Undergraduate Finance 2015-2016

This foundation course in finance, risk and investment is the requisite for several degree programmes and for level 2 real estate and finance courses. The module considers the nature and operation of investment markets, focusing on three asset classes; shares, bonds and real estate. It looks at the characteristics of these investment options in terms of their risks and returns. The module introduces basic financial mathematics: time value of money, calculation of present values and investment rates of return. Finally, it considers the role of financial institutions and regulatory bodies in personal finance, where consumers and financial markets interact.

The objective of the course is to introduce the concept of personal financial management. This is done by developing financial awareness and capability in evaluating contemporary products of the financial services industry through an understanding of the industry's institutions, regulation, marketing and products. The aim is to give students the knowledge that they need to make long term decisions about their own and other people's finances that will increase life-time wealth. They will also learn about the role of the financial advisor and the qualifications required both from the perspective  of a consumer and as a potential career option.

The main aim of this course is to develop a sound understanding of fundamental principles underlying the theory and practice of finance, thereby providing a strong basis for further study of advanced finance theory and cognate disciplines. The course introduces students to important concepts in finance: principles of assets pricing,  concept of risk and return, theory of interest rates and pricing fixed income securities, evaluation of investment project with a focus on embedded real options. It equips students with good analytical skills in order to understand the implications of financial decisions by understanding  the fundamentals that govern them.

This course provides students with an understanding of the financial system, primarily from a UK perspective, introducing students to the reasons for, and nature of, financial markets and institutions before moving on to explore the need and importance of financial regulation, and investigating the causes and consequences of the recent global financial crisis. The course will introduce students to a variety of topics including the role of wholesale and retail banks, non-bank financial institutions, the debt and equity markets, and the derivative markets; market efficiency, UK and international regulation, consumer protection and market abuse.

This course introduces students to a number of areas of corporate finance including examining capital structure theory, project valuation models, the financing decisions of the firm, and corporate restructuring (including reorganisations and mergers and acquisitions). 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 aims to build upon FI3001/FI3004 Corporate Finance to develop an advanced understanding of the ideas necessary to analyse the firm’s financing decisions with regards to capital structure, debt and equity issuance, financial distress, corporate restructuring and develop an appreciation of current topical issues in corporate financing behaviour. The class is based mainly on academic research articles that have influenced and directed current understanding in corporate financial and investment theory and policy.

This course covers the intellectually and commercially fertile ground at the accountancy/finance interface. We will consider financial analysis from both theoretical and practical angles. Do you need to understand financial reporting to be an investor? How should we assess the success of an acquisition? Why do accountants think mergers don’t exist? How do companies decide on financing strategies? Does corporate governance and ethics really matter – do share prices react to it? These are some of the questions we will address alongside using Datastream and the ThomsonReuters Eikon system. The course might give you some ideas for your dissertation too.

This course aims to provide an overview of quantitative methods needed to conduct empirical research in finance and financial economics.  The course is intended to enable students

i) To develop knowledge and understanding of the theoretical practical approaches to quantitative methods in finance.

ii) To develop the practical quantitative skills to equip students for dissertations in finance and for on-going work in the finance area.

iii) To develop intellectual skills by understanding of the appropriate use of statistical techniques for various financial problems.

iv)  To develop the ability to write extended research reports on original topics in finance

All Accountancy and Finance students must undertake a dissertation. Students taking a joint degree may undertake the dissertation in either discipline, but not both.  It is designed to show that you are able to:

Carry out a substantial piece of research on a chosen subject without close supervision

Critically analyse and evaluate work carried out by others

Reach your own conclusions based upon your analysis and evaluation of relevant evidence, whether this is prior research only or prior research coupled with your own research.  

The main aim of this course is to provide students with a thorough understanding of basic derivative contracts: options, forwards, futures, swaps, interest rate derivatives, written on a variety of underlying instruments. It will introduce students to essential areas in derivatives from both theoretical and practical perspective: the pricing mechanism of derivatives and mathematical derivation of Black-Scholes model, the derivatives trading, the organization and structure of derivatives markets. The course will equip students with good analytical skills in order to be able to incorporate derivatives into asset portfolio management, use them for hedging purposes, apply different derivatives trading strategies.