMW, Samsung and Cummins.

Our expert staff

You learn from academics and industry practitioners whose research continues to have a real-world impact. Many of our highly qualified and enthusiastic team are published in world-leading journals and publications.

Our staff specialise in areas including:

• accounting and economic development in the public and third sectors
• regulation and corporate social responsibility
• finance and banking
• accounting and finance in developing economies
• contemporary financial markets and their participants
• corporate governance in developing countries

Dr Silvia Gaia, Lecturer in Accounting at Essex Business School, researches the fields of Corporate Governance, financial and social-environmental reporting. She has publications in academic journals such as Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, British Accounting Review, Journal of Business Ethics and International Business Review.

Our staff embed the latest research into your course, so you learn about real-world issues affecting accounting right now.

Specialist facilities

Our BSc Accounting is based at our Colchester Campus.

In our landmark Essex Business School building, the first zero carbon business school in the UK, you'll see our sustainable approach to business first-hand. Set around a lush winter garden, are a wealth of inspiring teaching and study zones.

Our custom designed building provides you with superb facilities:

• a virtual trading floor with Bloomberg Terminals offering direct use of Bloomberg data, information and analytics
• light and spacious lecture theatres with ‘listen again' recording to aid your study
• study pods and innovation booths for group working
• a café and adjacent foyer to enjoy on-site fresh food and drink
• study skills support provided by the EBS Learning Team

Our Colchester building is located on the Knowledge Gateway, an innovation park housing some of the East of England's most exciting science, technology and creative businesses. Parkside Office Village sits on the site, providing potential opportunities for networking, internships and work experience directly on campus.

Your future

Skilled and agile accountants are in high demand in the graduate job market, therefore, we embed a series of core and specific skills into our undergraduate curriculum for BSc Accounting to ensure that our graduates are suited to careers in finance, accounting and management roles.

All of our taught modules embed elements of our skills map which emulate the skills which are required by employers of accounting graduates, these generally include:

• Academic and cognitive skills
• Research skills
• Technology skills
• Communication skills
• Data analysis skills
• Soft skills

We embed a structured approach to student development and skills support throughout the curriculum and through additional support from the Essex Business School Learning Team.

Our students have gone on to become financial analysts, accountants, and management trainees, with recent graduate destinations including:

• Private Client Tax Senior Associate at PwC - a multinational professional services network
• Treasury Analyst at Hiscox, a multinational business insurance and home insurance provider
• Junior Tax Consultant at Deloitte – the multinational and financial services network
• Global Finance & Business Analyst at J.P. Morgan – global financial services provider
• Junior Consultant - Valuation & Advisory at Cushman & Wakefield – commercial property and real estate consultants

Our accounting graduates enjoy successful careers in their fields.

Additional to the skills development offered by Essex Business School, BSc Accounting students can also take advantage of the University of Essex Careers Service which focuses in particular on supporting the development of undergraduate employability, including: careers fairs, career mentoring, skills development, careers advice and guidance, placement year support, job opportunities, start-up support and more.