Lancaster University

To provide the opportunity for the study of Accounting or Finance in the broader context of Management Studies as a whole, and enabling the pursuit of the other Management subjects to a greater extent than is possible within the constraints of the current single honours Accounting and Finance degree.

Skills

Subject Specific Knowledge, Understanding and Skills

By its very nature, the knowledge and understanding acquired by students taking this degree are likely to be diverse. The degree of flexibility means that courses that are largely quantitative may predominate for some students, whilst other may concentrate on more discursive topics. Yet others may choose a mixture of the two. Consequently, the teaching and learning methods experienced will vary, as will the types of assessment undertaken.

General Knowledge, Understanding and Skills

It is expected that students taking such a broad array of modules will acquire quantitative, analytical and communication skills, and the ability to manage their own time and workload. In particular, it is hoped that they will be able to place accounting and finance firmly in a broader management context, rather than seeing it as a subject entire of itself.

Cognitive skills

• Reason analytically and critically.
• Apply accounting theory and finance theory, together with other management skills, to appropriate practical situations.
• Identify, analyse and suggest plausible solutions to problems encountered by general managers, accountants and financial managers.
• Create linkages between the material covered.

Practical skills

• Locate, analyse and assimilate company information and data from various sources, both in paper and electronic form.
• Plan, structure and conduct individual and group assignments of both written and computational forms.
• Undertake computations of varying levels of complexity in financial accounting, management accounting and finance, and general management.
• Be able to apply the use of Information Technology (IT) to the above tasks.

Transferable skills

• Rapidly assimilate facts and draw valid inferences.
• Communicate ideas effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Manage their time, and produce work by required deadlines.
• Work productively in groups.
• Work independently without the requirement for direct supervision.