Postgraduate Accountancy 2023-2024

The fact that money (and understanding money) really matters in business and all managers need to understand issues like cashflow and profit might depress you, but it is true. Financial viability of customers? Deciding on the likely financial viability of a project? Reporting to shareholders about performance? Does the word “sustainable” appear in a finance dictionary? All questions we will try and address.

This module is designed to develop students understanding and skills in key areas of accounting and finance. It starts from interpreting financial statements to use financial information in short-term and long-term decision making. It enables the practical application of key concepts of strategic analysis and gives a broader breadth of experience and cross-fertilisation of ideas across industries and management disciplines.

Students will gain an understanding of what financial information is for and how it is controlled by government, the stock exchanges and other institutions. Students will explore financial accounting assumptions and conventions. They will develop their technical knowledge and skills to enable them to record business transactions and prepare financial statements. Finally, students will be introduced to financial statement analysis and the calculation of key metrics. This will allow them to explore how accounting information is used by stock market participants and the impact on users of current developments and issues in accounting practice, governance and standards.

This course introduces students to basic financial concepts before moving on to introduce students to a number of areas of corporate finance including investment appraisal decisions, examining capital structure theory, the financing decisions of the firm, and corporate restructuring. The main aim of the course is to equip students with good analytical skills in order to understand the implications of corporate financing decisions by understanding why companies behave the way they do with respect to financing choices and how this interacts with the real world financial markets, and to enable students to understand the theoretical underpinnings of corporate finance theory.

This course provides non-accounting students with an introduction to accounting’s role inside of organisations and how accountants produce and disseminate financial information that helps managers and employees make operational decisions.

The course will introduce students to the theory and practice of accounting techniques that are important for organisational decision making, including:

• measurement of costs and revenues
• planning, control, and performance measurement
• and strategic planning and objectives

This course examines theories and issues relevant to portfolio analysis. Themes include: risk and return; investment motives; the application of modern portfolio theory (including the Capital Asset Pricing Model); information and market efficiency; portfolio analysis and asset pricing; bonds and equities; real estate and derivative markets.

Corporate governance has become one of the most significant challenges for organisations and for the managers who work within them. The reasons for this include high-profile corporate scandals, conflict of interests, manipulations of financial statements, ethical dilemmas, crises like  the global financial crisis credit crunch or even pandemic, and a growing need to demonstrate corporate accountability, transparency and ethical practices. The “Issues in Corporate Governance and Ethics” course will deepen students understanding and stimulate critical thinking in these areas. Students will study and critique theory and practices of corporate governance models and ethics guidelines  as well as its relation to boards, professional bodies (accounting/audit firms), investors and wider stakeholder groups. 

This course provides students with basic knowledge of financial accounting, its sources including double entry bookkeeping, its processes, and its uses; financial reporting, its regulation, interpretation, and audit; accounting theory; and how financial reports are used when conducting a fundamental analysis of an entity.

Like football, this course is a game of two halves. The first half is financial analysis and builds your ability to analyse companies and think about the implications of financial performance for investors. We will be using Datastream and Bloomberg software. In the second half we will think about how stock markets work and how they are regulated.

If you do not wish to undertake the CFA exam, then you will be choosing this course. This is designed for those seeking a more theoretical rather than professional edge to their MSc. You will be teamed with a member of faculty to develop a literature review of a mutually agreed area of finance research.

Becoming a Certified Financial Analyst charter holder is the aspiration of every finance industry professional. This course covers the CFA syllabus courtesy of our friends from FitchLearning who will teach you week by week and prepare you for the CFA level 1 exam. You will also write an essay reflecting on professional and academic approaches to finance

The capstone of your programme. A significant individual piece of work showing your ability to think, research, organise and analyse. You will work with a member of faculty to develop a proposal that you will then turn into 10,000 words of reality!

Inanalysis - A framework for analysis: Accounting ratio analysis, Common size analysis, Stock market ratios, Credit ratings, Z scores.
Forecasting - A framework for forecasting: Parameter estimation, Financial forecasting models.
Issues in analysis - The links between the stock market and accounting: International accounting issues.
Introduction to accounting - Key accounting concepts: Financial reporting, Financial statements.

This course applies the knowledge acquired on fundamental analysis from BU5574. It involves preparation of a business analysis report on a comparative appraisal of the financial position & performance of 2 companies in the same sector. The appraisal includes preparation of a SWOT Analysis for each of the 2 companies informed in part by horizontal & vertical analysis, trend analysis & ratio analysis. The principal sources are the published Annual Reports of the 2 companies, the company websites, information found online on the industry they are in, & any other relevant information.

Indicative Content

Key accounting concepts,

 Financial reporting,

 Financial statements

Financial analysis

 A framework for analysis

 Accounting ratio analysis

 Common size analysis

 Stock market ratios

 Credit ratings

 Z scores

Forecasting

A framework for forecasting

Parameter estimation

Financial forecasting models

Issues in analysis

The links between the stock market and accounting

International Energy accounting issues