Our BA (Hons) Business Management (Finance) will help set you apart as an ambitious, confident and highly capable individual with strong leadership potential.
Raise your professional status
Developed in close consultation with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), this course is one of the few in the country where you’ll graduate with a highly regarded degree as well as the CMI Level 5 Diploma in Management and Leadership.
The Diploma is the benchmark qualification for full CMI membership and takes you a step towards Chartered Manager status. There is no need to take extra exams or coursework to achieve the Diploma: our combined module and CMI assessments give you a smooth route to both qualifications.
To help you advance in a career with a financial focus, the course also features modules which offer exemptions from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) papers. This will give you a head start if you would like to qualify as a chartered management accountant eventually.
Adding value through financial expertise
Without strong management control and effective co-ordination of financial resources, businesses frequently fail to realise their potential. This course gives you insights into the common pitfalls in performance management and how to avoid them.
We equip you with specialist skills including financial analysis and projections so that you can assess the financial health of an organisation and deliver practical business solutions. You will also learn more about the value of corporate governance and how managers are responsible to wider stakeholders.
You will have access to our brand new Bloomberg Financial Markets Lab throughout your studies so you can harness up-to-the-minute data and analytical tools.
Choice and flexibility
Flexibility is one of the most distinctive features of our Business Management suite of degrees. All students study the same modules in the first year to gain insights into the major business disciplines.
After your first year, you can choose to follow the specialist pathway in Finance or – if you find your interests have changed – you can easily transfer to one of our other pathways in HRM, Marketing, Enterprise or International Business. Alternatively, you could choose the core Business Management route, drawing on our extensive list of optional modules to develop a broader skillset.
This course is offered as a four-year degree to include a placement year. You can, however, study on a three-year full-time basis, with opportunities for internships in the summer breaks.
Expert mentoring from the CMI
CMI accreditation for our course introduces you to a privileged network of contacts. You’ll be one of the first students in the country to have your own CMI mentor to guide you at every stage of your degree.
Your mentor will be a senior business person – either a Chartered Manager or Fellow of the CMI with a wealth of experience. From day one, they will advise and coach you from a business perspective, sharing their career insights and demonstrating how management theory can be applied in the workplace.
Throughout the degree, you will become an affiliate member of the CMI, at no extra cost, with access to networking events, guest lectures, online resources and additional benefits to support your career development and employability.
Improve your practical know-how
Business simulations, topical case studies, employer-led projects and business games – all provide practical scenarios in which to test your ideas and hone your problem-solving, decision-making and leadership skills.
The course culminates in a live consultancy project with an employer, where you will harness your financial, research and project management skills to improve an organisation’s business performance.
Business with a strong moral compass
One of our priorities is to foster a new generation of responsible business leaders with a strong moral compass. Throughout the course, you will therefore look at the role of business in wider society, exploring issues ranging from environmental sustainability to child labour, ethical governance to responsible innovation.
Influential connections
Our extensive links with the business community enhance the practical focus and currency of this degree. You can draw on our contacts with leading business names and professional bodies to gain inspiration and insight.
We pride ourselves on our global student community. This course not only attracts students from all over the world to Derby but is also delivered for our educational partners across Europe and Asia. It means your learning will be enriched by truly international perspectives.
To complete the BA (Hons) Business Management (Finance), you’ll study modules such as:
Stage one
- Business Economics
- Understanding People in Organisations
- Marketing Fundamentals
- Finance and Business Performance
- Understanding the Global Business Environment
- Developing an Enterprising Mindset
You can choose to take an optional internship between stages one and two.
Stage two
- Quantitative Skills for Business
- Applied Operations Management
- Principles of Responsible Management
- Managing Performance through People
- Managing Financial Resources
- Law for Accounting
You can choose to take an optional placement year or an optional internship between stages two and three.
Stage three
- Global Business and Strategy
- Developing Leadership and Management
- The Business Consultancy Project (double module)
- Financial Statement Analysis
- International Business Performance Appraisal
We take a ‘scaffolded’ approach to learning, so you’ll have full support in the early stages of your course and can gradually move towards stronger understanding and greater independence.
Through your contact with personal tutors and CMI mentors – as well as your participation in University events – you’ll become more attuned to professional behaviour and will build your skills in critical thinking, creativity and self-reliance before immersing yourself in the wider business community.
The course incorporates formal lectures, sometimes involving guest speakers; tutor-led and student-led seminars; one-to-one and small group tutorials; work experience projects; work-related learning; self-directed study; optional placement and internship opportunities; and video discussions with overseas partner institutions. By stage three, you are expected to be more in charge of your own learning, with module tutors advising and directing your studies.
How you are assessed
You will benefit from an innovative variety of assessment modes. Assessment is mainly via coursework which can take forms such as traditional essays and reports, group project work, research and consultancy projects, presentations, posters, and design of digital materials. There are also in-class tests and computer-based assessments.
Who you'll meet
You will be taught by an experienced and highly qualified team with outstanding contacts in the wider business community.
They include our Programme Leader, Christine Harrop-Griffiths, who plays a leading role in the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Regional Board and has made a major contribution to increasing CMI membership in the East Midlands.
Christine’s professional and research interests centre on ensuring that students benefit from a learning experience which is as practical and realistic as possible. She spearheaded the project which resulted in the BA (Hons) Business Management becoming one of the first to achieve dual accreditation with the CMI. She also worked internationally with the University’s collaborative partners to extend this dual accreditation overseas.
In addition, Christine has drawn on her extensive connections to help ensure that every student on this course is matched with a professional business mentor in every year of their studies.
September 2019 typical entry requirements
| UCAS points | 120 (up to 16 from AS-levels) |
| Specific requirements at A-level | No specific subject requirements |
| Specific requirements at GCSE | GCSE Maths and English Grade C/Grade 4 (or above) or equivalent qualification |
| IELTS | 6.0 (with 5.5 in each skills area) |
| Interview / Audition | N/A |
| Portfolio | N/A |
Alternative entry qualifications:
- BTEC - DDM
- Access to HE Diploma - 60 credits: 45 at level 3 with a minimum of Dist: 15 Merit: 24 Pass: 6
We usually consider an A-level in General Studies as a supplementary qualification. A good application/performance will be taken into account if you do not meet the criteria/offer conditions.
Our entry requirements for this course should be read together with the University's general entry requirements, which details subjects we accept, alternative qualifications and what we're looking for at Derby.
Your qualifications will equip you for a rewarding leadership career in any area of business and management, but particularly in the field of finance.
They will also mark you out as having the potential for rapid promotion to senior positions, someone who can work competently and ethically in global and cross-cultural environments.
Our former students now work in a wide range of companies, including banks such as HSBC and Barclays and chartered accountancy firms such as Shapcotts. Some have gone on to use the skills and entrepreneurial spirit they gained during their degree to set up their own businesses after graduating.
If you’d like to take your studies to the next level, you can also progress to any business masters programmes and get a 10% alumni discount on your fees. These include the MSc Accounting and Finance and the MBA Global Finance.
If you need any more information from us, eg on courses, accommodation, applying, car parking, fees or funding, please contact us and we will do everything we can to help you.
Contact us Contact us 4 with optional placement year
Download programme specification
Teaching hours
Like most universities, we operate extended teaching hours at the University of Derby, so contact time with your lecturers and tutors could be anytime between 9am and 9pm. Your timetable will usually be available on the website 24 hours after enrolment on to your course.
Please note: Our courses are refreshed and updated on a regular basis. If you are thinking about transferring onto this course (into the second year for example), you should contact the programme leader for the relevant course information as modules may vary from those shown on this page.
