| Unit name | Corporate Governance and Accountability |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ACFIM0031 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Chen |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None (only the mandatory TB 1 units) |
| 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?
One of the key issues for a business to be successful is corporate governance and governance practices are facing new challenges over time. Failures in governance result in significant corporate scandals, loss of reputation and even bankruptcy. For students studying accounting and finance, it is important to know both theoretical governance framework in line with UK corporate governance codes or other international models (US, Europe and Asia), and also the latest governance practices to incorporate material environmental (climate change) and social issues into business activities. As part of this unit, students will develop their ability to analyse business case in a corporate setting to produce analyst report through critical evaluation and data analyses. By studying the academic literature on some of these models, as well as understanding their practical implementation, insights from the unit may help to inform students’ career choices, targeted job profiles and/or graduate programmes.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study
This unit builds on the corporate strategy in the “Introducing Strategic Management” and ratio analysis in “Financial Management” in Teaching Block 1 (both of these two units are mandatory). Given the complexed nature of sustainability information, how to govern the quality of those information is critical for corporate strategy. This units sits as a role to connect strategic management and financial reporting practices of the MSc AFM programme.
An overview of content
This unit aims to provide students with a thorough grounding in a number of key advanced topics of corporate governance theory, research and practice (adopting a stakeholder approach and including associated accountability, reporting, and regulation problems), to develop their familiarity with and powers to criticise the academic literature; and to develop their ability to integrate and synthesize between topics in order to enter usefully into current debates and to suggest potentially fruitful avenues for development.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
Students will develop critical thinking in corporate governance practices, incorporate empirical evidence, and connect this with outcome of corporate scandals in terms of accounting fraud, environmental violations and regulatory problems. It will facilitate students’ responsibility in a broader domain of the society and prepare them in the face of future challenges in business activities. The unit will also develop students’ transferrable skills, particularly in problem-solving, getting familiar with corporate governance database and in financial data analysis, which will enhance their employability prospects.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this unit students should be able to:
How you will learn
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions including lectures, tutorials, drop-in sessions and other online learning opportunities. Synchronous sessions will be conducted in an interactive manner. Issues and themes will be presented, and their potential merits will be open for discussion and debate.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Formative assessment is designed to provide a real-time snapshot of students’ understanding and ensure students receiving timely and specific feedback. Feedback is provided at fortnightly tutorials and on practice questions. Apart from the discussion and feedback from the tutor and your peers in the tutorials, suggested solutions to the questions are provided after the tutorials have taken. Suggested solutions will also be provided for practice exam questions. Suggested answers will also be posted on online discussion boards.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
This unit will be assessed by 100% coursework (suggested 2,500 words). This assessment will cover the intended learning outcomes described above: ILO1, ILO2, ILO3, IL04, IL05 and ILO6. It will examine your understanding of the different conceptualisations of governance, including critical reflection of theoretical framework and application of academic literature to evaluate a real business case and critical assessment on the case using empirical evidence.
When assessment does not go to plan
When a student fails the unit and is eligible to resubmit, failed components will be reassessed through a new assessment on a like-for-like basis.
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. ACFIM0031).
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.
