| Qualification | Start dates | Entry requirements | Full- or Part-time | UCAS Code | Assessment | |
| Bachelor of Sciences (BSc Hons) | January | A-level: BBB, or evidence of entrepreneurship | Level of English required | Full-time | N190 | Exam, written assessment and business review |
Course outline
This programme will interest you if you want to:
- Start and develop your own new business at the same time as studying for an honours degree.
- Establish a Social Enterprise during your studies or on graduation.
- Make a positive contribution to the strategic development of a family business or other small or medium enterprise.
- Develop an entrepreneurial or “can do” approach to business to enhance your future career in any size of company.
The course is unique as we provide the opportunity to ‘pitch’ for ‘seed-corn’ capital for you to start and run your own business as an integral part of your honours degree. We offer a range of business subjects that will help you to establish your business and develop your qualities of entrepreneurship, management and innovation. Our interdisciplinary programme offers you a combination of current theory and a practical approach to help you succeed in business, constantly linking the classroom to the marketplace.
- See a video interview of Nigel Adams (Programme Director, BSc Business Enterprise) talking about the programme
- Hear an audio interview with Nigel Adams about the programme, by Colin Jones of the University of Tasmania
- Read about the experiences of Business Enterprise graduates
- Read about our visiting speakers
- Follow us:
In the first semester, you will learn how to create an effective business plan. This will form the basis of your ‘pitch’ to obtain your ‘seed-corn’ capital from our investment panel ‘Buckingham Angels’. The funding for the “seed corn” capital has been kindly donated by Legal & General and a private donor, the late Mr John ‘Jack’ Desborough.
During the following 18 months, you will be establishing and ‘growing’ the business, at the same time as developing your academic knowledge in-depth across the range of business subjects needed to obtain an honours degree in Business Enterprise.
All of the first cohorts of BSc Business Enterprise graduates have established their own businesses, been appointed to interesting jobs or have gone on to postgraduate study, using their enterprise education and entrepreneurial skills.
It would help your application if you are able to show us a desire to be an entrepreneur, with determination to succeed. This may include involvement in Young Enterprise, or ideas for business you may have developed yourself.
Teaching methods
Teaching is carried out through a combination of lectures supported by tutorials, workshops and seminars. A key feature of the Buckingham teaching method is the use of small tutorial groups which provide the most effective means of ensuring that the students benefit from the academic expertise at their disposal. It is also the philosophy of the Business School to be available to students outside the scheduled tutorial times and to encourage good working relationships between staff and students.
Business Enterprise is unique in offering practical workshops, as well as an open-door policy with the course tutors, whom students can always approach to ask for help or advice. In addition, external entrepreneurs are invited to make presentations to BSc Business Enterprise students in the Winter and Summer Terms to help inspire as well as inform the students on the programme.
At the beginning of each term, we provide our students with module outlines and reading lists for each module. We also provide a tutorial question pack, which the students work through week by week. Each week corresponds with the subject given in the lectures and at each tutorial the students have the opportunity to discuss their answers to the tutorial questions. Solutions to the numerical tutorial questions are handed out each week so, by the end of the term, the students have a very useful pack of material to help with their revision. Lecturers are available throughout the term to help students with their revision for the examinations. An increasing proportion of course material is available on the University’s own Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Running a business
This element of the course is conducted in four stages:
Starting a Business
- Innovation & Entrepreneurship
- Business Planning
- Marketing
- Operations Management 1
- Service Management 1
- Computer Systems
Business Launch
- Innovation & Entrepreneurship 2
- Operations Management 2
- Financial Control
- E-Business
- Marketing Communications
Business Operation
- Marketing: Implementation & Growth
- Business Records 1
- Service Management 2
- Operations Management 3
Business Transition
- Selling Yourself and Your Products
- Business Records 2
- Transition Strategy
Students must also submit Quarterly Business Review Reports and a Final Business Review Report, which are assessed as part of their honours degree.
Visiting speakers
External entrepreneurs are invited to make presentations to BSc Business Enterprise students in the Winter and Summer Terms.
Videos of previous talks:
- Noam Kostucki (Managing Director, Seeducation), “The 9 most useful things I learned from entrepreneurship”, 17 March 2010: video on YouTube
- Noam Kostucki (Managing Director, Seeducation), “When business meets charity”, 17 March 2010: video on YouTube
What our students and alumni say
“Having graduated in February 2009, I decided that I wanted to follow a career in accountancy. Despite the difficult financial situation at the time, my first class honours degree, and experience running my own business at Buckingham, enabled me to get a job as a Trainee Accountant, working for Michael J Emery & Co. Ltd in Newport Pagnell.
I am also studying for my ACCA qualifications, which will take about three years. So far I have completed the knowledge-based aspect of the qualification. I am learning all aspects of accounting and have assisted on some company audits.
My experience on the BSc Business Enterprise course has given me valuable insights into business, which have helped greatly in my accountancy training and work. I am able to understand the problems encountered by the owners and managers of companies and can also see where our firm can help our business customers.”
Joanna Major (Business Enterprise 2008)
Read more about the experiences of our BSc Business Enterprise graduates
Why not visit Buckingham?
If you visit Buckingham you can find out more about the Business Enterprise degree and also have the opportunity to meet some Business Enterprise students. Please get in touch with us to arrange a tour.
