Dr Pik Kun Liew OLD 3.34 and Dr Per Ahblom OLD 3.13

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Accounting and Finance. This course is available on the BSc in Management, BSc in Mathematics, Statistics and Business and Diploma in Accounting and Finance. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Please seek permission from the BSc in Accounting and Finance Programme Director.

This course is not capped.

Students must have completed either

(1) Elements of Accounting and Finance (AC100), or

(2) Elements of Financial Accounting (AC102) and Elements of Management Accounting, Financial Management and Financial Institutions (AC103), or

(3) equivalent.

This is a one-unit course that builds on the foundation laid by the first-year accounting courses. AC200 is also intended to provide students with the conceptual knowledge and technical skills necessary for final-year courses in accounting. The course considers the major theoretical and practical approaches to accounting and consists of two main components: financial accounting and management accounting.

Financial Accounting: The course begins with an evaluation of the regulatory environment in which financial accounting operates. This part of the course focuses on the preparation and analysis of the published financial statements of public interest entities operating on their own, or within group structures. The function and content of published financial statements, the issues posed by consolidated accounts, and the analysis of accounting information to evaluate corporate performance will also be examined. A range of specific areas of financial accounting issues will be looked at, for example, segmental reporting, issues in foreign-currency translations, how corporations report their provision of pension for employees, and problems associated with the treatment of taxation. However, the exact composition of the topics may vary from year to year driven by the latest developments in financial reporting, standard-setting and related debates.

Management Accounting: The course then explores theoretical concepts, practices, designs and wider issues of cost and management accounting. The characteristics and use of various systems and models, such as cost-driver analysis and activity-based costing, in organisational decision-making at both operating and strategic levels will be introduced and critically evaluated. This part of the course also considers ways in which non-financial information can be used to complement financial accounting information in order to enable a more holistic approach aimed at providing relevant and useful information to management for the purposes of planning, decision-making, and organisational control.

Teaching is delivered in weekly three-hour seminars over 10 weeks across Michaelmas Term (MT Weeks 1-10) and Lent Term (LT Weeks 1-5, and Weeks 7-11 where Week 6 is a reading week). There will be no seminars in Week 11 of MT but students will be required to participate in a three-hour summative assessment session this week as scheduled in the timetable. There will be a two-hour revision session in Week 1 of the Summer Term. Seminars contain a variety of concept-focused content, practical exercises, and case analyses. This year, some or all of this teaching may be delivered using virtual sessions as an alternative to face-to-face teaching due to social-distancing or other pandemic-related restrictions that may need to be observed.

Students are expected to come to each seminar prepared where the assigned course materials have been read and attempted. There will also be several online quizzes to assess student’s knowledge and progress in both terms on a formative basis for feedback. Feedback on performance and progress will be provided during seminars, on selected written homework assignments, and during academic support and feedback hours.

Detailed course programmes and reading lists will be made available via Moodle before the first seminar of each term. A range of academic papers, professional reports and news articles will be used in the course. 

Exam (60%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.
Presentation (15%) in the MT.
Project (15%) in the LT.
Class participation (10%) in the MT and LT.

Further details of all aspects of assessment and coursework, as well as feedback, will be made available on Moodle nearer the scheduled start time of the course and will be updated as the course progresses with specific instructions, guidance, and feedback.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.