Accounting (with optional Placement/Project year) MSc

This module seeks to equip students to be able to make strategic business reporting decisions. Set within the corporate reporting environment students will be able to apply concepts, theories and principles to real life scenarios. 

it will covers topics but not limited to: 

• Financial reporting framework
• Reporting financial performance 
• Group financial statements
• Performance measurement
• Accounting regulation

The module will enable students to explore and develop a critical understanding of the theoretical techniques, concepts and methods employed in financial management and organisational change.

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

1. Employ investment appraisal techniques to evaluate and analyse capital investment projects.
2. Deploy appropriate Risk management theory and techniques to evaluate and analyse performance management.
3. Master critical awareness of applying the financing and dividend decision.
4. Critically evaluate strategic acquisition and business valuation choices.

The indicative contents of the module are as follows.

• Financing decision and Investment appraisal
• Risk Management
• Dividend decision
• Business valuation
• Corporate failure

This module develops students' research skills via studying various research methodologies and methods including how to collect and analyse quantitative and qualitative data in accounting and finance. 

Indictive contents include:-

• Developing the research idea (case study, business development proposal and dissertation)
• Theory, literature and hypotheses 
• Research ethics in accounting and finance
• Data collection, sources, measurements, cleaning, summary (descriptive statistics)
• Big Data (4Vs - Volume, Velocity, Veracity and Variety)
• Inferential statistics (predictive analytics)
• Quantitative and qualitative research approaches
• Software - Power BI, SPSS, AMOS, Advanced Ms Excel, Stata, NVivo and others
• Specific techniques for case study, business development proposal and dissertation. 

This module develops students' awareness and understanding of corporate governance frameworks in accounting and finance. It also covers the nature of financial and non-financial risks and the key components of risk management systems as well as the analysis and application of corporate governance principles in relation to risk management.

Indictive contents are as follows:-

• The development and the changing nature of corporate governance regulations
• Corporate governance theories.
• Challenges in corporate governance.
• Corporate governance standards, best practice and recommendations.
• Corporate governance in private and public organisations.
• Internal control systems.
• Enterprise risk.
• Strategic risk.
• Cyber risk.
• Reputational risk.
• Economic and credit risk
• Interest rate and currency risk.

This module involves an independent study and a research project in accordance with established research principles involving the completion of the following elements:

• Introduction to Accounting and Finance research
• Critical review of literature for an Accounting and Finance research project
• Evaluation of appropriate data collection methods
• Data analysis techniques for various research strategies
• Resource and risk planning in research
• Undertaking Accounting and Finance research

The module is your independent final project, similar to a dissertation.

In this module, you'll take the lead in creating a comprehensive business proposal. You will begin by researching the legal requirements necessary to start a business and then move on to developing its strategic direction, including defining its mission, vision, and identifying valuable market opportunities.

You are expected to incorporate financial details, exploring funding options and developing financial forecasts. Your project also involves conducting a thorough stakeholder analysis, honing your networking skills, and pitching your business idea to potential investors through the report.

This module places a strong emphasis on ethical and sustainable business practices, challenging you to incorporate these critical elements into your proposal. Through this project, you will demonstrate your ability to synthesise and apply your learning to develop a well-rounded, strategically sound business proposal based on rigorous research and comprehensive analysis. This is your opportunity to showcase your entrepreneurial skills and innovative thinking in a real-world context.

This module provides opportunities for students to solve business case studies (including live cases) and justify the solutions that have been put forward from an available pool of different solutions and scenarios. 

Indicative contents:-

• Introduction to Case Study Analysis – mini, macro, and integrated business case study
• A modelled approach to case study analysis for decision making
• Assessing the challenges within the live case study
• Problem Identification & Analysis
• Assumption setting and strategic business planning related to case study
• Objectives, strategies, action plans, by function to time scales
• Application of key quantitative and qualitative techniques
• Monitoring, review & control planning for performance
• How to write a case study report
• Pitfalls of case study analysis