Programme Specifications

Programme summary

1. Programme Aims

• Provide a relevant, practical and constantly updated programme which allows students to focus on particular functions within the business environment, namely banking and finance, and to place these functions and their operations in context within the wider business and management field;
• Provide a relevant and practical programme through close links with many large organisations and through enabling students to apply their learning to their workplace on a continuous basis;
• Enable students to see ways in which theory can be applied in practice, both through taught content and through the students’ own work experience, particularly in the areas of banking and finance;
• Develop teaching and learning in response to the needs of the business community;
• Enhance the employability of our graduates through building on their prior studies and their experience in commerce and industry.

2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external reference points used to inform programme outcomes:

• The benchmark statement for General Business and Management (B&M)
• The benchmark statement for Finance (F)
• The Framework for Higher Education Qualifications
• QAA Audit of Overseas Collaborative Arrangements

3. Programme Learning Outcomes

3.1 Knowledge and Understanding

On successful completion of this programme students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding in the following areas: 

• Foundation disciplines of business and management, including economics, finance, marketing and statistics sufficient to enable a clear understanding of the central aspects of the main business and management functions (B&M);
• The economic, technological, financial, legal, cultural and political context within which banks and other businesses operate, including the institutional framework necessary for understanding the role, operation and markets of financial institutions (B&M, F);
• Integration of concepts from the various business disciplines to comprehend business situations and develop appropriate analysis, responses and solutions in both a national and international context (B&M);
• The major theoretical tools and theories of finance and their relevance and application to practical problems (F);
• The development of appropriate policies and strategies at corporate level for banks and their clients within a dynamic (international) environment (B&M amended);
• The key communication and information technologies used in business and management (B&M).

3.2 Skills and other attributes

a. Subject-specific cognitive skills:

On successful completion of this programme students should be able to: 

• Reason numerically and have the ability to interpret numerical information;
• Analyse and apply information from a variety of sources, including publicly available material;
• Use critical thinking, analysis and synthesis to evaluate and apply concepts and insights from business disciplines, including comprehension of complex scenarios;
• Effectively formulate and solve problems, both structured and unstructured, and take decisions using appropriate qualitative and quantitative skills, including the ability to identify and evaluate a range of analyses and solutions;
• Relate theory to practice in banking, finance and wider business environments.

b. Subject-specific practical skills:

On successful completion of this programme students should have achieved the following subject-specific practical skills: 

• Create, exploit and apply quantitative and economic modelling techniques to business and finance problems and phenomena;
• Analyse and draw reasoned conclusions concerning structured and unstructured problems in the context of business, banking and finance (F amended)
• Apply understanding to a variety of working environments and adapt and implement taught elements of the programme into live work-place situations (B&M).

c. Key transferable skills:

On completion of the programme, students will be expected to have acquired the following general and transferable skills: 

• Use of effective personal organisation including time management, self-direction, self-motivation, tenacity and pro-activeness;
• Use of effective oral and written communication using a range of media;
• Use of information and communication technologies in a business context including word processing, storage and manipulation of data, generation of presentations, use of Internet and e-mail using appropriate software;
• Conduct research effectively and efficiently using a range of sources of business-related materials including books, journals, trade and financial press, official statistics and the Internet;
• Work effectively, efficiently and co-operatively as a team member and, when appropriate, organise, guide, motivate and resolve conflict with other team members;
• Use numerical reasoning, interpret numerical information and apply appropriate mathematical and statistical techniques;
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of how people work individually, in groups and within organisations.

4. Programme structure

4.1       Part A - Introductory Modules

            COMPULSORY MODULES (total modular weight 120)

Candidates holding the PSBAcademy / PSB-IPT Advanced Diploma in Human Resource Management may elect to have a mark of 55% inserted as their module mark for “Organisational Behaviour and Management”, BSA650 without taking any form of assessment in that module. 

Candidates holding the PSB Academy / PSB-IPT Advanced Diploma in Marketing and Sales Management may elect to have a mark of 55% inserted as their module mark for “Introduction to Marketing”, BSA665, without taking any form of assessment in that module.

4.2       Part B - Degree Modules

            COMPULSORY MODULES (total modular weight 100)

            OPTION MODULES (Students to choose one from two). Total modular weight 20

4.3       Part C - Degree Modules 

            COMPULSORY MODULES (total modular weight 120)

5. Criteria for Progression and Degree Award

In order to progress from Part A to Part B and from Part B to C and to be eligible for the award of an Honours degree, candidates must satisfy the minimum credit requirements set out in Regulation XX. 

For the purposes of interpreting regulation XX sections on “Arrangements for Re-assessment”, candidates will be considered to be registered on a full-time programme rather than a part-time programme.

Provision will be made in accordance with Regulation XX for candidates who have the right of re-assessment in any Part of the programme to undergo re-assessment in the Special Assessment period or when the assessment next takes place. Notwithstanding Regulation XX paragraph 47, unless otherwise stated by the Programme Board, part-time students may choose whether to take re-assessments either in the SAP, over the academic year, or where more than one re-assessment is to be taken, a combination of both.

6. Relative Weighting of Parts of the Programme for the Purposes of Final Degree Classification

Candidates’ final degree classification will be determined on the basis of their performance in degree level Module Assessments in Parts B and C, in accordance with the scheme set out in regulation XX.  The average percentage marks for each Part will be combined in the ratio Part B 25: Part C 75, to determine the final overall percentage mark for the Programme (the Programme Mark).