Unit information: Finance and Accounting in 2021/22

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.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ECONM1007).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.