Accounting and Finance (Professional Practice) MSc

This module aims to provide you with an understanding of key management accounting issues and applied methodologies in contemporary business practice, focusing on the role of management accounting in providing information for operational and strategic decision-making, planning, control and performance management. You will have the opportunity to examine the blend of cost analysis and managerial judgment required to make sound economic decisions and covers topics in cost management, budgetary control, and short and longer term financial decision making, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

Being able to understand, interpret and analyse a company's financial statements is an essential skill for finance professionals. In this module, you'll study fundamental issues concerning the financial reporting of companies to become familiar with certain financial statement characteristics reported following the international accounting standards. You'll aim to develop an ability to critically assess and interpret corporate financial performance using financial analysis techniques that aid the interpretation of accounts and performance.

This module will introduce you to more advance topics in corporate finance with an aim of giving you a critical understanding of theories in corporate finance and of practical implications of the theories on a day to day decision making as a finance specialist.

The past decades have witnessed a rapid emergence of good corporate governance as a crucial part of running any successful corporation. The central aim of this module is to provide you with a thorough grounding in a range of advanced topics in corporate governance. In particular, the module seeks to introduce and develop you ability to critically evaluate a wide of range of concepts, principles, theories, models, systems, mechanisms, reforms, regulations and research in corporate governance.

In this module you'll study a range of important contemporary issues and topics in accounting and corporate social responsibility. It is designed to enhance your appreciation and understanding of ethical, regulatory and governing accounting issues. You will also have an opportunity to learn about specific accountabilities of corporate social responsibility from the perspective of small and large businesses, with the aim of the interpretation and application of non-financial data.

In today’s highly mobile and interconnected world of business, you will undoubtedly find yourself working with culturally diverse teams, partnerships and customer bases. It is therefore essential that you are able to offer future employers, colleagues and other stakeholders an adaptable interculturally aware and responsive approach. In the light of that, this module fosters transferable skills fundamental to global employability. Your professional and personal development will be guided through the application of the eight CIPD Behaviours, University of Huddersfield’s target Graduate Attributes, and key Intercultural Effectiveness skills and mindsets. As you develop professionally through your subject studies you will increase consciousness of your individual cultural make-up and the impact of this on behaviour, relationships and worldview in order to navigate beyond the borders of your own culture. You will develop a conscious approach to effective global practice, responding positively to difference, and constructing strategies to deal with intercultural workplace encounters.

Throughout your professional career you are likely to be confronted with debates about sustainability and managing scarce resources more effectively. It is essential that you are able to engage in these debates with future employers, colleagues and other stakeholders. This module provides an opportunity to explore the challenges of responsible resource management through circular economic thinking and solutions that enable business and society to go beyond a traditional model of linear production and consumption. You'll consider and aim to become familiar with debates about how far the adoption of circular economic principles takes us in this direction.

The rise in importance and complexity of financial management in an international environment poses a great challenge for financial managers in multinational corporations. The increasing integration of global products and financial markets around the world requires financial managers working for multinational corporations to consider exchange rates, international capital and debt markets, and economic and political risks to achieve shareholder wealth maximization. This module is intended to provide you the tools needed to understand the global financial markets and the challenges and opportunities these bring to the financial managers of the multinational corporations.

This module aims to develop specific skills in analysing reward management practices in organisations. It considers how to strategically use reward as a mechanism for improving productivity and engagement. The module looks at contemporary reward management practices including strategic reward management, executive remuneration, equal pay and gender pay disparity.

Adopting a cross-disciplinary approach to pressing global challenges, the module will explore the humanitarian problems raised by challenges such as migration in the Mediterranean, the use of chemical weapons, desertification, global inequality, and issues around (de)development. By interrogating theoretical, practical, and legalistic responses to unfolding humanitarian challenges the module will draw on scholarship in disciplines including law, geography, and economics to provide a critical and engaging study of tested and innovative humanitarian strategies. You will consider and critique how problems of a transnational and global nature are being addressed by reference to a combination of technical, diplomatic, and legal initiatives.

With many industries generating huge volumes of data almost continuously the challenge for these industries is understanding how this data can be utilised for developing organisational value. This module introduces the field of Big Data, sources, management and visualisaiton. The module will evaluate and consider a range of features in the area, and provide opportunity to work with multiple online and offline data sets, investigate ethical issues around the data and explore different data collection strategies. Experience in these areas gives a holistic overview of organisational challenges and an informed perspective in decision making through the utilisation of big data.

The module will encourage you to develop your entrepreneurial mind-set, and help you understand the challenges and opportunities of starting and running a new venture. Your entrepreneurial skills and abilities will be guided through the application of different entrepreneurial tools and techniques – as well as practical exercises - that should enable you to assess your own entrepreneurial readiness, while preparing for the risky, uncertain and challenging environment of creating new ventures.

The Individual Research Project provides an opportunity to pursue your own interests and engage more deeply with your subject by completing an in-depth piece of research work using relevant research methods. Working autonomously, but under the guidance of a supervisor, you will make choices about the most appropriate methods and then conduct your own research project. Through the Individual Research Project, you will have the opportunity to greatly enhance your own knowledge and skills. The research will be presented in written format using academic conventions recognised in your field.

The Group Consultancy Project provides you with the opportunity to engage in a ‘real world’ live client brief. You will work in small teams and will be expected to engage in the process of scoping the project with the business client, undertake the necessary information gathering, analysing the information and make recommendations to the client. As part of this module, you will also need to evaluate how principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility influence your professional decision making.

The module will encourage you to develop your entrepreneurial mind-set, and help you understand the challenges and opportunities of starting and running a new venture. Your entrepreneurial skills and abilities will be guided through the application of different entrepreneurial tools and techniques – as well as practical exercises - that should enable you to assess your own entrepreneurial readiness, while preparing for the risky, uncertain and challenging environment of creating new ventures.