Postgraduate Course: Accounting, Sustainability and Finance (CMSE11522)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | The course provides a strategic and technical understanding of the debates about the social, environmental and governance reporting standards, ESG responsibilities of investors, and the current trends in the integration of environmental and social criteria in the investment process. This course is suitable for students seeking careers in investment management who want to achieve a better understanding of the environmental and social portfolio risks and opportunities. It can be equally of interest to all students working for organization (permanent or temporary) subject to investment pressures with regards to their ESG footprint.
The course will provide a common lecture series and will focus on four key areas:
- Trends and standards in ESG measurement and reporting
- The history of ESG integration in investments.
- Current practices in ESG integration in investments
- New forms of sustainable finance such as impact investment, social impact bonds, peer to peer financing and diverse crowd-based approaches to investments
This course can contribute to the reflections central to programme management with regards to environmental and social impact of business operations, how reporting on them is conducted and how investors consider these factors in investment processes and engagements with their portfolio companies. |
| Course description |
The course starts off by a reflection on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) impact measurement, the challenges of converting complex social and environmental issues into numbers and of comparing such numbers across different entities. We will then delve into the politics of ESG reporting standards and the current trends in their uptake.
In the second part of the course, we will discuss the institutional structure of the investments field, identifying different types of actors including both asset owners and asset managers and how they engage with ESG matters. We will then detail how investors use their capital to pressure their investees for adjustments in their ESG behaviour through diverse practices framed as ¿shareholder engagement¿. We will wrap up the course with discussions about new forms of finance and their potentials for positive ESG impact ranging from Blockchain to peer to peer / decentralized modes of financing and social impact bonds.
The lecture series will focus on the following areas:
1. Introduction to Responsible Investments
2. Introduction to Environmental and Social Reporting
3. Overview of portfolio environmental and social risks
4. Engagements aimed at improving environmental and social risk management
5. New forms of Finance - between democratization of finance and financialization of public goods
6. Synthesis - group project presentations
Student Learning Experience
The course will be delivered over the equivalent of three full days of lectures, but also business cases, group work, and talks by practitioners will be used throughout the course.
Use of practical, hands on cases, audio-visual material, but also class interactions and discussions are central elements in the pedagogical approach for this course.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2021/22, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Block 3 (Sem 2) |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
88 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
45 %,
Practical Exam
55 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
45% Coursework (Individual) Assesses course Learning Outcomes 1,2,3,4
55% Presentation (Group) Assesses course Learning Outcomes 1,2,3,4,5 |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback: TBC
Summative feedback: Assessment feedback will be available when the marks are released. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Leverage knowledge of ESG reporting, and responsible investments to analyze the implications of different environmental and social risks for different investor categories.
- Apply knowledge of responsible investments to strategic analysis for investors with regards to environmental and social risks and their integration into investment products.
- Assess the types and strategic implications of different RI techniques for the investors and also the corporations in their investment portfolio and also the environment and society.
- Integrate environmental and social risks and opportunities into different investment products.
- Understand the expanding role of new, decentralized modes of financing such as impact investment, blockchain etc, within the broader field of responsible investments.
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Reading List
Core reading:
- Louche C. and Lydenberg S. Responsible Investment Dilemmas. Greenleaf Publishing. London. 2011.
Recommended reading:
- Chains of Finance: How Investment Management is Shaped; Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Philip Grant, Iain Hardie, Donald Mackenzie, Ekaterina Svetlova; Oxford University Press, London, UK.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Afshin Mehrpouya
Tel:
Email: Afshin.Mehrpouya@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Charlotte Brady
Tel: (0131 6)50 8074
Email: C.Brady@ed.ac.uk |
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