Faculty of Commerce and Administration

Overview

Victoria's Faculty of Commerce and Administration Te Wāhanga Tauhokohoko, Whakahaere is one of New Zealand's leading providers of top-level knowledge and expertise in all fields of Commerce and Administration.

The Faculty offers an extremely broad range of postgraduate programmes, which cater for the various requirements of the commercial, financial, administrative and academic worlds.

Degrees

The Faculty administers the following undergraduate degrees:

Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA]

Conjoint BCA/BSc (Note: the Faculty administers this degree for returning students)

Bachelor of Information Technology [BIT] (jointly with the Faculty of Science)

Bachelor of Tourism Management [BTM]

The Bachelor of Commerce and Administration

Commerce is one of the world's moving forces, shaping societies and connecting people around the globe. Wherever people are at work, in public office or private business, they depend on business, financial, and managerial expertise to keep their world in motion.

A Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (BCA) degree includes a compulsory course in each of Accounting, Economics, and New Zealand's Commercial Environment.

Victoria's BCA benefits from its location in the nation's administrative hub. The Faculty is housed at the University's Pipitea Campus in the central business district, across the road from Parliament. First-year courses are taught at Kelburn, but you will be based at Pipitea for subsequent years.

In addition to its own teaching staff, the University uses the expertise of professionals working at the highest levels of business and government. Wellington's private and public sector organisations provide a wealth of research opportunities.

A BCA degree leads to a diverse range of public and private sector careers, including accounting, banking, e-commerce, finance, marketing, human resource management, information systems, international business, and economics. Victoria also has a range of graduate options for BCA students wishing to continue their studies.

To become a senior professional accountant you need to qualify for membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand. You can meet the academic requirements for membership by completing a BCA with a major in Accounting, and a Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting. You can also meet the requirements with a BCA (Hons) in Accounting, or a BCA with a second degree such as a Bachelor of Science (BSc) or Bachelor of Laws (LLB), including specified courses

There are 6 schools under the Faculty of Commerce

School of Accounting and Commercial law

The School of Accounting & Commercial Law is part of the Faculty of Commerce & Administration at Victoria University of Wellington. Its' staff are accountants and lawyers, and as such it is a "professional" school, a primary function of which is teaching the subjects prescribed by ICANZ to students seeking qualifications to practice as accountants. However staff also teach accounting and law to students from other disciplines and at all levels.

Majors within the Accounting and Commercial Law

Accounting

Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand

Accounting, like law and medicine, has its own professional body: the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand. ICANZ is this country's only professional accounting body and represents nearly 27,000 members in New Zealand and overseas. Here is what the ICANZ website has to say about being a Chartered Accountant:

"Chartered Accountants (CAs) are key players in the world

of business, with high levels of skill and knowledge, as well as

initiative and a flair for problem solving. The CA designation is

one of the most prestigious professional qualifications in the

world. Being a CA opens up a wide range of business and

career opportunities both in New Zealand and overseas."

For those students wishing to pursue an advanced career in accounting, membership of the Institute is usually required by the employer, whether the employer is a major corporation, a large government entity, or a CA firm.

Commercial Law

No business happens in a vacuum. Whether your enterprise is a dot.com start-up or a film company looking to make a project happen in New Zealand, legal decisions and statutory regulations need to be understood.

Commercial Law at Victoria is a total grounding in the modern law of commerce. It includes the important areas of contract law, company and partnership law, competition law, labour law, and the law of international trade and finance. And it covers up-to-the-minute developments in the law of e-commerce. Graduates with a Commercial Law background can meet genuine commercial problems with a genuine commerce education.

A Commercial Law major along with a major in one of Accounting, e-Commerce, Marketing, Management, Money and Finance, Public Policy, or Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations is a powerful combination. You'll have a degree that gets you ready to make business happen.

School of Economics and Finance

The School of Economics and Finance offers you over 70 courses in economics, econometrics, money and finance, and economic history, at the undergraduate and graduate levels. At the undergraduate level, you can major in economics, or econometrics, or money and finance, for a BCA or a BA degree. Further, you can take any of our courses to complement other BCA or BA majors, or as part of your Science or Law degrees. The School also offers a Graduate Diploma in economics, or econometrics, or money and finance, for students who have already completed a degree in another field. At the graduate level, the School offers a range of courses for a BCA or BA Honours degree, specialising in economics or money and finance, or as part of a Masters or PhD programme. The School also offers the Master of Applied Finance, Postgraduate Diploma in Treasury Management, Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Analysis, Master of Financial Mathematics, and the Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Mathematics.

Each year, courses are taken by over 6,000 students. These courses provide students with a rigorous way of thinking about, and analysing, a wide range of real-world problems. You will greatly increase your understanding of the world around you, and you will learn techniques and ways of thinking that will provide you with an excellent foundation for a career in business, banking, finance, insurance, law, management, marketing, government and politics, public policy, international business, teaching, and research. Students graduating from our School gain employment in a wide range of organisations throughout the world. Many of our students have successfully completed postgraduate study at leading international universities (for example, LSE, Cambridge, Princeton, NYU, Maryland).

The School currently has around 30 academic staff. Their teaching and research has generated an impressive record of research articles in leading academic and professional journals, books, reports, and theses. The School is recognised as one of the leading centres for teaching and research – in economics and finance – in Australasia.

Majors within the School of Economics and Finance

Economics

Do you want to know why people, societies, and governments make the choices that they do? Economics is much more than the study of money: it's the study of the choices we make with the money in our pockets and the options in front of us.

Economics at Victoria looks at how economic systems work and how organisations - not just businesses - behave. You'll study the new challenges and opportunities of the global economy and get down to the nuts and bolts of prices, incomes, resource allocation, and international trade flows. Successful economic analysis is both an art, acquired gradually through practice, and a science, demanding quantitative skills. You will find the study of both mathematics and statistics useful.

Victoria offers Economics as a major for a Bachelor of Arts [BA], and for a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA]. It is also an excellent complement to the study of law and social sciences. You'll get an education in rational thinking, attractive to businesses and public sector organisations looking for graduates with a broad perspective.

Money and Finance

If you want a rock-solid foundation in portfolio selection, financial decision-making, and the behaviour of financial markets, study Money and Finance at Victoria. You'll get the current perspectives on modern business finance, and learn how to use that information wisely.

Money and Finance covers all aspects of high finance: investments, futures, capital assets. It's a total package designed to prepare you for work in small business, big corporations, or in the public sector institutions where financial policy gets made.

You can take Money and Finance as a major for a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA], or take some courses in the areas that interest you most, and put them toward a BCA in Accounting, or a Bachelor of Arts [BA] or BCA in Economics. Whatever you choose, you'll know that with Money and Finance, you've got an education in the financial fundamentals of business.

Econometrics

Econometrics at Victoria supplies the toolbox for a career in economics or finance. A combination of economics, mathematics, and statistics, it has many applications in the modern business world.

Econometrics shows how to make forecasts and draw conclusions from business and economic data. It is all about using powerful techniques to test economic ideas.

At Victoria, Econometrics study begins in earnest in your second year. First-year courses cover basic economics, statistical techniques used in research and business, and mathematics. You can study towards an Econometrics major for the Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA] degree, or for an Economics major for Bachelor of Arts [BA] with an emphasis on Econometrics.

School of Government

The School of Government is an independent, internationally respected centre of learning, research and discussion on Public Policy and Public Sector Management. The School has a unique commitment to building capability in the Public Sector of New Zealand.

The Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Helen Clark, launched the School in September 2002. It brings together academic and practitioner expertise to:

offer degrees, diplomas, certificates and short courses for professional development; provide education and training programmes for Public Sector and Private Sector clients;

promote and support research and scholarship; undertake "public good" research and disseminate new knowledge on important issues of the moment; perform contract research, and provide consultancy services to Public and Private Sector clients; create independant forums for discussion and debate; and organise seminars, conferences and other activities which support the design and implementation of policy and associated policy processes.

The School includes four specialised centres of research, each of which undertakes "public good" research and promotes discussion on policy issues.

These centres are:

the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS)

the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families (McKenzie Centre)

the Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS)

the Health Services Research Centre (HSRC)

The School works collaboratively with other schools, research centres and tertiary providers in New Zealand and overseas. Together with the New Zealand Government, the School is a partner in the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).

Majors within the School of Government

Public Policy

Public Policy is concerned with the intentions, decisions and actions of governments, and the outcomes of those intentions, decisions and actions. The study of Public Policy includes consideration of why and how particular policies are adopted, the processes by which they are designed and implemented, and the monitoring and evaluation of policy outcomes.

Students of Public Policy require an understanding of the social and cultural context in which policies are formed, the political and economic constraints, and the organisational processes. Public Policy draws on a range of disciplines, most notably Economics, Politics and the qualitative and quantitative Social Science research methods.

School of Information Management

The School of Information Management at Victoria University is ideally situated to produce professionals who are equipped to use a wide range of technologies to store, organise, retrieve and disseminate information in business, government, library and academic organisations. In addition to being able to manage technology and information, SIM graduates have a strong focus on the need to manage people as an important part of the information equation. This endeavour is inherently interdisciplinary and the makeup of the School's disciplines reflects this.

Majors within the School of Information Management

E-Commerce

As the internet establishes itself as the way of doing business, a tertiary qualification in e-commerce will give you a relevant, contemporary place in today's workforce. The e-Commerce Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA] major will impart the definitive understanding of what e-commerce is, how it works, why it works, and where it's going.

At Victoria, you'll study aspects of the future of business, like the impact of e-commerce on traditional management systems, business-to-business and business-to-consumer transaction relationships, electronic money and online payment systems, and the legal implications of the newest business methods in the world.

Whether you focus solely on e-commerce or combine it with Computer Science or other commerce subjects like Marketing or Management, you're ensuring you are at the cutting edge of a worldwide business trend.

Information System

Using information technology (IT) to create innovative business opportunities is a contemporary business strategy. Information systems is the use and application of computer technology to business and society, not just the computers themselves.

You don't need mathematics or programming skills to study information systems at Vic. Instead you'll get a practical introduction to the different types of IT available now, and how and why they are used in business. You'll learn how to develop simple database and internet applications, and then move into more detail, including systems analysis, design, and implementation.

The solid understanding provided by a major in Information Systems is ideally suited to the modern employment market. You can take Information Systems as a major for a Bachelor of Arts [BA] or Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA], or study the subject as a complement to BCA majors in e-Commerce, Marketing or Management. Information Systems is a useful addition to any degree.

School of Marketing and International Business

Welcome to the School of Marketing and International Business website. Here you will be able to access information about our academic programmes and courses, our staff, research being conducted in the School, and a range of other activities and events that are underway.

Both marketing and international business are entering a new era in which knowledge and skills in these areas are paramount. Successful businesses are increasingly reliant on state-of-the art marketing effectiveness, and a thorough understanding of the global environment in which they operate. Our programmes and their delivery, reflect these recent trends, building on core knowledge and contemporary perspectives essential to an in-depth understanding of these subjects. Our graduates are thus effective in today's workplace, and also equipped to respond to and drive change.

Our academic staff has considerable collective knowledge and experience that enables them to contribute uniquely to our programmes in Marketing and International Business. They are active in research that they are able to bring to the classroom, to enrich students' learning experiences. Individual and School-level links and joint projects with business and government organisations also brings relevance to teaching and research in the School.

The School of Marketing and International Business offers programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level, including Masters and PhD. We also contribute to executive-level education through the Master of Business Administration programme. Many of our undergraduate students continue to further postgraduate study in the School, while others gain employment in sought after positions in business and government. Whatever your career aspirations, the School of Marketing and International Business offer programmes that will help you achieve them, and interested staff who will assist you along the way.

Majors within the School of Marketing and International Business

International Business

Vic's Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA] major in International Business is about taking brilliant ideas across national and cultural frontiers. It's never been more important to understand how business gets done across borders, and the multidisciplinary nature of the International Business major gives you a broad basis from which to advance your career.

You'll learn the facts of export-import trade, technology transfer, foreign direct investment, inter-firm collaboration, and the operations of transnational firms. Whether your career in business is going to take you abroad or you want to make things happen here in New Zealand, these skills are vital in a globalised society.

Employers need to take their businesses across borders. They need people who understand how their businesses can achieve those goals. A major in International Business gives you the transferable skills and global perspective to help you - and the companies with which you work - take on the world.

Marketing

Marketing has the ability to shape the opinions of consumers and guide trends in the marketplace. At Vic we know that marketing is a dynamic activity that grabs opportunities and sparks excitement. Marketing is where commerce and creativity meet.

At Vic you can take Marketing for your Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA], and either specialise in Marketing or combine it with another major like Management, Economics or e-Commerce. You can take courses in all aspects of marketing, for example internet marketing, tourism marketing, and international marketing, and learn about the psychology of the consumer and marketing decision-making.

Whichever courses you choose, you'll have a qualification that's in demand by businesses wanting to generate excitement about their products and services. You'll be set up for a career that's creative, innovative, and always changing.

Victoria Management School

The Victoria Management School is part of Victoria University of Wellington, a state-funded university based in the capital city of New Zealand. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in New Zealand and is renowned for its teaching and research. It has established an international reputation for the high quality of its graduates and research, and has a proud tradition of academic excellence. Our School is an active contributor to this vibrant university community.

Located downtown at Rutherford House, surrounded by the Parliament Buildings, corporate headquarters, government offices, restaurants, shopping, major sporting and entertainment venues, and Wellington's railway station, the Victoria Management School is perfectly situated to establish and maintain strong linkages with this broad range of stakeholder groups.

Majors within Vic Management School

Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations

You know that the most important part of any business is the people who make that business work. Victoria's major in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations (HRIR) recognises this the same way the modern business world does. It's an education in people and how they work together.

HRIR is about managing employment relations, and deals with every aspect of those relations, from employee recruitment and selection to international employment relations and salaries and wages. It's a major that makes you valuable - the skills you learn apply to any business anywhere in the world.

You can major in HRIR for a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA] or take some courses within a Bachelor of Tourism Management [BTM], or any other degree. Either way, you're gaining an understanding of and ability to work with and manage groups of people - traits highly valued by modern employers.

Management

Management at Victoria is concerned with how people behave in organisations and is a general introduction to the way organisations work. At first-year level you'll get a broad introduction to contemporary management. Combine your Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA] Management major with one in Marketing, Public Policy, Economics, Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, Anthropology or even Pacific or Asian Studies for a compelling qualification. You could also consider a conjoint BCA/BSc.

Management at Vic is taught within the prestigious Victoria Management School. As you progress in your studies, debate is encouraged, and contemporary theories and concepts are scrutinised within a solid academic framework.

Vic's graduates in management are found throughout the highest levels in business and government within New Zealand and internationally. The problem-solving and analytic skills you'll acquire throughout your study will prepare you for an exciting and successful career - wherever you choose.

Management Science

Management and decision sciences describe how managers make decisions, and the methods and methodologies that help them to make better ones. These methods and processes are used for complex technical and quantitative problems, and to help managers with soft, behavioural, and qualitative issues.

Study of Management Science includes elements of mathematics, statistics, psychology and chaos theory. These disciplines contribute to the resolution of marketing, production, human resource and information systems problems - typically found in all organisations - using a range of mindware and software tools.

Management Science can be taken as a major for a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration [BCA], or a Bachelor of Science [BSc].

The Bachelor of Information Technology

Information technology impacts on every part of our lives. From internet banking that helps us pay our bills in an instant to the movie special effects we see on the big screen, IT is changing the way we see and experience the world.

Behind all those changes are skilled professionals whose innovation and expertise keep our high-tech world moving. IT graduates understand the complex and fast-changing IT environment, and have the knowledge and skills to get things working.

Recognising the needs of employers, Victoria's programme also gives graduates a grounding in business and management. The Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) degree was developed specifically to meet current and projected employment needs. Summer employment in an IT position after the second and third years of study is an integral part of the degree. An industry-driven project in the fourth year gives students real-life experience with practical aspects of system development.

High-achieving students are awarded the degree with Honours, enabling direct entry to a Masters or even a PhD programme. The degree leads to careers in every area of the IT job market including programming, systems development and support, hardware development, information systems management, and research.

The Bachelor of Tourism Management

Whether they come to bungy jump or visit “Middle Earth”, international tourists recognise New Zealand as an exciting travel destination. Our tourism industry welcomes two million international visitors a year and is the country's second-largest export earner.

In the competitive global market, innovative, high-value tourism initiatives have reinforced New Zealand's reputation as an industry leader.

As well as a major worldwide business, tourism is a growing field of academic study and research. A Bachelor of Tourism Management (BTM) prepares graduates for positions of responsibility and management in the tourism industry. It offers the specialist knowledge and practical skills that employers are looking for, locally and globally.

Victoria's BTM is designed to meet the industry's needs. Its specialist teaching staff are involved in tourism research in New Zealand and abroad, resulting in courses that are relevant, up-to-date, and in touch with international trends. The University's Wellington city location gives ready access to policy makers and industry organisations that contribute to the course with specialised guest lecturers.

A BTM can lead to postgraduate study in Victoria's BTM (Hons) or Master of Tourism Management programmes. Graduates find employment in the tourism industry in strategic planning and management, event management, conference coordination, attraction development and ecotourism, and in other fields including human resources and marketing.