Business Studies and Law (with a placement year)

Our 4-year BSc (Hons) in Business Studies and Law gives you a clear understanding of the interface between business activity and the legal framework within which it operates.

It prepares you for business careers with a legal dimension, developing insight and transferable skills that set you apart in a competitive job marketplace. You’ll also be able to pursue a legal career through further study after graduation, with the advantage of additional commercial knowledge.

You’ll learn from sector-leading academics and seasoned business experts, and qualified solicitors and barristers with a wealth of real-world experience.

Law has an increasing influence on many aspects of business. It governs, for example:

• Contractual arrangements

• Employment protection

• Consumer protection

• Many aspects of accounting and finance

The growing importance of law has created new job opportunities in careers such as management, banking and finance, journalism and teaching – as well as increased demand in traditional legal roles.

Professional accreditation
This course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations, dependant on your chosen modules.

Placement
This 4-year programme offers you the opportunity to take up a placement year working in business in your third year.

Placements are real, paid jobs in a wide variety of organisations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors and offer you a valuable opportunity to experience first-hand how business, management and legal concepts are applied in practice, and to give you direct exposure to real issues in the workplace. It can also be done abroad.

In a competitive graduate market, valuable experience and employability skills gained from a year’s work placement will differentiate you from the thousands of other graduates seeking work.

We find that students return from their placement year with their confidence and personal skills enhanced and ready to implement their focused plan for the future.

The Faculty of Management and Law has an excellent network of organisations that offer placements including:

• IBM

• Vauxhall

• NHS

• GE Money

• Arris (formerly PACE)

• Enterprise Rent A Car

• Cummins

• Peugeot

Together we ensure your placement is appropriately challenging and that you can make a real and positive impact on the business.

Year one - Business Law and Ethics (core) Legal Relationships, Sources and Institutions (core) Operations and Information Systems Management (core) Foundations of Marketing (option) Introduction to Accounting (option) People, Work and Organisations (option)

Year two - Criminal Law(core) Employability and Enterprise Skills (core) Law in a Global Context (core) The Law of Tort (core) Employee Relations (option) Financial Management (option) Integrated Marketing Communications (option) Marketing Management and Strategy (option) Organisational Analysis (option) Organisational Design(option) Principles of Personal Finance (option) Transformation of Work (option)

Year four – Students are required to choose from the following options: Banking and Finance Law, Brand Management, Commercial Law, Company Law, Competition Law, Corporate Marketing, Creativity and Innovation, Dissertation, Employment Law, Enterprise and Innovation in Practice, Equity and Trusts, Ethics in Business and Society , European Employment Policy, Global Business Environment, Human Resource Development, Human Resource Management, Intellectual Property Law, International and Comparative Employment Relations, International Finance, International Marketing, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Organisational Change, Personal Financial Planning, Services Marketing, Sustainable Operations Management, Taxation, The Financial Services Sector and its Environment. Please note that not all options will be available every year as they depend on student demand and staff availability. Students will be given the opportunity to state their preferences and the School of Management will do its best to accommodate these.

Most modules use a mixture of formal lectures, tutorials and seminars. All modules require students to undertake independent study, supported through distance learning technologies such as our Virtual Learning Environment. Reading lists and suggested resources for independent study provide further direction for students to undertake this work, and regular contact hours and informal feedback throughout the courses provide opportunities for further guidance for learners.

Assessments involve a combination of coursework assessments and formal examinations held at the end of each semester, the first-year assessments aim to measure your progress and the assessments that count towards the classification of your degree are held in the second and final years.

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants