AC103      Half Unit
Elements of Management Accounting, Financial Management and Financial Institutions

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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This is a half-unit course that introduces students to the fundamental principles of management accounting and financial management. The primary aim of the course is to help students understand how managers make crucial decisions in a timely manner in a fast-changing competitive landscape and to lay strong foundations mainly within the broad realms of costing and management accounting, and to a degree in financial management. The course starts with an explanation of why a thorough understanding of costs is vital for businesses in various sectors and contexts. The course covers key costing concepts, including calculating costs reliably using various costing techniques employed under different costing systems. The discussion then leads to identifying the costs that are truly relevant for internal decision-making. This course also introduces students to tools for planning, controlling and performance evaluation within the management accounting context. Students learn various topics in management accounting and financial management, including cost behaviour, cost-volume-profit analysis, costing systems, budgeting, variance analysis, performance measurement, and capital budgeting. The course culminates by introducing students to key concepts in financial management, such as the role of financial markets and financial institutions, capital structure, and risk. In summary, the course aims to provide students with a solid foundation in management accounting and financial management, allowing them to apply their knowledge in real-world situations.

1 hours of classes in the Spring Term.
10 hours of classes and 22 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.

22 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the WT. There are multiple 1-hour online exam-focused sessions, and 1 hour of classes in the ST.

Written answers to numerical problems and discussion questions will be expected weekly; some will be collected during classes for marking and feedback. The course involves two formative assessments.

Detailed reading lists will be made available at the beginning of the course in a syllabus. Illustrative text includes  Mahmood, F,  Elements of Management Accounting, Financial Management and Financial Institutions, Pearson, 2020.

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes, reading time: 15 minutes in the Spring exam period

The exam duration is 2 hours. The first 15 minutes will be reading time.