A young female university student in a beige knit jumper working alone at her laptop in a quiet university business school study room, her screen showing a financial valuation model with multi-year projections of revenue, EBITDA and free cash flow alongside a discount rate and enterprise value calculation, a printed corporate finance case study open beside her with a balance sheet visible, an annual report on the desk, an unbranded financial calculator with NPV IRR and PMT keys, a notebook with handwritten WACC workings and a capital structure diagram, a teal highlighter and ceramic mug, with a teal acoustic wall panel behind her and warm pendant lighting overhead, representing the corporate valuation and investment analysis focus of Finance degrees

DEGREE GUIDE

Finance

What do Finance degrees involve?

Finance degrees teach you how to manage money, assess risk, and make strategic financial decisions for businesses and individuals. You will explore key areas such as investment analysis, financial markets, corporate finance, banking, and economics. These courses help you develop analytical, numerical, and problem-solving skills while understanding how financial systems operate on a global scale. You will also learn how to interpret data, evaluate financial performance, and navigate economic trends. Many degrees offer opportunities for industry placements, professional accreditation, or real-world financial projects, preparing you for careers in banking, investment, financial management, and consultancy.

Example
Modules

Introduction to Finance: Learn how finance supports decision-making in business, covering key concepts like risk, return and financial instruments such as shares and bonds.

Financial Accounting: Understand how to create and analyse income statements and balance sheets, assessing how well a business is performing financially.

Corporate Finance: Study how companies raise money, make investment choices and manage profits through strategies like dividend policy and capital structure.

Common Degree Names

💼 Placement years are widely offered, especially in banks, finance firms, or corporate finance departments.
🌍 Study abroad is available at many universities.

BSc (Hons) Finance
BSc (Hons) Finance and Investment
BSc (Hons) Finance and Economics
BSc (Hons) Finance and Accounting
MSci Finance

MSci is a four-year integrated Master’s degree that combines undergraduate and Master’s level study in one course.

A laptop showing a discounted cash flow valuation model with multi-year projections of revenue, EBITDA and free cash flow alongside a corporate finance textbook open to a chapter on capital structure and cost of capital, a notebook with handwritten valuation workings and a capital structure pie chart, an unbranded financial calculator with NPV IRR and PMT keys, a printed Acquisition Analysis pitch deck, a teal highlighter and ceramic mug, illustrating the corporate valuation, investment analysis and transaction work developed in Finance degrees

Level 3 (A-level / IB Diploma (HL) / Scottish Highers)

Finance is about understanding how money moves through economies, businesses, and markets. Because you'll be working with financial models, analysing data, and making calculations, universities look for students who are confident with numbers.

Universities usually expect:

Maths – highly recommended and often required
Economics or Business Studies – useful for understanding financial systems
Further Maths or Statistics – valuable for courses with a strong quantitative focus
Accounting or Computer Science – sometimes accepted as supporting subjects

✨ Maths is the most important subject. You don't need to have studied Business or Finance at school, but numeracy and problem-solving skills are essential.

Universities may also accept:

BTEC Extended Diplomas in Business, sometimes alongside A-level Maths
BTEC National Extended Certificates or National Diplomas alongside relevant A-Level subjects, Maths might be specified
T-levels in Accounting, Finance, or Management and Administration
IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) with Mathematics at Higher Level among your IB subjects (minimum two, ideally three - see relevant subjects above) alongside your Career-Related Study; Finance or Business pathways would both be directly relevant

Requirements vary depending on how mathematical the course is; always check.

Level 2 Qualifications (GCSE / MYP / National 5)

Most courses ask for:

GCSE English Language and Maths at grade 4/C or above, or equivalent qualifications such as National 5s or MYP

📘 Many courses prefer a higher grade in GCSE (or equivalent) Maths (5/B or above), as Finance involves working with numbers and data.

💬 Interviews

Formal interviews aren't usually part of the application process. However, some universities may invite you for a short conversation, either online or in person, to learn more about your interest in the subject.

🔍 Work Experience
You don't need work experience to apply for Finance. If you have a school placement to fill, a bank, accountancy firm, financial adviser, or local business gives you useful insight into how financial decisions are made in practice. Managing a budget for a school club or society is also a simple way to get hands-on experience.

✨ Personal Statement Tips

What interests you about how money moves through economies and organisations? Finance covers everything from corporate financial decisions to investment markets to personal financial planning, and it involves applying mathematical and analytical thinking to real-world problems. If you've followed financial news, explored how markets work, thought about how companies raise and use money, or enjoyed applying maths to practical situations, reflect on what sparked your curiosity. Reading about financial crises and successes, listening to podcasts about markets and investment, or exploring how quantitative analysis shapes financial decisions can show genuine engagement. Admissions tutors want to see that you're comfortable with numbers and drawn to understanding financial systems, not just attracted to working in a lucrative industry.

If your qualifications don't match the usual entry requirements, there are some other possibilities.

🌱 Foundation Year in Finance, Business or Accounting

Many universities offer a foundation year if you don't have the required subjects or grades. This adds an extra year but leads directly into the full degree.

🎓 Access to HE Diploma (Business or Finance)

Widely accepted by universities offering Finance degrees. Make sure your course includes strong numeracy content, and aim for good results in your graded units.

💼 Level 3 Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships such as Assistant Accountant or Financial Services Administrator carry UCAS tariff points from 2026 and are well-recognised. Finance degrees are offered very broadly across UK universities, including many with flexible admissions policies.

Is this degree right for you?

Members can explore whether this degree fits who they are:

Skills you'd develop and whether they match your strengths
How this aligns with your interests, motivators and values
Career paths and where graduates end up

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Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Use the tabs to explore the kind of person that this would be a good fit for. Do you share the Interests, Motivations, Values, Work identity and skills that people who thrive in this course tend to have?

Not sure what these things are? Explore your Identity Tree with us first.

Interests that connect well with a Finance degree

Students who enjoy this degree often share these interests. You don't need to feel strongly about all of them, and interests develop over time. If one or two catch your curiosity, or sound like something you'd like to know more about, that's a good sign.

Money, Markets & How Economies Work: This is what the degree is about. You'll study how financial markets operate, how investments are valued, how risk is assessed, and how financial decisions made by individuals and organisations ripple through the wider economy.

Mathematics, Patterns & Data: Quantitative analysis and financial modelling are core methods. You'll work with market data, build models to evaluate investment opportunities, and use statistical techniques to assess risk and forecast financial performance.

Students who thrive in a Finance degree are often motivated by

Commercial Ambition

You're energised by the work of building commercial success: spotting opportunities others miss, thinking through how to position a product or service in a market, working out how to grow an organisation, and making the strategic decisions that move things forward. You're drawn to the challenge of turning a good idea into something that thrives commercially, whether that's a product, a service, or a whole company. The competitive side of business engages rather than tires you.

Financial Achievement

You're energised by earning well and building wealth: setting financial targets, working hard to reach them, and feeling the satisfaction when you do. Financial goals give shape to your effort and pull you to push further. The tangible rewards of financial success matter to you: security, independence, the freedom to make choices. They matter not just as outcomes, but as evidence that the work is paying off.

Trends and Pattern-Spotting

You're energised by noticing what's changing before others do, whether that's emerging cultural trends, shifts in data, new technologies gaining traction, or patterns in behaviour. You find energy in predicting what's coming next and understanding why things are moving in a particular direction. You're drawn to the signals others overlook, and you'd rather be early to the question than late to the answer.

Analysing and Investigating

You're energised by making sense of information, looking for evidence, spotting patterns, and piecing together how things connect. Whether it's pulling apart data, questioning assumptions, or tracing a problem back to its source, you find energy in the process of understanding what's really going on. You'd rather dig into the details than accept things at face value.

Decision-Making and Responsibility

You're energised by being the person who makes the call: weighing up options, choosing between difficult alternatives, and standing behind the decision once it's made. You don't need to manage people to feel this; what you want is to be making consequential choices yourself rather than executing other people's. The weight of being the decider, including when things go wrong, feels like a challenge you rise to rather than a burden you avoid.

Working Internationally

You're energised by work that crosses borders and connects you with people from different countries, backgrounds, and systems. That might be collaborating with international colleagues, working in a place that isn't your own, using another language professionally, or tackling problems that don't stop at a single country's borders. You come alive when the work you're doing reaches beyond your own patch of the world.

What makes Finance click for the students who love it?

They want to be the one who looks at the numbers and makes the call. Finance draws people with a head for money and markets, not only because it pays well, though that's part of it, but because they find the whole puzzle interesting: how an asset gets its value, how risk is weighed, how a price in one market pulls on prices in another. They like backing a judgement with evidence and then living with the result. And they tend to notice when something shifts in a market before others have caught on.

These are the skills that students who love this degree tend to enjoy using. You don't need to be great at them already, but if they sound like you, that's a good sign.

Skill Name

Skills that suit this degree

You don't need to be great at these already — but if you enjoy using them or want to get better at them, that's a good sign.

Do you enjoy picking apart information and figuring out what it really means — especially when numbers and data are involved?
Do you like the idea of making decisions that involve weighing up risk against reward — not just guessing, but reasoning it through?
Do you find yourself interested in how money moves — investments, markets, and why prices go up or down?
Do you tend to think about the long-term consequences of decisions, not just the immediate result?

Careers a Finance degree could lead you to

Finance

What do Finance degrees involve?

Example Modules

Common Degree Names

Is this degree right for you?

Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Careers a Finance degree could lead you to

Example
Modules