Choosing option courses in Year 1

You must choose one out of the two available accounting courses (unless Accountancy 1A is compulsory in your degree).

Accountancy 1A includes producing financial statements from the relevant transactions and events affecting a business; analysing, interpreting, and facilitating the use of accounting information; relating accounting to the broader context of the strategic and operational aspects of business.

Accounting for Business 1 examines the basic principles and underlying concepts and ways in which accounting statements and financial information can be used to improve the quality of decision-making. It is primarily intended for students who are required, or choose, to study accounting as part of a non-accounting degree.

Economics courses are offered by the School of Economics.

For some degrees Economics 1 is required. For other degrees at least 1 Economics course must be taken, while for other degrees there is no requirement to take an economics course. However, some understanding of economics is useful in understanding business and is therefore a popular outside course.

If you are interested in studying economics, please be aware of the differences between ECNM08013 Economics 1 (40 credits), ECNM08004 Economics Principles (20 credits), and ECNM08003 Economic Application (20 credits).

Economics 1 is a full-year, calculus-based course and is intended to develop a rigorous understanding of core economic models and analysis, together with an ability to apply the analysis in a variety of contexts. You should only consider enrolling on this course if you have a strong background in Mathematics (AS level Mathematics at Grade B, or Higher at Grade B, or equivalent) and you intend (or want to keep the option open) to progress to further study of Economics in your 2nd year.

Economic Principles and Economics Applications may be more suitable alternatives. Economic Principles provides a broad introduction to the basic principles of economic analysis. Economic Applications illustrates the usefulness of basic economic principles in a varied range of, primarily applied, contexts. An understanding of basic economic principles at the level of Mankiw and Taylor 'Economics' is presumed.

You need to make sure you have a balance of 60 credits in semester one and 60 credits in semester two. You may want to start by considering Business Options and Challenge Courses.

Select between 0 and 60 credits of the following courses:

While it is not compulsory to choose any of the above courses, we do recommend that you consider these as first choices as they are directly related to business. You are not able to take courses such as Marketing, Principles of Finance, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, etc until Year 2.

Challenge Courses are designed to bring together students from different degree programmes to explore the complex issues facing the world today through interdisciplinary collaboration and creative thinking.

Working with each other and expert academics, students will gain new perspectives and develop important life skills highly valued by employers, such as teamwork, problem-solving and adaptability.

Select between 0 and 20 credits of the following courses:

You are also able, depending on your degree programme, to choose from a variety of courses outside the Business School and you will see a statement below the Business Year 1 options which says 'Select between 0 and 60 credits from Level 7 and 8 courses in Schedules 'Q, S, T, W and Y’. Follow the steps under 'Things to consider' to help you select your option courses .

1. What are you interested in?

A language, history, politics, art, music, psychology; or maybe this is an opportunity to try something new. There is a huge amount of choice. Get ideas from family, friends, other new students, or simply take time to browse through the various options on the schedules. Depending on your degree programme you will have the opportunity to choose possibly a maximum of 60 credits of options in Year 1. We have produced a Course Options spreadsheet, which shows the range of options available throughout the University. You can filter to see what is available in semester 1 or 2 and in particular Schools. By clicking on the course name, you will be able to read all about the content and assessment.

2. What are the pre-requisites, and do you meet them?

Some courses are only available if you have studied another course already, or if you have achieved a certain proficiency/qualification.

3. What are the co-requisites?

Some courses can only be taken with another related course, so you cannot take one without the other.

4. Is it a Level 7 or 8 course?

You are only able to choose courses offered at Levels 7 and 8; most courses will be at Level 8. You are not able to choose courses at Levels 9 and 10 as these are for 3rd and 4th year students only.

5. As a Business School student, I am eligible to take the course?

Check the course is not restricted to students taking a particular degree.

6. Is it in the correct semester?

You must take courses of 120 credits in total, and a balanced load of courses in each semester: 60 credits in Semester 1 and 60 credits in Semester 2. Remember: A 40-credit course covers a full year, so counts as 20 credits in each semester.

7. Does the course have a quota and/or is it highlighted as a High Demand course?

Courses with a low quota will fill up very quickly. Remember: places will first be filled by students for whom it is a compulsory course in their degree.

8. What would I like to study in subsequent years of my programme?

Try to think ahead to any courses you may want to take in 2nd year as these may have prerequisites which affect your Year 1 choices.

9. Am I considering switching to another degree programme at some point?

Consider whether you want to keep your options open to switch to a different degree programme, and if so select any options that might allow you to do that in the future.