By Robbie Bailey
The first year of study for the BA Accounting and Financial Management degree is designed to give students an introduction to a number of topics within finance. There are a lot of core modules in the first year programme to ensure that all students get the same basic knowledge which then helps them to decide which routes they would like to take to tailor their degree in the second and third years of study. I came to the University of Sheffield with no experience of accountancy or finance at all so it was very helpful for me that the modules required no prior knowledge of the subject, just a desire to learn and a bit of hard work!
Two important first year modules are ‘Introduction to Financial Accounting’ and
‘Introduction to Management Accounting’. The financial accounting module covers the basics of company reports, things like Balance Sheets and Cash Flow Statements, and explains how they are created. You will also cover the fundamental accounting principles that form the foundations for these reports. Management Accounting focusses on the accounting processes within an organisation like Cost-Volume-Profit analysis and Budgeting. You may find it helpful to do some research before you arrive in Sheffield, as to the differences between financial and management accounting to give yourself a head-start!
There are a number of other compulsory modules aimed at giving you a strong foundation on which to build later into your studies here at Sheffield. ‘Business Economics’ is a one-semester crash course in basic economic theory. Personally, I struggled at first with this module as I had never done economics before but as the weeks passed I became more comfortable and got a good result in my exam. The ‘Behaviour at Work’ module covers organisational behaviour and provides an introduction to areas such as Leadership Theory and Motivation Theory. I found this module very interesting as it gave a great overview of the day-to-day decisions managers face and the theories that underpin their approaches. ‘Professional Self-Management’ helped me to gain valuable knowledge about my career development. This involved guest speakers from a number of organisations including BT and Enterprise Rent-a-Car and CV writing sessions.
My favourite module from year one was ‘Analysis for Decision Making’. I have a strong mathematical background as I studied both Maths and Further Maths at a-level so I enjoyed this module as it is effectively a statistics module. This course takes statistical methods like probability distributions, hypothesis testing and regression analysis and shows how they are used in the finance world day-to-day. I chose to study BA Accounting and Financial Management as I wanted to focus my maths skills into a particular field and this module was my first opportunity to do that. Those of you who have not done a-level maths, don’t panic! The module is divided into two halves (A and B) and those students doing Analysis for Decision Making B, who don’t have a maths a-level, are given more contact hours to ensure that everyone is at the same standard.
You will also have one unrestricted module, which means you can do 10 credits of any subject you like from a long list of modules from throughout the university. I did a post-GCSE level German module that helped me to further improve my language skills, but many people choose to take the ‘Business Challenges’ module offered by the Management School. This gives students the opportunity to take part in a number of challenges that require the use of team-working, problem-solving and leadership skills and provides a great experience to add to any job applications.
To summarise, the first year of study here at the Sheffield University Management School provides a fantastic foundation knowledge on all the key areas of finance and really helps students to decide where their interests may lie. This learning experience partnered with the excitement of first year university life makes for a brilliant year all-round!