Actuarial Science with a Foundation Year
Swansea University
UCAS Code: N325 | Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
Swansea University
UCAS Code: N325 | Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Applicants who took Mathematics at A-Level should have CCD. Applicants who did not study Mathematics at AS or A-Level should have BBC and a B grade for GCSE Mathematics.
Access to HE Diploma
Access to HE (Science): 27 Merits to include Mathematics.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
IB: 24 (including 4 in Maths Higher Level).
Applicants with a BTEC or 'Access to Science' background are welcomed.
Swansea University accepts the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales as fully equivalent to x1 A-Level.
Welsh Baccalaureate: Requirements are as for A levels where you can substitute the same non-subject specific grade for the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Level Core Grade.
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
If you enjoy mathematics and want to apply your knowledge to solve real-world business problems, then the actuarial science programme at Swansea University is an excellent route to meet your goals.
An actuary is a highly trained and influential business professional who uses advanced mathematical modelling and business understanding to analyse future risks.
Students who pursue this course will gain a solid foundation the first year in mathematics, business, and study skills. They will be prepared for greater success in the mathematics and management modules that follow. The programme is accredited by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), so programme modules in mathematics, accounting, finance and economics are aligned with the IFoA professional examinations. Graduates can obtain up to six exemptions from IFoA professional examinations, which is a tremendous head start toward obtaining actuarial employment and succeeding as an actuary.
Your learning will be shaped by inspirational and internationally-renowned business professionals with many years of industry experience including Dr Jafar Ojra, Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Chartered Global Management Accountant.
Modules
The foundation Year (Year 0) combines both subject specific and study skill content, to enable successful integration into Year 1 of the Actuarial Science programme.
In Year 1, you will typically study areas including: Economics for Accounting and Finance, Accounting for Managers, Probability and Statistics & Foundations of Finance.
In Year 2, you will typically study areas including: Probability Theory, Corporate Finance, Credibility, Liability and Ruin & Principles of Financial Accounting.
In Year 3, you will typically study areas including: Cashflows and Interest Rates, Financial Mathematics in Discrete Time, Machine Learning & Risk and Survival Models.
Extra funding
The Mathematics Department of Swansea University offers Mathematics prizes/scholarships worth up to a total of £3000 for students starting their university studies in September 2025. The prizes will be awarded on the basis of a competitive two-and-a-half-hour examination. Usually, applicants take the exam in their school or college, but this year arrangements will be made to enable applicants to sit the exam remotely.
Applications are open to both home and overseas students that have made any undergraduate course from the Mathematics department at Swansea one of your UCAS selections.
These scholarships can be used in conjunction with our Excellence and Merit scholarships. If you are interested in taking the scholarship exam, then you should complete and return a Mathematics Scholarship Application us via email. https://www.swansea.ac.uk/maths/scholarships/
Note: The University will also award Excellence Bursaries worth £3,000 to students who achieve AAA at A-level (or equivalent) and £2000 to students who achieve AAB at A level (or equivalent). For further details please see https://www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/scholarships/excellence-bursaries/
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if the overall teaching satisfaction score here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Finance
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Finance
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Over 2,000 students graduated with a degree in finance in 2015, and a sign of the strength of the finance industry, numbers are on the up. Over half of finance graduates go into the finance industry, with accountancy and financial advice roles particularly popular. It's also quite common for finance graduates to go into jobs which require you to take more training and gain professional qualifications — finance graduates who take further study are more likely to be studying accountancy than finance. About a third of graduates start their careers in London - but Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham are other popular locations for finance graduates to work.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Finance
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£23k
£27k
£31k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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