Getting down to business at Bangor University

What do Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page have in common?

Most people would say “money” and they wouldn’t be too far off the mark. But the real on-the-money answer (or answers) is: good ideas, tenacity, hard work, courage and good business intuition.

As Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh said, “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you”.

With teaching and research-focused courses designed to lay solid foundations for the budding entrepreneur, financial analyst or chartered banker, Bangor University’s Business School certainly means business; it is the ultimate preparatory ground for the world’s next generation of Jobs, Murdochs and Zuckerbergs.

 


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At the Business School, students can choose from a full range of disciplines from undergraduate to doctoral level in business, management, marketing, banking and finance, all of which provide graduates with the tools they’ll need to scale that corporate ladder with ease.

Two of the best roads to business success at Bangor lie in its Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 1 pathway and Banking and Finance (Chartered Banker) postgraduate courses which are available for September and January starts.

Anyone looking to become an investment professional would want to earn the prestigious CFA designation, the most recognised and acclaimed investment credential in the world. According to the CFA Institute, the charter is a definitive standard that measures competence, integrity and dedication, and is the “professional standard of choice for more than 31,000 investment firms worldwide”. For example, the top 11 global employers of charterholders include firms like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, UBS, RBC, HSBC, Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Smith Barney, BlackRock, and Citigroup.

The CFA Institute also acknowledges that CFA students are recognised for their real-world expertise and ethical grounding. Charterholders don’t just join a global community of investment professionals worldwide, they also enjoy employer demand in jobs like financial adviser, research analyst or portfolio manager.

 


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According to Mumbai-based CFA Anil Ghelani, a CFA qualification is considered a career advantage.

“When evaluating two candidates, all else being equal, but one has the CFA designation, [they’ll] bring deeper knowledge and deeper ethics to your company,” he said.

In the CFA pathway at Bangor’s Business School, students undertake a Financial Research & CFA Series during the summer followed by two days of research seminars in June and five two-day blocks of specialist training for the Level 1 CFA exam provided by Fitch Learning. The CFA Level 1 pathway is available alongside the MBA, MSc and MA programmes in Accounting, Banking, Management and Finance and provides a strong foundation of advanced investment analysis and real-world portfolio management skills.

For those looking to pursue their masters in Banking and Finance, Bangor has this to offer: Graduates here stand out among their peers pursuing finance in schools elsewhere as Bangor Business School is one of only four Chartered Banker Institute ‘Centres of Excellence’ in the UK and is a leading European centre known for its high standards and expertise.

The aspiring finance student at Bangor can choose to pursue an MA and MSc in Banking and Finance (Chartered Banker) and will  graduate with a dual award  — MA/MSc Banking and Finance and the Chartered Banker Diploma, the highest award available in the banking world. Bangor is among a limited group of business schools to offer such dual awards.

Both qualifications provide students with advanced-level management and business training relating to practical managerial areas in banking and finance. They also provide a familiarity with the latest strategic, managerial and industrial developments in the financial services industry.

Bangor Business School also has a well-established Chartered Banker MBA for experienced professionals. All programmes offered are due to its long-standing collaboration with the Chartered Banker Institute.

 


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Apart from its cutting-edge programmes, the Business School also boasts a long tradition of academic excellence that is recognised worldwide. It is currently ranked within the top 25 institutions in the world for Banking research (RePEc August 2016) and within the UK top 10 for student satisfaction in the subject area of Finance (National Student Survey 2016).

For this reason, Bangor continues to attract students the world over who are drawn to the institution’s reputation for maintaining high standards, particularly in the banking and finance field of study.

In terms of research achievements, Bangor is also well ahead of the UK average with a 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) finding that 77 percent of research conducted at the university was rated in the top two tiers of research quality.  Bangor Business School was ranked in the top 25% of all business schools in the UK for research “intensity” following the most recent REF.

Staff research papers and articles are regularly published in leading journals and books and their consultancy work has included major policy studies for the European Commission, The World Bank and the UK Treasury.

Famous graduates from Bangor University include film director Danny Boyle to former Mauritius Prime Minister Paul Berenger, Chief UK Economist for Deutsche Bank in London George Buckley, actress Frances Barber and physiologist and pioneer in reproductive medicine Robert Edwards.

 


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The university is located in Bangor in North Wales which, apart from being a safe city, is also known as a popular destination for international students due to affordability. Furthermore, the university also has scholarship programmes up for offer, some that grant winning scholars full tuition funding.

The university provides excellent internship schemes, industry partnership, careers fair and professional accreditation to help students secure jobs. According to a DLHE survey in 2014/15, 95.2% of graduates from the Business School had employment or had embarked on further study within six months of graduation.

Feature image via Bangor University