Course description
Structure and Content
The Master’s programme is a one-year full-time programme with an initial taught component of two 15-week semesters, involving lectures, practical case study work and workshops, with a supervised dissertation in the final period.
In the Autumn Semester you will take the following modules:
Financial Reporting: Provides an appreciation of the underlying assumptions and limitations of accounting information. Measurement and reporting problems in financial accounting are discussed. Methods available for interpreting accounting information are explored and applied to ‘live’ data.
Corporate Finance: Provides an understanding of how corporations raise finance (debt and equity) and how they invest money (capital budgeting, hedging, acquisitions). This module examines the major decision areas of corporate finance and how these affect the value of the firm.
Accounting and Society: Provides students with an awareness of the wider social background to accounting by introducing them to the concept of accountability in different contexts, such as (international) accounting regulation, accounting theory, auditing and corporate governance, social and environmental accounting, and accounting for internal (management) purposes, etc.
Quantitative Methods in Finance: Provides the statistical and computing skills necessary to fully understand modern banking and finance operations. Excel is used to manipulate statistical models and to estimate linear models.
In the Spring Semester you will take the following modules:
Core Module:
Research Methods: The aim of the module is to introduce students to generic and subject-specific research training. It also aims to prepare students for the dissertation module as well as to lay the foundations for more advanced postgraduate research.
Students select three option modules with at least one from each subject grouping.
Accounting Grouping - Examples of modules which may be offered:
Topics in International Accounting: Introduces the area of international accounting in terms of its theoretical context and practical relevance, and explores financial reporting in different national or regulatory contexts.
Corporate Governance and Accountability: Explores the theory and practice of corporate governance from an accountability perspective.
Advanced Financial Reporting: Considers a number of advanced topics in financial reporting and introduces students to the practical application of the important International Financial Reporting Standards.
Finance Grouping:
Financial Statement Analysis: Develops skills in the interpretation and use of financial statements, focusing on company valuation and identification of companies that may become insolvent.
Derivatives: Focuses on the uses and the pricing of the key derivative instruments: options, futures, forwards and swaps.
Investments and Portfolio Management: Provides an understanding of security valuation and portfolio management. It focuses on the valuation of both equities and fixed-interest securities and the management of equity and fixed-interest portfolios.
The modules Derivatives and Investments and Portfolio Management cover learning outcomes from all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) programme.
Issues in Corporate Finance: Provides an understanding of selected contemporary issues in corporate finance, including initial public offerings, seasoned equity offerings, capital structure, dividend policy, mergers, acquisitions and restructurings.
International Finance: Provides in-depth study of some of the key areas of corporate finance within an international environment, and in particular: the operation of the foreign exchange market; the interaction between exchange rates, inflation rates and interest rates; the risks which fluctuating exchange rates pose for companies and how companies may protect themselves against those risks.
Delivery and Assessment
Successful completion of the taught modules leads to the award of a Postgraduate Diploma. The Master’s degree is awarded on, in addition, satisfactory completion of a dissertation. Dissertation topics may be chosen from either accounting or finance.
Career Opportunities
This is a new programme. Graduates of our established programmes have gone to work across the world in a variety of successful careers in finance. You are assisted in your job search by the University’s Career Development Centre. Many graduates from outwith the European Union now choose to apply to the Fresh Talent Initiative and remain in Scotland to work for a specified period.
