Business & administrative studies - an overview

• Introduction
• Destinations
• Types of work
• Graduate salaries
• Contacts and resources

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For a group of courses that arguably has just one purely vocational course, namely accountancy, business, finance and management graduates continue to appeal to employers with consistently high percentages entering employment upon graduation. Implicit in this statistic is the attraction of the skills, knowledge and aptitude of these graduates to employers.

According to The AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 2003: Summer Review from the Association of Graduate Recuiters, the 2002/3 recruitment season has seen a 3.4% drop in graduate vacancies compared to the numbers actually recruited in 2002, which follows the 6.5% drop reported a year previously. As the British economy continues to stutter, the number of graduate vacancies falls and the ‘R’ word is whispered quietly in polite conversation (recession that is), the performance of business, finance and management graduates in entering the labour market remains healthy.

Table 1 reveals the destinations of accountancy and business and management graduates in 1999 and 2002. Although the number of graduates has risen by over 600 since 1999, the figures display only slight changes across all destination categories between these years. The 76.3% of accountancy and 76.1% of business and management graduates entering employment in 2002 is significantly higher than the 66.9% figure for all first degree graduates and suggests that business and administrative studies graduates are a marketable commodity to employers. With a healthy percentage going into employment, it is unsurprising that in 2002 just 8.5% of graduates from business and administrative studies entered further study. This contrasts sharply with the figure of 18.7% for all first degree graduates.

With over 11,000 graduates in 2002, it is obvious that business and administrative studies courses are popular degree choices. As has been highlighted, employment prospects are good and this is further supported by recent research from Hanover Fox International. This research found that the most common academic background of FTSE 100 business leaders is accountancy and finance, with four in ten leaders possessing qualifications in these subject areas.

Business and accountancy graduates enter accountancy or business-related careers in large numbers. The data for job destinations reveals that 81% of accountancy graduates and 56% of business and management studies graduates take up opportunities in these areas.* Looking at the accountancy data in detail, chartered, certified, management and public accountancy positions in particular attract high numbers of accountancy graduates with 39% in 2002 entering these areas of employment.

However, not all graduates from these disciplines enter work in financial and accountancy professions, with other choices including management roles in the commercial, industrial and public sector. The data for 2002 also show that just less than 1% entered the teaching profession whilst under 2% found employment in information technology.

* In both cases percentages for type of work categories marketing, sales, PR & advertising occupations, commercial, industrial & public sector managers, business & finance professionals and associate professionals, and numerical clerks & cashiers were totalled.

Competitive average salaries are offered in all occupations popular amongst business and administrative graduates. Analysis of vacancies from the graduate vacancy bulletin Prospects Today shows an average starting salary for UK graduates of £17,828, with finance, IT and management consultancy all offering salaries above this figure, with averages of £18,093, £18,841 and £20,308 respectively. These figures are shown in Figure 1. The AGR Survey conducted with 195 major graduate recruiters in June 2003 reveals a median graduate starting salary of £28,500 for consulting, £21,500 for accountancy and £19,000 for human resources.

Websites

Resources on this site

• Options with your subjects
• Explore types of jobs - occupations especially relevant to business and finance graduates can be found under administration, buying, selling and retailing, finance and insurance and pensions.

General links

• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• Biz Ed
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
• Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
• Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA)
• Chartered Management Institute (CMI)
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)
• ifs School of Finance

Publications

Graduate Prospects publications

Graduate Prospects and AGCAS publications should be available in your university careers service. You can also order publications from us.

• Prospects Today, Graduate Prospects, weekly.

Others

• The AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 2003: Summer Review, conducted for the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) by High Fliers Research, July 2003.
• Route To the Top, Dr. E. Marx, Hanover Fox International, July 2003.
• Careers in Accountancy (7th Edition), Kogan Page, ISBN: 0749430486
• Q&A: Accountancy (2nd Edition), Trotman, ISNB: 0856606561
• Accountancy Uncovered (2003), Trotman, ISBN: 0856609005
• Getting into the City, Trotman, ISBN: 0856606839
• Careers in the City by Joanna Minett, Management Books 2000, ISBN: 1852523794