Business and Sociology

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.

Sociology

Sociology is the systematic study of social relations, be they on the micro level of group interaction or the macro level of the nation state and global society. Sociology is not only interested in economic relations but in behaviour that is guided by norms and values, culture and belief. It draws upon insights from sociological theories and applies them to contemporary social issues, thus developing them further. Sociology tries to provide answers to questions such as: what is the structure of contemporary society? How has it developed? What changes do we observe? Which institutions govern social action? Why do they change? Which actors shape social change?

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.

Sociology

Sociology is the systematic study of social relations, should they be on the micro level of group interaction or the macro level of the nation state and global society. At Aston University we provide a sound training in techniques of sociological research and analysis. Combining cross-country and historical analysis, this will help you to understand the society we live in. Students will gain the skills to carry out their own empirical research, based on theoretical paradigms and methodological tools. Through a range of teaching and assessment methods, we provide a variety of learning experiences and include ample opportunity for students to express themselves and develop their abilities.

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.

Sociology

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.

The Business programme aims to prepare you for managerial positions and will develop your skills as a problem solver, planner and leader. You will have the opportunity to develop the skills to deploy key resources such as people, time and money efficiently and effectively.

Sociology

The placement year at Aston University has an enviable reputation. This year provides the opportunity to develop professional skills by spending a year in paid employment.

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.

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 placement officer, who works with students individually to help them plan and organise for this exciting and rewarding year.

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

In combination with the other Combined Honours subjects, Sociology provides a good basis for a wide variety of work, wherever there is demand for an understanding of social processes. This includes management in the private, public and voluntary sectors and, with further professional training, careers in social work, education and communications.

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.

Sociology

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