Finance

Finance as an academic discipline is concerned with how capital is allocated, priced, and managed over time, and with the institutions and markets through which these processes occur. It draws on economics, mathematics, and statistics to develop models of financial decision-making under uncertainty, to understand the pricing of assets, to manage risk, and to evaluate investment opportunities. It is a rigorous and technically demanding field that sits at the heart of the global economy, and graduate-level understanding of finance is highly valued across banking, investment management, corporate finance, and economic policy.

At the University of Bath, this three-year full-time programme benefits from the university's strong reputation in management and economics and from its connections with the financial services industry. Bath's School of Management is consistently well regarded, and the finance degree combines theoretical depth with a practical orientation that reflects the professional world in which most graduates will work. You will study financial economics and asset pricing theory, corporate finance and capital structure, investment analysis and portfolio management, financial derivatives and risk management, and the statistical and econometric methods used in quantitative finance.

Mathematical and analytical skills are developed rigorously throughout, as finance at this level is genuinely quantitative.

The degree trains you to think clearly about uncertainty and value, to model financial systems with precision, and to communicate complex technical analysis to both specialist and general audiences. These capabilities are among the most sought after by employers in competitive financial services graduate recruitment.

Graduates from Bath finance go into investment banking, asset management, private equity, commercial banking, financial consultancy, corporate treasury, and quantitative roles in technology firms. The high academic standard of the degree and Bath's placement in competitive league tables make graduates attractive to the most selective employers. Professional qualifications such as the CFA can be pursued alongside or after the degree.

Postgraduate study in finance, financial economics, or quantitative finance is another route for those who want to deepen their technical expertise.