Year 1
In the first year, you will study five compulsory modules that provide the key fundamentals to examine and evaluate modern financial markets, including introductions to financial and management accounting, economics, finance and mathematics and statistics. These will be complemented by an optional module from the areas of business, global economics or foreign languages.
Year 2
In the second year, you will study three compulsory finance modules to allow you to be able to examine financial issues and the institutions, markets and securities that facilitate the vast array of financial transactions that occur continuously across global markets. Furthermore, you will acquire numerous quantitative tools which enable you to interpret financial data and price financial securities. The finance modules are complemented by one compulsory economics module – macro – and an optional module from the areas of law, accounting, tax or foreign languages.
Year 3
All of our degrees offer you the option of spending your third year gaining practical experience on a placement. Placement years are a great way to develop your employment marketability and to engage with employers early in their recruitment pipeline. A placement requires a minimum of 40 weeks of work experience and the placement begins in the summer following completion of the second year, and this then becomes the third year of a four-year degree programme. This allows you to really explore and understand your job and to find out if the career or company is for you.
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You will develop your practical skills, confidence and maturity.
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You can focus on a specific career path – many employers recruit graduates from their placement programme.
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You will be able to contextualise your studies better, be more mature in your attitude to work.
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You may decide to draw on your working experiences and access a more fulfilling dissertation research subject.
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You will gain invaluable job search and graduate research skills by engaging in the competitive placement recruitment process.
To ensure you are getting the most out of your experience, we support your placement in a number of ways:
- First Year Workshops and Bootcamps tohelp you to develop your Placement Strategy and to identify and develop those skills and competencies that will be critical to ensure you are attractive to potential placement employers. These typically involve Employers, Placement Mentors and representatives from Colleges, Societies and the Volunteering Community in Durham.
- Second Year Workshops and Bootcamps support you through the placement application process and allow you to develop into a supportive student group to travel along the road of gaining a placement together. They enable you to get to know those students who will return with you in the fourth year. Workshops typically involve employers, and former placement students.
- The DUBS Placement Programme includes a series of employer-led events which take place throughout term 1 and 2 and is open to all first year and second year placement students. The skills sessions and networking events allow students to develop essential employability skills as well as providing valuable insight into the recruitment process.
- Placement Mentors: We have a mentorship scheme whereby former placement students share their experiences of the application process and placement with first and second year students and those out on placement. If you become a placement mentor on your return to University you can continue to develop your interpersonal skills and slide back into your University life with another key role which may well develop a new sense of belonging as well as another valuable contribution to your CV.
- Placement Tutors: Whilst you are on placement you are assigned an academic tutor who will visit you, liaise with your employer and ensure you gain the most from your experience.
- The Placement Year fees are set annually by the University. For the definitive amount of the Placement Year tuition fee payable please contact our Placement Team.
- *The offer of a place on a ‘with Placement Year’ degree does not imply that Durham University Business School guarantees to find the student a placement. The Business School, in association with the University, will assist students in finding and applying for placements, but it is the responsibility of the student to apply for and to obtain a placement (which is subject to approval by the Business School). In the event that a student is unable to obtain a placement, transfer to the equivalent ‘non-placement’ programme is guaranteed provided the student is eligible to transfer on academic grounds. Due to visa requirements, we recommend that international students interested in the Placement Year as part of their degree apply for this programme when making their application to us via UCAS. This will prevent students having to change their visa in situ at University, and avoid the fee of a new visa.
Year 4
Moving to a more research-led teaching orientation in the third year, you are required to produce a double module Dissertation in an area of accounting and finance areas. Additionally, you will study two compulsory modules exploring the world of accounting. You will have the option to choose two modules from a range of business, accounting and finance options. You may also choose to continue your study of a foreign language.
