ObjectivesThe primary aim of the course is to provide students with advanced knowledge and understanding of the main theoretical and applied concepts in accounting and finance at an advanced level; and to provide advanced instruction and practice in the conduct of empirical research in accounting and finance. It places considerable emphasis on empirical research methods and equips Masters students, through the taught stage of the course, with the skills to carry out a piece of original research. This research constitutes the final dissertation stage of the Masters course. The course conforms to the ESRC guidelines for Masters degrees and has ESRC recognition as a postgraduate training year in preparation for undertaking a PhD.
Entry requirementsWe are looking for a UK bachelor degree with first or upper second class honours (overall average 65%), or the overseas equivalent, with excellent results in accounting and finance subjects. When assessing your academic record, we take into account your grade average, position in class, references and the standing of the institution where you studied your qualification. We particularly welcome applications from institutions of high ranking and repute. You need to have studied or be studying a degree in accounting and/or finance. We can also consider exceptional candidates with degrees in economics or mathematics. You must have taken a significant number of courses in accounting and finance during your degree, and a major or specialisation in accounting and/or finance in your final year, with top level results in final year accounting and finance subjects. You must also demonstrate a solid background in quantitative skills, econometrics or maths. Applicants studying degrees in business administration, business management or commerce, can be considered but must be able to demonstrate a very strong background in accounting and finance throughout their degree and a final year major or specialisation in accounting and/or finance (as outlined above). Due to competition for places, preference will be given to applicants with a bachelor degree in accounting and/or finance.
Academic titleMSc Accounting and Finance
Course descriptionCourses
MSc Accounting and Finance – Course structure
All taught course units are 15 credits.
Semester one
• Introductory research methods for accounting and finance
The course unit provides a foundation in statistics, computing techniques and databases, which are beneficial for successful completion of other postgraduate courses in accounting and finance.
• Essentials of finance
This course unit provides the basic theoretical foundations of theories of asset pricing. The course focuses on the structure of the main theories of asset pricing that are most used in empirical and applied finance, such as Portfolio
Theory, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Arbitrage Pricing Theory, as well as providing an understanding of the formal construction of asset-pricing models.
• Financial reporting theory
This course provides an understanding of the main approaches to financial reporting issues from both practice and research perspectives.
Plus, one unit from –
• Portfolio Investment
This course unit provides an advanced coverage of the principles of investment analysis and of a wide range of topics in portfolio management. It aims to bring state-of-the-art practices in the finance industry to the classroom and supplement it with theories and recent empirical findings in the area.
• Business Policy
This course unit introduces you to classical strategy literature from the 1980s onwards and explains how such tools can be used for understanding management in giant firms. You look at political economy literatures on shareholder value and financialisation and consider the effects of capital market pressure for financial results, mainly in the UK and USA. Finally, you carry out practical exercises on firm and sector which require product market and financial analysis based on critical use of methods and concepts from a variety of perspectives.
• Financial Analysis of Public Sector Restructuring
This course unit helps you to analyse and understand the rationale for changes in public sector management and the arguments used to support the use of accounting techniques and financial management. You use financial and other information to interrogate this rationale and to evaluate policy outcomes. It provides you with experience of using
financial accounts and other sources of information, as well as reading and analyzing business cases, audit reports and other related documents, helping you develop skills you can apply to other cases of public sector change.
• Foundations of Finance Theory
This course unit provides a foundation in the most important models in finance: general no-arbitrage relationships (forward parity, put-call parity, MM theorem, the law of one price), stock valuation models (APT, CAPM, TSP)
and option pricing models.
Semester two
• Corporate finance
This course unit covers theoretical and empirical aspects of corporate financing, capital structure and dividend policy, and more advanced topics in agency theory, signalling, incomplete contracting, incomplete information games, corporate control and governance, and executive compensation.
Either
• Research Methods and Methodology in Accounting
This course unit provides a general understanding of accounting research and research methods and equips you with practical research skills for your dissertation project.
Or
• Research Methods and Methodology in Finance
This course unit introduces you to basic research techniques in finance covering both theory and practice.
Plus, one unit from –
• Financial Statement Analysis
This course unit provides an understanding of the role of financial statement information in the decisions taken by current and prospective stakeholders in a company.
• Financial Econometrics
This course unit covers OLS, ML and GMM estimation methods, univariate time series analysis and various topical issues such as ARCH, vector autoregressive models, unit roots, error correction, co-integration and non-linear time series models.
• International Finance
This course unit covers developments in international financial markets and theories of exchange rate determination. In particular, it focuses on theoretical and applied aspects of the causes of financial/exchange rate crises, the relationship between international capital flows, investor behaviour (including sentiment) and international asset pricing, and the potential for international financial market contagion of financial crises.
• Accounting in an International Context
The aim of this course unit is to provide an introduction to the complexity and variety of issues that arise when accounting is set in an international context. The material covers issues in both management and financial accounting. The unit is partly comparative (eg looking at differences in systems of management accounting, financial reporting), and partly analytical (eg considering how financial analysis and resource allocation are affected by international factors). The course content covers a range of issues which affect international accounting practice and its regulation.
• International Mergers and Acquisitions
This course unit provides you with a conceptual framework for the understanding of mergers and acquisitions. Using both economic and financial analysis, the course investigates how the basic principles arising from an extensive theoretical tradition can give meaning to a raft of empirical findings about the phenomenon.
Summer research period
The MSc dissertation (worth 60 credits) normally consists of a literature survey in an applied/empirical area of accounting and finance followed by a piece of empirical work,
involving either qualitative research methods or traditional statistical methods. Typical topic areas include –
• management accounting
• financial reporting
• auditing
• management information systems
• business analysis
• public sector financial management