| Unit name | Sustainability Assurance and Corporate Governance |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ACFIM0051 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Morales |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Accounting and Finance - Business School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
This unit is going to give you an introduction to sustainability assurance and corporate governance. If sustainability reporting is now well established among large organisations, various studies have questioned their focus on communication and argued that better auditing, assurance, and connection with internal control mechanisms were necessary to deliver on the promise of sustainability accounting and accountability. The question of governance and assurance therefore becomes crucial to assessing organisational sustainability practices. Policy makers, regulators and investors are increasingly linking sustainability issues with questions of corporate governance and the need to go beyond a focus on shareholder interests.
How does this unit fit within your programme of study?
This unit offers a focus on a crucial dimension of sustainability. It builds on the generalist units covered in TB1 to address questions more specifically concerned with corporate governance and sustainability assurance. You will learn how the challenges discussed in the unit on Accounting, Accountability and Sustainability in TB1 translate into questions of governance and assurance. The theoretical frameworks discussed in the unit Accounting Theory in TB1 will be applied to specific cases involving governance and assurance. Sustainability information is different from financial information and many frameworks and initiatives exist to provide guidance on how to hold organisations accountable for their sustainability. This unit will therefore discuss these frameworks as well as various mechanisms, their merits and limitations in terms of providing assurance on sustainability information and how to govern the quality of such information.
An overview of content
This unit begins by introducing various theoretical frameworks used in corporate governance research, adopting a stakeholder approach and including associated accountability, reporting and regulation problems. It will then discuss various theories and provide you with analytical and critical skills to discuss current debates on corporate governance and sustainability assurance. Various cases, including cases of fraud, environmental violations and regulatory problems, will be evaluated and analysed.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
You will develop critical thinking in corporate governance and sustainability assurance practices, incorporate empirical evidence, and connect this with frameworks applied in various contexts and settings. It will prepare you for a broad range of questions and issues you will face in your work and more generally as citizens. The unit will also develop your transferrable skills, particularly in problem-solving, getting familiar with corporate governance and sustainability assurance, which will enhance your employability prospects.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of lectures and tutorials. A range of theories and frameworks that are essential knowledge to be able to critically evaluate corporate governance and sustainability assurance practices will be presented in the lectures. In the tutorials, conducted in an interactive manner, cases and practices, including cases of fraud, environmental violations and regulatory problems, will be presented, and their potential merits and problems will be open for discussion and debate.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Formative assessment will take the form of an individual coursework mirroring the summative assessment.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
This unit will have one summative assessment of an individual coursework that will count for 100% of the unit mark. This assessment covers ILOs 1-5. The coursework will take the form of written report (2,000 words).
When assessment does not go to plan
If you fail the unit overall at the first attempt you will be expected to resit all the assessment, which will take the form of a new written report (2000 words) that covers ILOs 1-5.
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. ACFIM0051).
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 University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
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. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
