THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2017/2018

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Business School : Common Courses (Management School)

Postgraduate Course: Financial Analysis (CMSE11108)

Course Outline
SchoolBusiness School CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits15 ECTS Credits7.5
SummaryThe course is concerned with introducing students to the practice and theory of financial statement analysis. The course itself brings together elements of financial accounting and financial ratio analysis; corporate strategy analysis, market and industry analysis and techniques of equity valuation to enable students to understand how individual businesses function within the constrained market environment. The course has a significant practical element and students spend a lot of time working as part of a team to assess the performance and prospects of several listed companies.
Course description Aims, Nature, Context
A practice oriented course, to enable students to critically analyse the performance, prospects and valuation of a corporate business entity.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed:
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements Students must have passed Accounting & Financial Management. For Business School PG students only, or by special permission of the School. Please contact the course secretary.
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 150 ( Lecture Hours 20, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1, Formative Assessment Hours 2, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Revision Session Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 3, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 120 )
Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) Self Study 53 hrs, Assignment Preparation 67hrs
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 70 %, Coursework 0 %, Practical Exam 30 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Group Presentation: 10%
Group Report: 20%
Written Examination: 70%
Feedback Informal feedback
Students are encouraged to ask questions both during lectures or during office hours - this enables students to test their own understanding of concepts and techniques.

Formal feedback
Students receive formal feedback in the following circumstances:

Presentation 1 (practice)
Each group receives10-15 minutes of verbal feedback specific to their presentation.
The class gets verbal and written generic feedback on the general issues that arose from the presentations.

Presentation 2 (practice)
Each group receives10-15 minutes of verbal feedback specific to their presentation.
The class gets verbal and written generic feedback on the general issues that arose from the presentations.

Presentation 3 (assessed)
Each group receives feedback as required immediately after presentation (primarily to provide direction for writing the group report)

Report
Each group receives written feedback on the group report.

Examination
Each examinee will have some feedback comments annotated on the exam script
A generic written feedback is also provided
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)Financial Analysis2:00
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Have a critical understanding of accounting ratio analysis
  2. Understand the relationship between corporate strategy and corporate performance
  3. Be able to undertake a financial analysis of a corporate body
Reading List
Technical Background Reading
Krishna Palepu, Paul Healey and Erik Peek, Business Analysis and Valuation IFRS Edition, CENGAGE Learning, 4th Edition, 2016.

General Background Reading
John Kay, The Long and the Short of it: A guide to finance and investment for normally intelligent people who aren¿t in the industry, Profile Books, 2016.

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills For those that choose to fully engage with the conceptual underpinning of this course they will find the course offers both significant challenge at both the intellectual and practical levels.
The course requires students to extract and construct information from several different analysis tasks and then to synthesise a coherent and sound narrative all of which helps to develop improved cognitive, communication and group-work skills. However, the work load on individuals is significant and all students must be able to work autonomously on the group-assigned tasks.
The various analysis tasks requires students to undertake significant critical and logical (inductive logic) analysis. Students will construct computerised valuation and accounting models and will develop their IT and their numeracy skills. Working in groups fosters communication and management skills.
KeywordsMGMT-FA
Contacts
Course organiserDr Tom Brown
Tel: (0131 6)50 8333
Email: T.Brown@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Rhiannon Pilkington
Tel: (0131 6)50 8072
Email: Rhiannon.Pilkington@ed.ac.uk
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