CHSS
March 2011CUGLAT
Paper EC2 – Supporting information (NB This document is 108 pages)
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH BUSINESS SCHOOL
Proposal for a new undergraduate course for introduction 2011-12
Name of course: / Applications of Finance 2Group: / Accounting & Finance
College: / Humanities and Social Sciences
Department: / BusinessSchool
Year: / 2
Course Co-ordinator: / TBC
Duration: / 10 weeks
Semester: / 2
Contact hours: / 20 lectures + 8 tutorials
Total student effort hours: / 200 hours
Prerequisites: / Principles of Finance 2 and entry to Honours; Students MUST have passed: Business Studies 1 (BUST08001) OR (Industrial Management 1 (BUST08002) AND Techniques of Management (MAEE08002)) OR (Accountancy 1A (ACCN08007) AND Accountancy 1B (ACCN08008) AND Economics 1A (ECNM08005))
Credits: / 20
A. RATIONALE
A new MA in Accounting and Finance was introduced recently, and it has proved popular with both home and overseas students. Much of the School’s increase in recruitment of overseas students at undergraduate level has been due to demand for the A&F degree. However, the curriculum of the degree as it stands is short of finance courses in the first two years. Students take four courses in accounting during the first two years, but they only take one course in finance, namely Principles of Finance 2 (plus the finance section of Business Studies 1). The proposed course is intended to boost students’ exposure to finance before their Honours years, and to provide a more balanced curriculum for the A&F degree. The course will run in the second semester of the second year, and will be designed to be taken after Principles of Finance 2. It will be an EITHER/OR option with Management Science and Information Systems as a required course on the A&F degree. It will also be available as an option to students on other degrees who have taken Principles of Finance 2.
B1. COURSE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The course is designed to complement Principles of Finance 2. The latter is a theoretical and conceptual course which introduces students to the core ideas in academic finance. There is little time to consider practical aspects, and several important topics are omitted or only dealt with briefly. Applicationsof Finance 2 will fill some of these gaps. It will introduce students to a number of topics that would be expected to be part of the knowledge base of an undergraduate specialising in accounting and finance, but which are absent from Principles of Finance 2 and are not always considered in the Honours courses. The course will consolidate the conceptual learning in Principles of Finance 2 by introducing students to some of the practical aspects of finance, for example valuation, company risk management and company restructuring. The tutorials will consist of a variety of assignments, which will help develop a range of skills. The assignments will include discussion of research papers, numerical examples, cases, and possibly presentations and groupwork.
B2. INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Knowledge and understanding
On successful completion of the course students will:
- Have broadened their knowledge of core concepts and ideas in finance, in particular in the areas of international finance, mergers and acquisitions, company risk management, and valuation of companies;
- Have been introduced to empirical research in finance;
- Know more about financial instruments, markets and transactions; for example, interest rate swaps, takeover arrangements, bank loans.
- Know more about the financial information used by company executives, investors and analysts, and techniques for analysing such information.
Cognitive/analytical skills/transferable skills
Through individual and groupwork students will develop their ability to:
- Understand accounting and financial data, and analyse such data;
- Understand academic research in finance;
- Demonstrate their understanding through essays and through answers to numerical problems;
- Think clearly and logically;
- Develop and deliver effective presentations.
C. STUDENT INTAKE
The course will be an EITHER/OR option with Management Science and Information Systems for students taking the MA in Accounting and Finance, and optional for other students. Successful completion of Principles of Finance 2 will be a pre-requisite.
D. CONTENT OF THE COURSE
A detailed outline of the content is not appropriate at this point. We have not yet determined who the course lecturer will be, and it is desirable that the lecturer is left with some flexibility to design a course that fits his or her own priorities and interests. The exact choice of content is not critical to the students’ education; there are many topics and types of tutorial assignment that would be suitable within the intellectual space between Principles of Finance 2 and the specialist finance courses available to students in their third and fourth years. The following list gives an idea of the range of topics which could usefully be taught in Applications of Finance 2; not all these topics will appear in the final version of the course.
Financial markets
Equity and bond markets
Investing institutions
Trading (introduction to ‘market microstructure’)
IPOs, SEOs and bond issues
International investing
Emerging markets
Development and benefits of international capital markets
Foreign exchange and determination of exchange rates
Banking
Bank lending
Leasing
Project finance
Syndicated loans
Interest rate swaps
Currency swaps
Securitisation of debt
Trading of loans and trading credit risk
Company risk management
Hedging interest rate risk and currency risk: the use of forward contracts, swaps and options
Assessing a company’s capital base
Corporate re-structuring
Takeovers
Management buy-outs and buy-ins
Private equity
Corporate governance
Role of shareholders
Role of boards of directors
Executive pay
Techniques of valuing and analysing companies
Real options
E. ORGANISATION OF TEACHING
The course organiser has yet to be appointed. PhD students or bought-in tutors might be employed to take tutorials, with appropriate guidance and oversight from the course organiser. Delivery will consist of two one-hour lectures per week for ten weeks, and eight one-hour tutorials. Tutorials will be used to support student learning through a variety of exercises. Timetable slots are to be arranged. Students will be expected to engage in independent study, with directed reading, and to prepare for and participate in the tutorials.
F. STUDENT ASSESSMENT AND GUIDANCE
There will be two components of assessment, groupwork (including peer evaluation) (30%) and a final examination (70%). Further details regarding assessment will be decided upon by the course organiser.
G. FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION
The end-of-course questionnaire will be a formal way of gathering student feedback. Feedback on the course will also be obtained via the Staff-Student Committee and other informal feedback will be obtained via the tutorials.
H. RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS
The School will shortly be interviewing candidates for a chair in finance, and will also be seeking to appoint at least one additional member of staff in finance in the current academic year. There is capacity in the Accounting & Finance Group to teach the proposed new course, so long as at least one of the above appointments is made.
There will not be a requirement for specific lecture-room facilities beyond access to normal audiovisual technology.
The Library will be informed of additional copies of core texts required. Students will be referred to other books and to articles which are available via the on-line journals.
I. DOCUMENTATION
A course handbook will be written by the course organiser, when appointed.Staff running tutorials will be provided with material to cover during the tutorial sessions, and will be given an indication of the key learning points which should be brought out during each session.
As this is a new course a sample examination paper will be provided to students in advance of the examination, so that they have a better idea of what to expect in the examination.The end-of-semester and resit examination papers will be prepared and model answers written for each question.
The course will be incorporated into the curriculum for the MA in Accounting & Finance.
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
COVER SHEET FOR A NEW OR REVISED COURSE
Section A
Course title Applications of Finance 2 / Course code – to be created by RegistryTeaching Unit (eg Department)
BusinessSchool / College of HSS / Collaborating Body eg Department or other Institution
UG () / / New course () /
If Replacement course, give details of course (s) which this course replaces / Name of Course / Code
Credit points / No. SCQF credit points / 20 / Level eg SCQF 8 / 8
Scheduled Teaching / No. Hours per week / No. of weeks / Scheduled class hours - include day, start and finish times and term
Mon and Thur 1000-1050; Semester 2
Contact Teaching / 2 / 10
Other required attendance / 1 / 8
Course operational with effect from (date) / 2011-2012
Any costs which may have to be met by students eg materials
Give details of any Prerequisite Course(s)
Name of Course (s)
Principles of Finance 2 (BUST08003) and entry to Honours. / Course Code (s)
Students MUST have passed: Business Studies 1 (BUST08001) OR (Industrial Management 1 (BUST08002) AND Techniques of Management (MAEE08002)) OR (Accountancy 1A (ACCN08007) AND Accountancy 1B (ACCN08008) AND Economics 1A (ECNM08005))
Give details of programme(s) for which the course is EITHER/OR option
Name of Programme (s)
MA Accounting and Finance (MA Hons) / Programme Code(s) UTACCFIMAH
Course(s) which cannot be taken with this course and counted towards a minimum qualifying curriculum
Name of Course (s) / Course Code (s)
Short description of course The course is designed to complement Principles of Finance 2. The latter is a theoretical and conceptual course which introduces students to the core ideas in academic finance. There is little time to consider practical aspects, and several important topics are omitted or only dealt with briefly. Applications of Finance 2 will fill some of these gaps.The course will consolidate the conceptual learning in Principles of Finance 2 by introducing students to some of the practical aspects of finance, for example valuation, company risk management and company restructuring.
URL for supporting course documentation
Summary of Intended Learning OutcomesKnowledge and understanding
On successful completion of the course students will:
- Have broadened their knowledge of core concepts and ideas in finance, in particular in the areas of international finance, mergers and acquisitions, company risk management, and valuation of companies;
- Have been introduced to empirical research in finance;
- Know more about financial instruments, markets and transactions; for example, interest rate swaps, takeover arrangements, bank loans.
- Know more about the financial information used by company executives, investors and analysts, and techniques for analysing such information.
Through individual and groupwork students will develop their ability to:
- Understand accounting and financial data, and analyse such data;
- Understand academic research in finance;
- Demonstrate their understanding through essays and through answers to numerical problems;
- Think clearly and logically;
- Develop and deliver effective presentations.
Components of Assessment There will be two components of assessment, groupwork (including peer evaluation) (30%) and a final examination (70%). Further details regarding assessment will be decided upon by the course organiser.
Approval Track / Date / Authorised signature / Name / Designation
Approved by Teaching Unit or equivalent body eg department / Jan 2011 / Prof S Armitage / Head of Accounting & Finance Subject Group
Approved by Board of Studies (or equivalent body) / Jan 2011 / Prof W Loretto / Chair, Board of Studies
Noted/Approved by Faculty
Approved by UGSC/SPGSC /
Registry Use
/Date received
Date record created
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGHCOVER SHEET FOR A NEW OR REVISED COURSE
Section B
ALL COURSES
Course organiser, if known. If not known, give interim contact
Name: Prof S Armitage (interim contact)
Tel: 650 3794email:
Secretarial/administrative contact in Teaching Unit
Name: Caroline Hall
Tel:650 8336email:
If the course will appear in a departmental website, please give the URL
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ONLY
Year in which the course is normally taken in a structured Honours programme ()
1 / 1 or 2 / 2 / / 2 or 3 / 3
3 or 4 / 4 / 4 or 5 / 5
Year in which the course is normally taken in a modular or non Honours programme ()
1 / 1 or 2 / 2 / / 2 or 3 / 3
3 or 4 / 4 / 4 or 5 / 5 / 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5
Are class exams required ? () / Yes / No /
No. of exam papers required (eg how many papers will each student be required to answer) / No. exam papers / Duration
Class Exams
Degree Exams / 1 / 2 hours
When are the exams to be taken ()
1st attempt / March / June / / Resit / June / Sept
Has a quota for the course been approved by Faculty? () / Yes / No /
If yes, what is the maximum number of students permitted?
Amended by CAS steering group November 2001
RATIONALE FOR PLANNED CHANGES TO LINGUISTICS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE PRE-HONOURS COURSES
Linguistics and English Language (part of the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences) currently offers two fully separate pre-honours programmes: one in English Language and one in Linguistics. At first year level, this involves the following courses:
- LASC08001 English Language 1 (40 credits)
- LASC08004Linguistics 1A (20 credits, semester 1)
- LASC08012 Linguistics 1B (20 credits, semester 1)
English Language 1 is also split into the following two courses, for visiting students only:
- LASC08008 English Language 1 (VS1) (20 credits, semester 1)
- LASC08009 English Language 1 (VS2) (20 credits, semester 2)
The current proposal aims to merge these courses, which largely function as two 40-credit, year long programmes (one in English Language and one in Linguistics), into one 40-credit year programme in Linguistics and English Language. In order to retain some flexibility, we intend to offer the first semester as a 20 credit course, for visiting students and specific sets of Edinburgh UG students, such as those described immediately below. The revised first year curriculum will thus involve the following two courses:
- LASC08*** Linguistics and English Language 1 (40 credits)
- LASC08*** A Brief Introduction to Language (20 credits, semester 1)
We do not intend to offer the second semester of LEL1 as a 20 credit course, but we will to continue to offer a version of the following course, which runs in the second semester and which will have BIL (or LEL1) as its only prerequisite:
- LASC08007 Linguistics 2Lh: Structure and History of the Western European Languages
Visiting students can take this course if they only want/need 20 credits from LEL in semester 2. This course will also be open as a 2nd year option to students on a Modern Languages degree, and BIL will also be open to these students, allowing them to take 40 credits from LEL during their second year (this option is currently the case with LASC08004Linguistics 1A).
The rationale for this change is as follows. Linguistics and English Language was formed as an organisational unit in 2005, through the merger of two previously separate units: English Language and Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. Each of these units ran their own full undergraduate programme, with courses at first-year, second-year, and Honours level. The units merged because it was widely perceived that there was considerable intellectual overlap between them, and we have successfully integrated ourselves since then. LEL now offers an integrated Honours programme, in which students on the MA in English Language and the MA in Linguistics draw slightly different courses from a shared set. It has now been decided that it makes sense to integrate our offerings at pre-honours level, too. It has long been felt that there was some intellectual overlap between the English Language and Linguistics pre-honours programmes, so we would like to take the opportunity to rationalise our provision. The current proposal affects our first year courses, which we intend to change for the coming academic session (2011-2012). We plan to revise our second-year courses for the following academic session (2012-2013), so that those who have taken the current first year this session are not forced to change half way through their pre-honours programme. A separate proposal is to follow next year, setting out our plans for our second year courses.
We believe that the removal of overlap between English Language 1 and Linguistics 1A/1B and the general reconceptualisation of our pre-honours provisional mean that a single 40 credit course is appropriate at first year level. This will be the one obligatory first-year course for all students who take any degree involving either English Language or Linguistics. The DPTs for all such degrees will need to be changed to reflect this (consultation with affected departments has taken place and there are no significant obstacles to the proposal). We believe that it is still appropriate to offer separate MA programmes in English Language and Linguistics for reasons of intellectual coherence and for marketing purposes. LEL1 will also be open to all students at the university as an outside subject.
Because LEL1 and BIL replace two existing first-year courses, there are few resource implications. Library provision dedicated to English Language 1 and Linguistics 1A and 1B can be directly transferred to LEL1. Demand for secretarial support, classroom space for tutorials, and the like will be unaffected or eased. The most obvious impact will be that a large lecture theatre will be required to accommodate the expected enrolment of around 300; currently Linguistics 1A and 1B have enrolments of 185 and 135 and English Language 1 has an enrolment of 119 with an overlap of 40 in the population of the two courses.
COURSE CONTENT: Short descriptions and learning outcomes
LASC08*** Linguistics and English Language 1 (40 credits)
Short Description:
- This course offers an introduction to the study of language in general and to the study of English in particular. The course considers language structure, language variation, English and Scots accents and dialects, language change, the history of English and Scots, how languages can be related to each other, and what makes language special.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the course, as long as they have participated fully in it, students will understand:
-basic principles for the description of the sounds and sound systems used in languages, and how they can be applied to describe English
-basic principles for the description of grammatical structure and the structure of words, and how they can be applied to describe English
-basic principles for the systematic study of word and sentence meaning, and how they can be applied to describe English
-aspects of discourse structure, largely applied to the description of English
-basic principles of and links between language variation and language change