StudyQA — Master: Accounting and Financial Management

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Description Contents Requirements

Today's business managers need to be able to analyse and interpret financial information and use this to inform business strategy. The MSc in Accounting and Financial Management will help you develop this expertise, as well as giving you an indepth understanding of the contemporary issues encountered by financial managers.

The underlying practical focus ensures that the skills and knowledge you gain are highly relevant to the workplace whichever area of accounting or financial management you are seeking to engage in.

You will develop your knowledge and understanding of accounting and financial management, while also enhancing your critical thinking, research and analytical skills. During the year, you will:

analyse and solve complex problems relating to financial reporting, performance measurement and management, corporate strategy and financial management
be encouraged to think critically and creatively about problems requiring a multi-disciplinary approach
develop in-depth knowledge in a specialist topic you have chosen for your dissertation
enhance your key personal skills in time management, information accessing, analysis and interpretation
develop your interpersonal, communication and management skills through team working, making presentations and writing reports.

As a student at Bristol Business School, you will get to hear from inspiring speakers from the business world. You will also have access to our state-of-the-art trading room, built around the Bloomberg Professional system, the main financial platform used by the large investment banks.

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

You will need:

a good honours degree in either Accounting and Finance (minimum 2:2), or Business/related subject (minimum 2:1) with a significant accounting and finance content (normally at least 25% of the degree) from a recognised Higher Education institution, or
equivalent, from a recognised overseas institution or
to have successfully completed all of the Fundamental papers of the ACCA syllabus or the Certificate, Operational and Management levels of the CIMA syllabus, and have at least two years' relevant work experience. (If you have passed any of the ACCA Professional level or CIMA Strategic level papers you may be eligible for exemption from one or more of the MSc modules).