Accounting and Finance MSc

Financial Planning and Control module consolidates current advances in theory and research into the field of management accounting. It will develop your analytical and interpretative skills concerning the practical concepts of financial planning and control and problem structuring, financial information and the practical issues surrounding the role of management accounting within an organisational context, critical examination of the role of accounting in the areas of managerial decision making, strategic cost management approaches, planning, control (including budgeting), transfer pricing, divisional performance measurement and behavioural implications.

Corporate Reporting and Analysis module focuses on corporate reports and financial statement analysis. To achieve the module goals and learning objectives, this module will comprise topics, such as a consideration of corporate reports use and usefulness, the regulation of corporate reporting, form and content of financial reports, and a critical understanding of the conceptual framework of the IASB. This module will facilitate a critical review and discussion of financial statement characteristics and International Accounting Standards. Furthermore, the module will introduce students to different financial analysis techniques that facilitate the critical assessment and interpretation of accounts and corporate financial performance. This module will also discuss the development of Integrated Reporting and its future. Additionally, the module will help you to identify and evaluate different types of Impression Management in corporate reports. Finally, the module will introduce and incorporate the contemporary topics in accounting, such as big data, digitalisation, automation, and other technologies that shape the future of accounting profession.

You will be able to develop your knowledge and critical appreciation of Audit, Corporate Governance, and Ethics. This module will combine theoretical and practical knowledge of the audit process, fraud detection and professional ethics and engage with academic research about audit and its role in society. It will enable you to gain knowledge of the principles of the auditing profession using international standards on auditing and to examine the practice of auditing and the underlying concepts, including the need for an independent audit and the development of the role of internal and external auditors in the business society; audit risk and assurance; and audit evidence. It will also connect to the international aspects of corporate governance, including audit committees, corporate governance models and theories, and the role of corporate governance in recent corporate scandals.

In this module you will learn about a comprehensive range of research methods and business analytics techniques. This will equip you with the knowledge and practical skills necessary for you to conduct research at Masters’ level and prepare you to complete a Master’s Dissertation, Consultancy Project or Management Enquiry. By the end of the module you will know how to apply both quantitative and qualitative data collection and business analysis techniques. In quantitative techniques you will learn about sampling, questionnaire design, statistical inference, and hypothesis testing while qualitative techniques covered will include methods such as interviewing and focus groups. Analysis methods such as content analysis and thematic analysis will also be covered. In addition, you will gain some understanding of research philosophy (positivism and interpretivism) and research ethics and you will be able to write a research proposal to bring these ideas together.
Furthermore, this module will provide clear, critical, and analysis of data, you will also be able to consider the use of analytics implementation skills, where you will be introduced to analytics software such as SPSS. SPSS statistics analysis is one of the powerful solutions that is designed to help businesses and researchers to solve problems by various methods (geospatial analysis, predictive analytics and hypothesis testing).

The module introduces you to core concepts regarding the objective of finance, how capital is first raised and then deployed into wealth creating operations and then how wealth is then returned to the providers of capital in an optimal way. At the end of the module you should be able to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the fundamentals of corporate finance and develop the skills and ability to analyse corporate finance decisions in both quantitative and qualitative terms. You will also undertake an individual research project looking into capital market efficiency.

In this module you will gain a fundamental understanding of the concepts and theories operating within international financial markets, the financial institutions/participants that comprise the market and its regulation. Your learning will begin a the macro level, examining the financial system as a whole, the different institutions that comprise it, their roles within it and how they are regulated (with specific reference to banking). You will learn about market dynamics – what drives markets and finally what drives the markets for specific instruments, namely money market instruments, equities and fixed income. To apply the knowledge acquired in this module, you will be using financial information and data. You will also use basic financial arithmetic and statistics through Microsoft Excel.

You will develop your understanding of academic conventions in UK higher education aligned to your level of study, including expectations around critical analysis, structure, argumentation, evidencing, and referencing. The module focuses on developing communication strategies that will help you express your ideas clearly and coherently in written assignments and spoken activities. You will also reflect on your current academic and language skills and develop strategies for development ahead of your assessments.