Program Overview

BSc International Business and Finance (including foundation year) is open to Home and EU students. It will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills.

This four-year course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study. During your Year Zero, you study four academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory English language and academic skills module.You will spend Year Zero of your four year degree studying at our Colchester Campus. For your second, third and fourth year of study, you will be based at our Southend Campus.

You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK.

After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with Essex Business School.

By studying international business and finance, you will be able to consider how these disciplines are affected by globalisation and how businesses, markets, people and information interconnect across borders.

You will explore topics high on the agenda of international businesses and financial managers, such as:

• the international business environment
• international business strategy
• international trade
• international human resource management
• the pricing of securities in financial markets
• corporate finance and financial decision making
• business economics
• quantitative methods
• financial modelling
• portfolio analysis

We use real-world case studies to apply theory to business practice and develop your capacity to analyse statistics and make sound business decisions. Ethical business underpins all of our teaching, so you will graduate with an understanding of your responsibility to your investors, your staff and the wider world.

Your first year ensures you develop a solid foundation in accounting and finance for business, the business life-cycle and how multi-nationals manage their core business functions, such as marketing and HR. You’ll also benefit from additional training in numerical skills, to build your confidence in handling financial data sets.

In your final year, you have the opportunity to put your knowledge into practice by completing an in depth, independent research project or dissertation. This gives you the chance to further develop vital employability skills in areas of research, project management and critical thinking.