Accounting and finance is the most reliably employable business degree we place Nepalese students on, and that is not a marketing line. Every organisation of any size needs people who can read a set of accounts, and the qualification maps directly onto professional bodies recognised in Nepal, the UK, the Gulf and Australia alike.
A BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance degree covers both halves of the discipline. Accounting is the record: how transactions become financial statements, and how those statements are audited and taxed. Finance is the decision: how a business raises money, where it invests, and how it prices risk.
What you study
Three years for the honours degree, four with a placement year. The shape is fairly consistent across UK universities because the professional bodies influence the curriculum.
- Year one: financial accounting, management accounting, business law, quantitative methods and the economic environment.
- Year two: corporate finance, financial reporting, auditing, taxation, and management accounting for decision making.
- Year three: advanced financial reporting, strategic management accounting, investment and portfolio management, financial risk, and usually a dissertation.
The professional exemptions are the point
An accredited UK accounting degree normally carries exemptions from a number of ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW professional papers. That can save you a year or more of study after graduation and a substantial sum in exam fees. Accreditation is course-specific and gets reviewed periodically, so before you accept an offer, ask us to confirm the current exemption list for that exact course. It is the single most valuable question a student in this subject can ask, and most do not ask it.
Entry requirements from Nepal
Requirements vary between universities and can change from one intake to the next, so treat the figures below as the usual range rather than a promise. We check your documents against each university current criteria before we submit anything.
- Academic: +2, A-Levels or IB with roughly 60 per cent and above for direct entry into year one. Students who fall short are usually offered an international foundation year, which adds twelve months and then feeds into the same degree. Strong mathematics in +2 helps, and some universities ask for it explicitly.
- English: IELTS 6.0 overall with no individual band below 5.5 is the most common undergraduate requirement. A number of our partner universities also accept PTE Academic, Duolingo or a Medium of Instruction letter from Tribhuvan, Pokhara or Kathmandu University. Our IELTS score comparison shows how the tests line up, and we list the routes that do not need IELTS.
- Study gap: gaps are accepted by most universities, commonly up to five years and in some cases up to ten, provided you can account for the time.
- Finance: for the student visa you must evidence your first year tuition plus living costs. Current maintenance rates are 1,529 pounds a month for London and 1,171 pounds a month elsewhere, held for nine months. See our page on UK university fees for international students.
Where the degree leads
- Audit and assurance with practice firms, from the largest international networks down to regional practices
- Financial and management accounting inside companies
- Tax advisory
- Corporate finance, treasury and financial analysis
- Banking, insurance and financial services
- Finance roles back in Nepal with an internationally recognised qualification behind you
Accounting has been a persistent shortage area in the UK, which makes it one of the more realistic routes from a student visa to the Graduate Route and then to sponsored employment. It is also one of the easiest qualifications to bring home, since ACCA in particular is well established in Nepal.
An honest word on whether it suits you
This degree rewards students who are comfortable being precise and who are willing to sit professional exams for several years after graduating. It punishes students who chose it because relatives said accounting is safe. If numbers bore you, business management or marketing will serve you better and you will do better in them.
If numbers do not bore you, this is arguably the strongest value for money on our whole course list.
Talk to Real Dreams before you apply
Real Dreams has been placing Nepalese students in UK universities since 2003, and course choice is where most applications are won or lost. Bring us your +2 or bachelor transcripts and we will tell you honestly which universities are likely to take you for accounting and finance, which intake gives you the best chance, and what the first year really costs once tuition, deposit and maintenance funds are counted.
Counselling is free. Visit our offices in Kathmandu, Chitwan, Pokhara, Butwal or Bhairahawa, or our London office in the UK, and get in touch whenever you are ready. You can also start your application, read our guide to studying in the UK from Nepal, or browse the full course list.
