What Are My Business Degree Options with A-levels?

If you’re studying for A-levels right now, you have a wide range of options if you’re considering a business related degree.

Business degree: Traditional university route

UK universities and business schools offer a variety of undergraduate business, finance and accountancy courses to choose from. (You can check out more on what each subject generally entails in our Courses section!)

You could opt for a Single Honours Bachelor’s degree, in which you’ll focus on one subject with a mixture of mandatory and elective modules.

A few universities offer the opportunity to study your chosen subject as a sandwich course. This means that the course will usually last four years instead of three, and in your third year you will undertake a full-time work placement with an organisation. You’ll have to organise your placement year yourself (i.e. apply for advertised placement positions and go through an interview process), however your university will support you with this. You’ll have the flexibility to apply for a placement with a firm in an industry that really interests you, and if you’re planning on a career in banking, finance and accountancy after university then this is the perfect chance to gain some relevant experience!

You could also consider a Joint Honours degree and take two business/finance subjects. Alternatively, you could take a business subject subjects alongside something from the arts/humanities/social sciences to mix it up a bit. A language could be useful in the business world, so if you’re a linguist you could combine and develop your skills and interests in an applied sense to business studies for example.

The minimum grade requirements for courses will vary depending on the course and institution you look to apply to. If you decide to take this route, you’ll be able to apply for a student loan to cover the tuition fees (currently £9,000 per year) and to help with your living costs, although this alone may not be enough to cover the overall costs of university, so you’ll have to think about how you will fund it.

Business degree: Sponsored degree programme

If you’re sure you want to do a business degree, and have an interest in a career in accountancy or finance, then you could also consider the sponsored degree route.

Sponsored degrees relating to business are mostly currently offered by Professional services firms or accountancy firms in conjunction with their partner universities. As such, the subjects mostly on offer tend to be accounting combined with either finance or business.

If you’re interested in going to university but not sold on the idea of student debt then a sponsored degree could be a great option for you. The sponsoring firm will pay for your tuition fees/provide you with a bursary to help you with costs.

Another key feature of a sponsored degree is the fact that you’ll have guaranteed work placements with your sponsoring firm throughout the course of the degree. Depending on the structure of the programme, this could take the form of a whole year (paid) with the firm before you move into final year at university, or perhaps paid summer placements. The benefit of this is that it’s all prearranged and part of the programme, so you’re guaranteed to get a reputable name on your CV and some great work experience. What’s more, you could potentially gain a place on their graduate programme once you’ve completed your degree.

You’ll still have to meet minimum grade requirements in your A-levels (or equivalent) in order to be eligible for a sponsored degree programme.