Unit information: Finance and Accounting in 2018/19

Unit name	Finance and Accounting
Unit code	ECONM1007
Credit points	15
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Tonks
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Accounting and Finance - Business School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is designed to give students a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of Finance and Accounting. This unit will serve as the foundation for second term optional units in finance and accounting. The following key areas in accounting will be covered: understanding and interpretation of financial statements, costing and budgeting. The following areas of finance will be covered: discounting, investment appraisal, cost of capital, portfolio diversification, and financing decisions.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit a student will be able to:

• demonstrate an ability to understand the structure of, and to interpret , company accounts, including a knowledge of key performance indicators such as price earnings ratio and measures of return on capital and gearing;

• understand cost concepts, information systems and quantitative techniques for internal control and short run decision-making;

• demonstrate understanding of the principles of investment appraisal, including knowledge of the basic financial mathematics;

• demonstrate understanding of sources of long term finance and the role of corporate taxes in the optimal capital structure decision;

• demonstrate understanding of the principles of portfolio theory;

• solve financial problems in the context of uncertainty, such as calculation of the cost of equity using the Capital Asset Pricing Model and of the weighted average cost of capital in the presence of debt.

• demonstrate understanding of issues of market efficiency.

Teaching Information

2 hours of lectures per week (20 hours) and 1 hour of classes (8 hours)

Assessment Information

Each student will be required to undertake formative work on a weekly basis. In addition, they will be asked to submit two pieces of formative work which will not count towards their final grade.

Summative assessment will be by 3 Hour exam.

All of the learning outcomes will be examined in the summative examination.

Reading and References

Many introductory texts are available. However, the course notes will refer to the following:

Financial and Management Accounting:

Atrill and McLaney, "Accounting and Finance: An Introduction", 8th edition, published by Pearson. Finance: Pike and Neale, 'Corporate Finance and Investment - Decisions and Strategies', 7th edition, published by Pearson.