Accounting and Economics with Foundation Year

Accounting and economics is a combination that addresses two of the most practically consequential disciplines in modern professional and business life. Accounting is the systematic recording, analysis, and reporting of financial information, underpinning how organisations understand their financial position and communicate it to investors, regulators, and other stakeholders. Economics provides the broader analytical framework for understanding how markets, firms, and governments make decisions, and how those decisions aggregate into the patterns of growth, inequality, and change that define economic life.

Together, they develop a profile that is genuinely distinctive.

At Birkbeck College, this four-year full-time programme begins with a foundation year, giving students who need it the academic preparation to succeed in the main degree. Birkbeck's London location and longstanding reputation in professional education mean you study in close proximity to the global financial centre, and the programme is designed to equip you with the essential knowledge and professional skills to build a career in accounting and financial services. You will develop mastery of accounting principles, financial reporting, management accounting, and auditing alongside the economic theory and quantitative methods that help you understand the markets and institutions in which accountants operate.

The typical entry tariff is 88 UCAS points.

Graduates of accounting and economics programmes are well placed for careers in public accounting, corporate finance, management consultancy, investment banking, insurance, and economic analysis. Many graduates pursue professional accountancy qualifications with bodies such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales or ACCA, and the degree provides a strong foundation for that pathway. Others move into economic policy, financial analysis, or business advisory roles where both financial and economic expertise are needed.

Postgraduate study in accounting, economics, or finance is also a common route for those who want to develop specialist expertise.