Business and Politics

Business

Business will equip you with essential business knowledge, techniques and theories. The course has a strong professional focus and ensures that you gain the insight and skills often sought by employers. The course encompasses a broad range of modules, such as Quantitative Techniques, Accounting, Economics, Marketing, Operations Management, Organisational Behaviour and Strategic Management. There is also emphasis on other skills such as presentation, organisation, communication and IT, which are developed throughout the course. Business will allow you to enjoy extensive and varied career opportunities.

This programme aims to deepen your understanding of how businesses operate and to develop your ability to recognise and analyse the economic, technical, financial, social and organisational parameters within which modern managers make decisions.

Politics

Politics will deepen your understanding of the world. You will gain knowledge about the institutions, processes and concepts of politics as well as a general insight into how these affect society, both in the UK and overseas. An understanding and awareness of politics is vital for many of today's graduates and can open many doors in the job market. It will provide you with a range of desirable skills that employers often struggle to find in a graduate, such as communication skills and critical thinking and the ability to question and evaluate data from many sources.

The course will allow you to develop understanding and perspective that can be applied in many careers. Possible careers that graduates may follow are extremely varied and may include public relations, journalism, government positions at all levels, banking, finance and many more. It also provides a good academic basis for those who later choose to take a professional qualification in law.

Key benefits

Business

Aston Business School has an excellent reputation for teaching and research. It scored 24/24 in the latest Teaching Quality Assessment and gained a very high grade of 5 for its research. There is a wide range of subjects on offer to complement Business. The course offers an extensive choice of final year options, enabling you to tailor your degree to specific needs and interests. Graduates of Business are entitled to exemptions from a number of the professional accreditation foundation stage exams, including those of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Institute of Chartered Accountants and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Aston's Business graduates have a strong track record of graduate employment success. This is strongly influenced by Aston's excellent placement opportunities.

Aston Business School is rated as one of the UK's leading Business Schools. It offers a range of general business and management degrees together with more specialist offerings and has one of the largest MSc. programmes in the country. Although Aston University is relatively small, Aston Business School is one of the largest in the UK with around 3000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. Confidence in Aston's success has led to a significant investment programme in recent years and the School offers its own high quality conference and hotel accommodation on its premises close to the centre of Birmingham.

Politics

Whatever the choice of programme, the Aston approach to the study of politics is distinctive. Attention is paid to concepts, theories and methods. There is a strong European and international orientation which includes the political and administrative workings of the European Union, European government, European regionalism and country-specific subjects. The programmes aim to encourage an ability to think critically about events, ideas and institutions, and to encourage students to relate the academic study of politics to questions of public concern.

Initially students will become familiar with general concepts in political and social thought, such as democracy, power, nation, nationalism, legitimacy, the state etc. Afterwards, they will acquire a concrete knowledge of the politics of various countries, notably the UK, France, Germany, and other European countries. They will also learn about the EU as a political and administrative organisation. In addition, practical methodological and research skills are taught to analyse political problems and issues. In the final year, students will be able to select the majority of the modules to study, enabling them to focus their degree appropriately to their specific interests.

Teaching and assessment

Business

You will experience a wide variety of learning and teaching methods, including:

• lectures, tutorials and seminars

• business exercises and case studies

• group and individual project work

• use of our extensive computing facilities

• corporate investigation and analysis

Students will be assessed in individual modules by end-of-semester (January & May/June) examinations and by assignments conducted and submitted during each session. Each module has its own method of assessment. Assessment methods include written exams, essays, presentations and projects.

Politics

You will experience a wide variety of learning and teaching methods, including:

• lectures, tutorials and seminars

• exercises and case studies

• group and individual project work

• use of our extensive computing facilities

• corporate investigation and analysis

Students will be assessed in individual modules by end-of-semester (January & May/June) examinations and by assignments conducted and submitted

Personal development

Business

There is the opportunity to develop professional skills and enhance employability by spending a year in paid employment with an industrial, commercial or public sector organisation. It is therefore strongly recommended that you choose a sandwich programme including a placement. However, it should be noted that a placement is compulsory only for Combined Honours students if they are studying a language as one of their subjects.

The year of paid employment can provide you with experience of the practical problems of management and lay the foundations for your final year of study. It is highly attractive to potential employers and around 30% of students are offered a job upon graduation by their placement year employer.

Aston Business School has excellent links with eight hundred and fifty companies both in the UK and abroad. Around two thousand jobs are advertised to students each year via the Placement Office website. Opportunities are available in a wide range of institutions, from large multi-national blue chip companies to small firms and charities.

The Placement Office will help you to secure a placement by providing information and guidance in a number of ways. It offers workshops on interview techniques, assessment centre tests, writing CVs and completing application forms. Students can also undertake mock interviews.

In the final year, students have the opportunity to specialise in areas of particular interest and relevance to their chosen career path.

Politics

The placement year at Aston has an enviable reputation and Politics students can opt to undertake this year, providing the opportunity to develop professional skills by spending a year in paid employment. The placement year is compulsory for students choosing to study Politics with a language.

When Politics is combined with French/German, a year abroad must be spent in a French/German speaking country to develop language-based skills. Students may choose to work in a well-known and established company , or as a teaching assistant in a school abroad, or follow a university programme at one of our ERASMUS partner institutions.

When Politics is taken as a major subject, with a language as a minor, the placement year is optional. Students can choose to study Politics overseas, or carry out a work placement in the UK. Certainly, for students studying language as a minor subject, we strongly recommend that they undertake a 10 week overseas placement to develop language skills.

Aston has one of the best records for graduate employment in the UK. The course will ensure that you will gain academic knowledge as well as developing a wide range of skills that are valued by employers. Aston Politics graduates are articulate and intellectually sophisticated; they are able to discuss in informed, analytical and critical ways the most important issues facing today's Europe and the world beyond.

The programmes are constantly under review to ensure that the currency and scope of the courses is suitable to today's needs and requirements of our graduates. They find employment in many different organisations and businesses, including political parties, business organisations, the Civil Service, semi-public agencies, journalism and academia.

Students are carefully prepared for the Year Abroad during their first two years at Aston, with excellent support both before and throughout the placement year. LSS has a dedicated and highly experienced placements officer, who works with students individually to help them plan and organise for this exciting and rewarding year.

Career prospects

Business

Combined Honours Business graduates have a consistently excellent track record in finding graduate jobs in the private and public sectors. Recent graduates have entered the job market in management positions for leading and well-established companies.

Examples include Marketing Officer for the Co-Op bank, Commercial manager for Marks and Spencer, Accountants for KPMG, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Baker Tilly and Deloitte and Touche.

Politics

The programmes are constantly under review to ensure that the currency and scope of the courses is suitable to today's needs and requirements of our graduates. They find employment in many different organisations and businesses, including political parties, business organisations, the Civil Service, semi-public agencies, journalism and academia.