Accounting and Financial Management - MSc/Postgraduate Diploma/Postgraduate Certificate

The Postgraduate Certificate is made up of five of the seven core modules detailed below.

Core modules

• Fundamentals of Financial Management - equips you with an understanding of the principal functions of financial management and develops knowledge and skills relevant to finance managers in relation to financing, investment and controlling decisions.
• Financial Context and Contemporary Issues - develops your ability to comprehend contemporary and potential future accounting and financial management issues from a questioning and holistic perspective.
• Corporate Strategy - provides a wide-ranging introduction to the broad social and economic environment in which business enterprises plan and implement their strategic objectives.
• Corporate Financial Strategy - enables you to evaluate and discuss a range of issues within corporate finance, and gain an understanding of finance from the firm's perspective.
• Performance Measurement and Management - provides you with the knowledge, understanding and skills concerned with the identification, measurement, interpretation, communication and management of costs and other key performance indicators.
• Corporate Financial Reporting - develops your knowledge and understanding of contemporary practical and conceptual issues in external financial reporting.
• Research Methods - provides you with sufficient research training to plan, undertake, and effectively manage a substantial, analytical dissertation.

The Postgraduate Diploma is made up of the remaining compulsory modules and one additional optional module, allowing you to specialise in an area relevant to your career plans.

Option modules:*

• Corporate Risk Management and Control
• Financial Investments in Practice
• Financial Statement Analysis

* The availability of option modules is subject to demand.

Masters dissertation

To achieve a Masters, you must complete a dissertation which gives you the chance to research an area of accounting or financial management that is of particular interest to you and of relevance to your career plans. Previous dissertation topics include:

• Pre-production financial accounting issues in oil and gas companies: The accounting policy choices
• Capital Structure and Profitability: An Empirical Research of the Drinks Manufacturing Industry in China
• Human capital disclosures in company annual reports a case study of listed companies on the London Stock Exchange
• Financial Investment Appraisal Incorporating Environmental Externalities

The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved we will inform you.

You will learn through formal classes and seminar sessions, as well as group work and independent study. The course will include assignments, exercises, case studies and presentations, with an emphasis on independent learning to develop your analytical and problem solving skills.

For more details, see our full glossary of learning and teaching terms.

Dedicated support

We operate an 'open door' policy, so you will have regular access to your tutors to discuss any aspects of the course. We can also offer you careers advice specific to the financial sector through the faculty's careers consultants and we organise guest speakers and employer events, where you can hear, and learn, from individuals working in various accounting and finance roles.

Assessments will be a mix of written assignments, supervised mini-projects, role playing, presentations and examinations.

For more details, please see our full glossary of assessment terms.