Why study business/commerce at UoN?

If you are looking to graduate with a broad skill set that enhances your business career options, consider gaining two degrees in just four years through our combined business/commerce degree. Find out more

Tailor your degree to specific career goals

The combined Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Commerce is designed to provide you with the flexibility to select an area of study best suited to your interests. Find out more

Practical experience

As a business/commerce student you will gain insight from academics who teach from real-world experiences, allowing the theory of your course to be brought to life with latest developments in your area of study. Find out more

Increase your options with Honours

With increasing competition for work in the business sector, graduates with an Honours degree are highly valued in the employment market. Find out more

Get the job you want

Find a job in any industry, including the private sector, not-for-profit organisations and government. Find out more

Meet our achievers

Why would you do this degree? Find out from graduates, students and academics. Discover how their future is taking shape, and learn first-hand what it's like to study at uni. Find out more

Why study business/commerce at UoN?

If you are looking to graduate with a broad skill set that enhances your business career options, consider gaining two degrees in just four years through our combined business/commerce degree.

Gain a strong and holistic understanding of the interplay between financial, legal, political and economic systems, and their impact on contemporary business in Australia and globally.

The combined business/commerce degree has a strong focus on the functional and practical skills needed for a successful and versatile career and allows you to choose to specialise in chosen relevant disciplines.

The Newcastle Business School provides its graduates with the skills necessary for a smooth transition from the classroom to the boardroom. You will undertake studies in the foundations of a range of disciplines including:

• Accounting
• Economics
• Finance
• Industrial relations
• Management
• Marketing
• Politics
• The legal system
• Statistics

The combined business and commerce degree focuses on imparting skills and attributes that are recognisable and valued by employers. Your sense of global citizenship and ability to work effectively as part of a team will be instilled through focused group work, international case studies and cross-cultural analysis.

The degree also encourages critical thinking and creative problem solving - traits which are highly valued in the workforce.

As a business/commerce graduate, you will be able to acquire the knowledge and skills you acquire to a wide range of business, government and not for profit organisations in Australia and around the world. Graduates go onto exciting, stimulating and lucrative careers in the fields of marketing, industrial relations, mining, human resources, and international business, to name a few.

Why combined?

Studying a combined degree in Business and Commerce is a great way to enhance your employment prospects, develop skills and pursue your interests in a range of areas. Studying a combined degree allows you to complete two qualifications in less time than it would take to complete each degree separately, this is because the individual Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Business degrees have 11 compulsory subjects which are common to each degree that cover the core principles required of a business professional.

A combined degree in Business and Commerce enhances the academic and professional qualities gained in each separate degree. At the same time, it recognises the increasing need for students to graduate with multidisciplinary skills. Developing skills across a range of areas will increase your career options, skills and knowledge, allowing you to gain a deep understanding of business in more than one area, therefore making you a more attractive choice for employers. For example, you may be keen on both finance and management, through a combined degree you can study both.

Studying a combined degree will give you the edge over single degree graduates and studies in Business and Commerce are highly complementary. A combined degree also gives graduates career mobility between industries and will aid in your upward trajectory in your professional life.

Business/commerce is just one of a number of combined degrees on offer from the University of Newcastle's Faculty of Business and Law.

Teaching and learning

Academics for the Bachelor of Commerce teach from real world professional experience, research findings and scholarly knowledge to bring the theory of your course to life.

The international expertise of the Newcastle Business School fosters and maintains strong connections with business and industry to ensure students are work-ready for an increasingly global environment.

Student support

As a Bachelor of Business student, you will benefit from a number of initiatives designed to provide a supportive learning environment and help you achieve your study goals.

In addition to weekly lectures and tutorials, the Business School offers Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) and a duty tutor service to help you reach your academic potential. PASS is facilitated by a student who has excelled in the course in a previous semester and provides an opportunity to work collaboratively to cover lecture material, develop a deeper understanding of course material and enhance learning skills. Duty tutors are assigned to each of the first year courses to provide drop-in assistance to students.

All Business and Law students also have exclusive access to the Student Learning Space (SLS), a fun new facility designed to help you fulfil your potential. SLS is about enhancing your learning experience – find a place to study, work on assignments and group tasks, and participate in PASS.

Tailor your degree to specific career goals

The combined Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Commerce is designed to provide you with the flexibility to select an area of study best suited to your interests.

Areas of specialisation in the business degree include human resources management, information systems in business, international business, management, marketing, logistics and supply chain management and tourism.

Through our commerce degree you can specialise in accounting, finance and economics.

First year will see you complete subjects from a broad area of disciplines relevant to business including economics, marketing, accounting, human resources and business strategy. The first year of study is designed to give a strong grounding in the principles and practices of business, and equip you with a core set of business development skills. After sampling a range of disciplines, you will be able to make an informed decision about the focus area(s) you want to pursue.

Moving into the second, third and fourth years of the degree, you will undertake courses relevant to your chosen major sequence.

Each of the ten majors offered in the combined degree is focused on providing you with the specialist skills to succeed within that field. The combined degree requires you to complete a ‘major’ from both the business and the commerce field. In certain cases, you are able to complete three majors.

Full-time study is considered to be four subjects per semester. You have complete control over your study schedule and can opt to do any combination of study to complete the degree. For example, you may work full-time whilst studying and choose to complete two courses a semester, or you may alternate between one and four depending on how busy you are.

Majors

The structure of the combined Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Commerce degree allows you to select a specialist area of study (a major) at the beginning of your second year, based on your interests and experiences in your first year of study.

Each major will equip you with the detailed skills and understanding of the key principles surrounding that particular discipline.

At our Newcastle (Callaghan) campus choose majors in accounting, finance, economics, marketing, management, international business, human resource management, tourism, information systems in business, or logistics and supply chain management.

Majors available at our Central Coast (Ourimbah) campus include accounting, marketing, management, human resource management and tourism.

Double majors

To broaden your appeal to prospective employers the degree also allows you to complete the requirements of two majors in one of your degrees. The combined Bachelor of Business /Bachelor of Commerce degree allows you to specialise in three areas of study and complete the requirements of two majors in either business or commerce.

You can elect to complete a double major in business and a single major in commerce or a double major in commerce and a single major in business. Possible combinations might include specialising in human resource management, economics and finance, or marketing, tourism and accounting.

A combined degree with a double major enables you to pursue multiple interests plus will provide a broader range of career options on graduation. This holistic understanding of business will help set you apart from your peers when competing in the job market.

Find out more about the Business Majors.

Find out more about the Commerce Majors.

Practical experience

As a business/commerce student you will gain insight from academics who teach from real-world experiences, allowing the theory of your course to be brought to life with latest developments in your area of study.

Our academic staff brings the best of their scholarly knowledge, research findings and professional experience to their teaching. The International expertise of many of our teachers will help to ensure you are work-ready for an increasingly global environment.

The strong connections we develop and maintain with business and industry also ensures that our course content remains contemporary and relevant.

Business and Commerce is orientated towards teamwork and collaboration in one form or another. We recognise this and have developed curricular which includes an emphasis on group work as a form of assessment. Working in focused groups will help you develop the necessary teamwork skills needed to make a successful transition from the classroom to the boardroom.

The University of Newcastle also offers the opportunity for Work Integrated Learning (WIL).

Industry placements are an opportunity to gain industry experience and insight and to establish links within the business community and a network that will advantage you when seeking future employment.

If you are a high achieving final year student, you may be offered the opportunity to participate in an industry placement that will see you embedded within a major Hunter organisation to complete a project alongside professionals. This placement is undertaken as the course 'Project In Business'.

Female students within the Faculty of Business and Law have the opportunity to participate in a unique leadership program. The Lucy Mentoring Program aims to inspire, motivate and educate women about the opportunities for employment in the corporate and public sectors. Participants are allocated a mentor working professionally in the public or private sector. Mentors can help you help you understand the working environment and to establish professional business networks - both of which are beneficial to gaining employment and progressing through the ranks in any organisation.

Increase your options with Honours

With increasing competition for work in the business sector, graduates with an Honours degree are highly valued in the employment market. According to Graduate Careers Australia (GCA, 2006) 'many employers now prefer or even stipulate that candidates have at least an Honours degree when they are recruiting'.

Successful completion of an Honours thesis demonstrate analytical and empirical skills, as well as an ability to undertake independent work and produce clearly written reports.

Honours allows you to focus on one major area of interest over one extra year of extra study.

Ten Honours scholarships worth $3,000 per student are available each year.

As a Business/Commerce student, you have the opportunity to complete Honours in the following areas:

• Human resource management
• Information systems in business
• International business
• Logistics and supply chain management
• Management
• Marketing
• Tourism
• Accounting
• Economics
• Finance

Postgraduate study

On completing your combined Bachelor degree in Business/Commerce some students elect to undertake further studies. There are a range of Masters degrees related to the business/commerce degree.

A Masters degree whether it be a generalist degree such as a Masters of Business or Masters of Business Administration, or specialist such as Master of Applied Finance or Master of Marketing, is held in very high regard by prospective employers, could fast-track your career and usually involves a higher starting salary.

You can also study for a higher qualification through research rather than coursework. This is known as a research higher degree (RHD) and can be undertaken as a part of your Masters or a PhD.

A RHD involves in-depth study and a commitment to understanding existing information to develop new data or ideas and, with the careful assistance a supervisor, to distil these into a well-structured and insightful research thesis. Your thesis will then be examined by experts from around the world for the significance of your contribution to your field of study.

To find out more visit our postgraduate degrees.

Become a graduate in demand

Business and commerce is a cutting edge combined degree that gives you a broad range of skills and delivers enhanced outcomes that can lead to jobs anywhere in the world.

Find a job in any industry, including the private sector, not-for-profit organisations and government. If you want to run a small business, contribute to the growth of a charitable organisation, or travel the globe and make your fortune with a large multinational company, our combined Business/Commerce degree provides you with the opportunity and real life skills to do it.

Graduates of the combined Business/Commerce degree at the University of Newcastle are in demand. In 2010 more than 83% of graduates from the Bachelor of Business found full-time employment within four months of completing their degree.*

*Australian Graduate Survey 2010

Professional recognition

Depending on the courses you choose, your Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Commerce degree provides the pathway for you to be accredited/recognised with many professional and government organisations including:

• Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI)
• Australian Marketing and Social Research Society (AMSRS)
• CPA Australia (CPA)
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICA)
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

Directly meeting the requirements of these organisations as part of your study can provide you with a head start when entering your desired profession. This is particularly useful if you wish to pursue a career as a chartered accountant.