MSc Accounting and Finance

This module is uniquely designed to encourage you to critically evaluate a business from a management accounting perspective. You’ll learn to apply and critique advanced management accounting techniques. While gaining a critical appreciation of management accountants, and their strategic approach, you’ll also analyse their changing role in the modern business environment.

The module will equip you with the skills to apply the techniques studied, and provide you with a critical understanding of the theoretical aspects of strategic management accounting.

You will gain an understanding of financial accounting techniques, from basic transaction records to international financial reporting. You will learn how to prepare and interpret financial statements and debate current issues in international financial accounting.

This module provides an introduction to the principles and practice of corporate financial management. You will learn how organisations manage their finances, how they decide what investments to undertake and what dividends to pay. You will be expected to learn the core techniques used to measure the creation of value and, at the same time, develop a critical perspective in evaluating corporate finance theory.

You will undertake an independent project, relevant to the area of Accounting and Finance. You can choose between a research project, a consultancy project or a guided project. The ability to carry out independent research, analyse both qualitative and quantitative data and then to communicate their findings orally and in writing are key skills required by the accounting and finance professions.

The goal of this module is for you to enhance your employability by engaging in development activities that will be recognised and appreciated by prospective employers. You will gain a sound understanding of the nature of the accounting and finance professions as well as what is expected of a working professional and job applicants in the accounting and finance industries. You will practise generic and specific skills relevant to career success and develop strategies to enhance resilience and adaptability in the workplace.

This module builds on the understanding of management accounting techniques acquired in the compulsory Management Accounting module. It extends your abilities in applying planning, decision making and control techniques. You interpret the performance of organisations and critically discuss the role of management accounting within different contexts.

Using a UK and international framework, you’ll explore contemporary financial reporting and accounting. In particular, you’ll study International Financial Reporting Standards, and apply it to a variety of accounting and finance issues, and other reporting data.

Upon successfully completing this module, you’ll have developed analytical skills needed for IT tools and digital media. You’ll also be able to use reports to appraise the financial performance, financial situation and cash position of companies.

This module is designed to enable you to place financing and investment decisions into the context of the wider environment, corporate strategy and performance. By using case studies throughout the module, you will appreciate how corporate strategy is formulated, linked to business and functional strategies and how management control is exercised and performance is measured.

In this module you will adopt two perspectives: first that of an analyst of the international system, examining the operation of foreign exchange and derivative markets, and theories of exchange rate determination; second that of the financial manager within a multinational enterprise (MNE) facing issues of currency risk management and international investment. You will demonstrate both critical evaluation and practical application of theoretical and empirical developments in the field of international finance.

This module is particularly relevant for students who aspire to work in asset management, banking, treasury, financial reporting or for rating and verification agencies. You will developing expertise in the rapidly evolving field of sustainable finance - both of the financial instruments that organisations issue and investors buy, and of the systems of accountability and governance that are associated with them. You will develop practical skills in the use of Bloomberg Terminals to support your analysis of sustainable finance and investment.

This module details the various asset classes that investors might consider in forming portfolios. You'll gain hands-on experience of building a diversified portfolio, hedging using derivatives, and analysing its performance and risk using the Bloomberg terminal.

The fundamentals you'll learn in this module will be particularly beneficial for a career in asset management, investment banking, and wealth management. Your primary focus will be on building an equity and bond portfolio, although other asset classes will also be introduced to you.

You’ll gain an understanding of how to examine data and use statistics to produce information that’ll help businesses to formulate strategies and make decisions. Statistics underlies business analytics and intelligence, making it a powerful tool for decision making. Essential concepts in business analytics and intelligence will be introduced, as well as statistical and econometrics concepts that are central to areas such as business analytics, data mining, data analytics, big data and artificial intelligence. You’ll also be encouraged to work with diverse datasets, as you’ll learn how to prepare these and test basic models of analytics.

Business analytics focuses on the data and technology that enables fact-based decision-making. This module will guide you on how to use data extensively and how to perform statistical and quantitative analysis in order to drive business decisions and actions. You’ll learn how to conduct data preparation (cleaning and integration), pre-processing (standardisation and transformation), reduction (data selection), visualisation and modelling (choosing the right model and when to deploy it) before interpreting it to gain further insights from the data. The module will also demonstrate the use of several analytical tools and software. In addition, this module emphasises the importance of ethics and ethical practices when collecting and leveraging data in the business decision-making process.

This elective study trip will give you a hands-on, intensive experience with the ideas and practices of global business. You’ll meet with leaders of global firms, receive presentations from global academic experts, and tour company facilities. You’ll also have direct interaction with management executives and practices through site visits to major corporations and agencies.

All costs associated with the trip will need to be funded by you. It is not linked to university assessments in any way. If you successfully complete this module you will have it recorded on your transcript. As the destination and therefore precise costs vary from year to year, the programme fee of the study trip will be communicated to students before the application deadline.

If you decide to take the sandwich mode your year of full-time taught study will be followed by one year of full-time, supervised work experience. The time on supervised work experience is paid and spent with a suitable international hospitality and tourism employer. You carry out an assessed project for the company as part of your academic studies on the placement. You'll expand your enterprise skills in the context of the workplace. The focus will be on building your intrapreneurial mindsets during your placement, helping you to develop the curiosity, creativity, vision and resilience to be successful in a variety of organisations. The placement will enable you to drive innovation in one or more of the following areas: ethical business behaviour, inclusivity, responsible management, sustainability, digitalisation and internationalisation. Drawing on your research skills you'll propose evidence based innovative solutions to your placement organisations’ challenges.