Accounting BSc (Hons)

This module aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of key literature, research and economic policy debates in the area of environmental sustainability and responsible business. The objective of the module is to provide students with appropriate tools and technical know-how to critically discuss the trade-offs between economic development and environmental protection and moving capitalism towards a
wider sense of accountability. The module will explore and examine the linkages between economic policies and environmental sustainability, the effects of international trade and globalisation on environmental resources, the role of international environmental agreements and the emergence of new forms of financial reporting centred on the principles of sustainability and social accountability.

Key topics covered in this module include:
• Fundamentals of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development
• Economic Growth and Environmental Conflicts
• Measuring Sustainable Economic Welfare
• Contingent Valuation and Revealed Preference Methods
• Alternative Concepts of Capital: Environmental Accounting, Integrated Reporting, and the Triple Bottom Line
• International Trade and Environmental Protection
• Stakeholder Activism and Social Responsibility
• Political Ecology: Challenging Narratives of Environmental Degradation
• Financial Reporting and Climate Change.
• The Circular Economy
• The Role of Social and Solidarity Economies

In this module, you will learn about assurance and the audit profession, through engagement with current academic theory, professional standards and guidance, and ‘real life’ scenarios. Topics are viewed and taught as interrelated concepts. The following topics are covered during the module:

Audit in Context
- What is the role, purpose and value of audit? You will consider the public interest and the role of audit, and the profession, in society, as well as its role in corporate governance - internal audit, external audit and the audit committee.
- What does the audit report say? You will learn about the requirements for audit reporting, how they have changed, and whether audit reports are useful.
- What are the professional and statutory rules governing audit? You will consider the framework of professional standards and legal liability auditors work within.

Audit Ethics
You will consider the IFAC Code of Professional Ethics and what it means for auditors.
- How does the nature of the audit business impact on audit ethics?
- How does audit regulation promote or comprise confidence in audit ethics?
- Why do audit ethics matter?
- Threats to audit independence.

Audit Process
The identification of audit risk from knowledge of the business and the control environment. Planning the audit assignment. Analysis of Business Risk and application to the audit. Assessment of Risk Management and Internal Control. The nature of audit evidence and the methods of collection. The audit of going concern. Formulating and reporting an audit opinion. The idea of professional scepticism.

Current Issues in Auditing
You will learn about recent high profile debates highlighted by the Competition and Markets Authority study into the statutory audit market, the Kingman review of the future of financial reporting, the Brydon review into the quality and effectiveness of audit and the Redmond review into local authority financial reporting and audit. You will consider current issues in the world of auditing and assurance such as:
- the ongoing independence debate
. audit of complex areas such as going concern and accounting estimates
- new developments in auditing standards,
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- The role of audit in detection and prevention of fraud.
- The sustainability of the audit market
- the assurance of environmental reporting

You will learn to critically appraise, understand and apply a range of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The purpose of this module is for you to learn about a select number of standards in detail. This involves looking beyond the technical computational elements of the standard, instead focusing on areas of the standards that require the judgement of a professional accountant.

The following standards are examples of those that will be covered in the module, however, the syllabus is updated each academic year in line with standard development:

• Conceptual Framework
• IAS 38 - Intangible Assets
• IAS 32 / IFRS 9 - Financial Instruments
• IFRS 10 - Consolidated Financial Statements
• IFRS 13 - Fair Value
• IFRS 15 - Revenue from Contracts with Customers
• IFRS 16 - Leases
• IAS 19 - Post-Employment Benefits

In addition to the accounting standards mentioned above you will learn about some of the contemporary issues in financial reporting, these include:

• Corporate Governance and Compliance
• Integrated Reporting ()
• Impression Management and Content Analysis
• Artificial Intelligence and Accounting (including current developments such as Blockchain)
• Climate Related Financial Disclosures (and other current reports commissioned by the Regulator)

You will be assessed by means of an examination and a continuous professional development (CPD) event. The examination will consist of a combination of computational, discursive, case study and essay based questions. The CPD event is a simulated workshop where you will be required to present (in a group) on a contemporary topic in financial reporting. This will involve you carrying out research on a topic and being able to find innovative and interesting ways to disseminate that research to your peers during the workshop.

The module aims to explore the role of the financial manager. As an accountant you will need to become involved in the wider running of the business and may be a key member of multi-disciplinary teams. You will benefit from an appreciation of the world of finance and an awareness of how financial decisions are made.
You may decide to pursue a career in financial management and if you decide to go on to study professional accounting qualifications then you will be required to study financial management. Successful completion of this module will enable you to claim exemptions to certain professional examination papers.
This module provides an appreciation of the financial management function and environment in which a financial manager operates. You will understand the relationship between risk and return and appreciate the need for financial managers to engage with some risk in order to generate shareholder value. In this module you will explore frameworks that enable financial managers to take risks in a safer way. With the emphasis predominately on publicly listed companies, you will look in depth at how a financial manager makes investment, financing and dividend decisions in order to maximise shareholder wealth. You will examine both interest rate risk and foreign exchange risk and explore ways that the financial manager can use hedging techniques in order to mitigate these foreign exchange risks. You will learn how small and medium sized enterprises and not for profit organisations have different objectives and how this impacts financial decision making. The module is delivered to you using weekly lectures and seminars.

Within this module, you will cover the following 12 topics:

• Introduction to financial management and the financial environment
• Application of discounting techniques for finance
• Investment Appraisal techniques (incorporating tax and inflation)
• The effects of risk and uncertainty on investment decisions
• Specific investment decisions
• Sources of finance and the weighted average cost of capital
• Capital structure
• Portfolio Theory
• Efficient market hypothesis
• Dividend policy
• Working capital management
• Risk Management

On completing the module, you will be able to select and apply the appropriate financial techniques to support financial appraisal and decision making in a variety of situations. This will help in strategic decision making. You will have developed relevant numerical skills to support the theoretical material introduced throughout the module.

The Dissertation module aims to equip you with the necessary intellectual and practical skills for undertaking an individual student-led, ethical investigation into an accounting, economics or finance (AEF) related problem or issue. In addition, the Dissertation aims to equip you with key transferable, employability skills, time management, project management, communication (written and verbal), negotiation, persuasion and influence, discovery, initiative, creativity and innovation in problem-solving and analysis.

The module is student-led but you are supported by, introductory lectures and workshops as well as guest lectures which introduce undertaking AEF research followed by one-to-one or small-group supervision meetings with an academic from the AEF subject discipline.

The lectures and IT workshops will provide a thorough grounding into undertaking an extended piece of researching, focusing on:

• Refining a research aim/question (focusing and scoping the research) and project proposal
• Developing a literature review
• Researching ethically
• Quantitative research and analysis techniques
• Qualitative research and analysis techniques

Upon completion of the AFM Dissertation module you will be able to:
• Conduct independent and ethical academic research involving the application and critical evaluation of appropriate theories and models.
• Engage critically with relevant literature to establish a framework in which to analyse and synthesise the results of your primary or secondary research.
• Generate / collect relevant primary or secondary data using an appropriate and justified method.
• Analyse your data using an appropriate and justified method of analysis.
• Recognise the ethical implications of your work.
• Critically evaluate the source of your data and the method you adopted.

The Management Enquiry module is a student-led individual project that enables you to undertake a significant piece of assessed work commensurate with a capstone module. The module aims to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate an authentic engagement with managers and/or professionals from the Accounting, Economics or Finance (AEF) discipline, and to integrate the knowledge you have developed during your programme to explore the theory in practice. The learning on this module is experiential and problem based, where the focus is upon you discovering, probing, and questioning key practice-based issues. Through the module you will be offered the opportunity to develop and enhance key transferable employability skills; time management, project management, communication (written, aural and verbal), negotiation, persuasion and influence, discovery, initiative, problem-solving and analysis.

The module has five thematic areas; explore, review, engage, reflect, and connect. These form the key elements of the assessed submission.

Part A (35%, 3,500 Words)
• Explore: Interviewing a manager and/or professional from the AEF discipline. In this interview you will either explore a key issue which you feel AEF is facing or, alternatively, explore with the manager or professional the key issues that they feel they are facing in practice. It is expected that you will apply appropriate interview methods and provide evidence of the interview within the submitted enquiry report (e.g. within the appendices).
• Review: Critically examining the appropriate literature to support the exploration, displaying an ability to critically assess and appraise the AEF knowledge related to a specific key issue arising from your exploration.
Part B (65%, 6,500 Words)
• Engage: Displaying an authentic engagement with the AEF problem/issue identified in Part A, by collecting/generating and analysing further live data (beyond the initial interview) regarding the AEF problem/issue. This live data may be primary data (e.g. further interviews with, or questionnaire to, managers and/or professionals in practice) or secondary data (e.g. industry data). Application of appropriate, ethically-considered, research methods and appropriate qualitative or quantitative data analysis.
- Reflect and Connect: Demonstrating an ability to critically evaluate and reflect on the issues arising from the Management Enquiry. Demonstrating how you have connected and fed-back to the participants of the Enquiry (usually the manager and/or participants) your key findings to provide clear prioritised, well-justified, practical, and actionable recommendations for change/enhancement/improvement to existing AEF practice to show how the recommendations would potentially affect workplace professional decision making.

The module aims to provide you with an opportunity to integrate the knowledge acquired during the programme and apply this to a consultancy project for a real organisation. This consultancy project provides a vehicle for participants to develop and demonstrate key employability skills, to relate theory to practice, and to undertake a significant piece of assessed work commensurate with a capstone module.

You will work on behalf of an external organisation, which has identified a business problem or question, requiring a solution, working in small group of typically 4 individuals (you will select their own team members), participating in group and individual activities. The host organisation will provide a project briefing, and review; students will be supported by appropriate academic input and guidance from Newcastle Business School in the form of a mentor and via the Business Clinic.