Programme Specification: BSc Accounting and Finance
1. Awarding Body
2. Details of accreditation by a
professional/statutory body, e.g. ESRC;
BPS etc
3. Name of final award
4. Programme Title
5. Duration of the course
6. Based in the Department/Institute:
7. Relevant QAA subject benchmark
statements
8. UCAS Code
9. First written/last amended
LSE
Individual exemptions by the individual
professional accountancy bodies: ICAEW, ,
CIMA, CIPFA, ACCA.
BSc (Hons)
Accounting and Finance
3 years
Department of Accounting
Accounting (2007)
NN34 BSc/AccFin
March 2001 / November 2012
10. The programme aims to:
Set accounting and finance within a broader social science framework in order to:
 provide an undergraduate education at the forefront of the international field in the study of
the theory and
practice of financial management, control and accountability in
organisations;
 situate the study of accounting and finance in some of the various contexts (such as the
capital markets, the public sector, the appraisal of business efficiency ) within which
accounting and finance professionals play a key role;
 develop in students an understanding that not only is accounting and finance as a discipline
concerned with computational skill but, more importantly, it is central to the way in which
both management internally, and also various stakeholders externally (including investors,
lenders, customers, the government and the public) perceive, understand, and seek to
change and control the nature of organisations and the ways in which resources are
allocated to and by them;
 foster in students a critical and flexible approach to accounting and finance issues, within a
UK and international context;
 prepare students for challenging careers in accounting and finance and related sectors, as
well as for higher degrees/research;
 enable students to gain appropriate exemptions from professional accountancy and
finance examinations.
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11. Programme outcomes: knowledge and understanding; skills and other attributes
Knowledge and understanding: At the end of the programme, students will have a thorough
understanding of the key aspects of:
Financial accounting, analysis and valuation
Managerial accounting
Principles of finance
Quantitative methods
Economics
plus will have selected from:
a range of specialist courses in aspects of management, operational research, organisational
theory and behaviour; advanced managerial accounting, auditing governance and risk
management, corporate finance and financial markets, commercial law; other social science
disciplines.
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Subject specific skills: At the end of the programme, and to the appropriate extent indicated by
their level of award, students should demonstrate:
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appropriate ability to communicate knowledge and understanding of several of the
major contexts within which accounting operates, based on a critical evaluation of
related theoretical and conceptual frameworks and of empirical evidence as to its
effects;
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appropriate ability to communicate knowledge and understanding of, and appropriate
ability to use and critically evaluate, current and major alternative technical languages
and practices of accounting, together with appropriate ability to apply them;
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appropriate ability to record and summarize financial data and prepare financial
statements in outline accordance with major UK regulatory requirements and
international financial reporting standards;
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appropriate ability to manipulate financial and other numerical data and appropriate
understanding of and ability to apply mathematical and statistical concepts;
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appropriate ability to communicate and apply knowledge and understanding of the
principles of business information systems management;
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appropriate ability to analyse business activities and perform financial analyses and
projections in appropriate contexts of planning, decision making and control; and to
recognize the limitations of these techniques;
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appropriate ability to communicate knowledge and understanding of financial
management, risk and the operation of financial markets, based on critical evaluation of
theories and empirical evidence.
Cognitive abilities and non-subject specific skills: At the end of the programme, students
should be able to demonstrate:
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appropriate ability to evaluate arguments and evidence critically;
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appropriate ability to locate, extract, analyse, and draw reasoned conclusions from
multiple sources—including electronic sources—of appropriate literature and relevant
data;
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appropriate ability to acknowledge and reference sources;
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appropriate capacities for independent and self-managed learning;

appropriate use of communications and information technology, such as spreadsheets,
word-processing and on-line databases;
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appropriate communication skills such as ability to present quantitative and qualitative
information, together with analysis, argument and commentary, in an appropriate form;
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ability to work in groups and other appropriate inter-personal skills, including oral and
written presentation skills.
Information relating to careers can be accessed here
12. Teaching, learning and assessment strategies to enable outcomes to be achieved
and demonstrated
Teaching and learning strategies:
Students acquire their detailed knowledge and understanding of the course, and their subject
specific skills, through a combination of lectures, problem classes and progression to guided
independent study, reinforced by the opportunity to meet teachers and their academic advisers
one-to-one in office hours.
Course reading lists include not only leading textbooks but references to current research
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literature and primary sources, including relevant examples from current practice, official and
professional policy documents, websites and other electronic data sources.
Academic teaching staff are leading-edge researchers who give students an insight into current
thinking and recent developments in their fields. Several teachers and academic advisers are
also involved in policy advice and formation and give students insights into real-world
developments in accounting and finance and the forces that shape them.
Professionals working in the field contribute as part-time lecturers and class teachers.
Students have the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience of IT and information systems
applications as well as familiarity with electronic databases.
Assessment strategies:
Summative assessment of knowledge and understanding and of subject-specific skills is by 3hr
unseen examinations at the end of each year.
Formative assessment is through class assignments, including numerical and computer-based
exercises, critical essays and commentaries, and individual and group presentations, for
example on case studies and mini-projects or in ‘role-plays’.
Cognitive and non-subject specific skills are developed in parallel with the development of - and
through the same teaching and assessment structures that are designed to achieve the
appropriate levels of - the knowledge and understanding and subject specific skills described
above.
13. Programme structures and requirements, levels, modules and awards
Programme regulations can be viewed here
Additional information
14. Criteria for admission to the programme
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Normal academic entry requirement is AAA at A level or IB diploma with 38 points
including 7 6 6 or 6 6 6, or equivalent level of attainment. At least level A at GCSE
maths or equivalent;
Students seeking direct entry to the second year, and mature students, are given
individual requirements according to their particular background and circumstances;
LSE General Course students seeking direct entry to the third year must attain 1 mark
of at least 70%, 2 further marks of at least 60% and 1 further mark of at least 50% in
their year-end examinations. They must have taken at least one accounting paper and
one finance paper during the General Course year and attain at least 60% in each of
those papers, and the papers taken during the General Course year must meet the
requirements of papers 5-12 of the regulations for the BSc Accounting and Finance;
Non-English speakers must meet the School's English Language requirements.
15. Indicators of quality
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Applications for places: (2010) 1,994 for 123 target places;
RAE rating (2008): Business and Management Studies: 70% of research outputs
graded at 3* or 4* and ranked in top 5 UK HEIs;
The department is responsible for the management of the Centre for Analysis of Risk
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and Regulation (‘CARR’);
The academic staff include several professionally-qualified accountants who hold or
have held senior positions in their professional bodies;
A large proportion of the professors of accounting in the UK are former members of
staff and/or former students of the department. Current and former members of staff,
and/or former students, have won many of the awards for ‘Distinguished academic of
the year’ awarded by the British Accounting Association (‘BAA’);
Individual exemptions granted by various professional accountancy bodies including
ICAEW and ACCA.
16. Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standard of teaching and
learning
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The School’s Teaching and Learning Centre is available to monitor and observe
teaching and offers constructive advice on how to improve the standard of teaching
quality;
Departmental TLAC review once every five years;
The Teaching Learning and Assessment Committee which regulates all aspects of
teaching quality;
The Undergraduate Studies Sub-Committee which oversees all undergraduate
programmes and ensures that significant changes to programmes and courses pass
through a sequence of formal stages, so that curricular changes are appropriate and
compatible with other developments;
The Department’s additional quality evaluation procedures are coordinated through
its Teaching Quality Enhancement Panel. Primary responsibility lies with individual
course leaders, course lecturers, class teachers, and academic advisers and their
own self-evaluation is focussed primarily through the Department’s annual course
reviews and peer-teaching observations, the TQARO student satisfaction surveys
and the School’s mentoring and staff appraisal processes.
Other Departmental structures and processes include:
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ad hoc reviews such as the current BSc Review, looking at the degree as a whole;
the annual Departmental Examination Sub-Board meetings and the External
Examiners’ reports;
the termly Departmental meeting;
the responsibilities of the Departmental Tutor;
student feedback and consultation through the undergraduate staff-student liaison
committee (SSLC);
annual post-examinations feedback meeting on overall programme with graduating
third year students;
start and end of session meetings with part-time teachers.
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