Undergraduate Course: Corporate Finance (BUST10012)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This is a course on empirical research in mainstream topics in corporate finance, for example debt policy, dividend policy, the financing of companies, corporate governance, and the effects of family ownership and private equity. |
| Course description |
Honours Corporate Finance considers aspects of the financial management, financing and governance of companies believed to be of academic interest and practical importance. The aims are to introduce students to current thinking and empirical research on the chosen topics, and to develop skills of understanding, analysis and explanation. The course builds on the finance and accounting learned earlier in the degree programme, and so it assumes some knowledge of companies and financial reporting, and concepts such as discounted cash flow and the cost of capital. The course adds to students' knowledge mainly by examining empirical research on the topics studied. Research in corporate finance is a social science, the aim of which is to understand about value creation and financial decision-making as observed in the corporate sector. Students will learn about the current state of knowledge on each topic studied and about how research in corporate finance is conducted, through studying the research design and contribution to knowledge of carefully selected papers. The syllabus will vary somewhat from year to year, depending on developments in the literature, the interests of the lecturer(s), and the content of other Honours courses in finance offered by the Business School.
Syllabus
What determines a company's gearing?
What determins a company's payout policy?
Bank lending to companies
Raising equity: seasoned equity offers
Takeovers
Corporate governance and the role of stock markets
Family firms
International differences
Private equity
Student Learning Experience:
Tuition consists of ten two-hour lectures together with a number of seminars in which we discuss specific questions relating to papers on the reading list. In each lecture an overview of the topic is presented and several papers are reviewed in some detail, to give insight into the current state of research on the topic.
Students¿ learning occurs primarily through engagement with the lectures and seminars, and through reading and thinking about the papers and other literature recommended. The assessed assignment for the course is currently an individual presentation of two empirical papers of the student¿s choice. This assignment provides further opportunities to engage with the literature, and develops students skills¿ of communication and explanation.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students must have at least 4 Business courses at grade B or above. This MUST INCLUDE at least one Finance course at intermediate level. This course cannot be taken alongside BUST08003 Principles of Finance or BUST08030 Introduction to Corporate Finance. We will only consider University/College level courses.
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Revision Session Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
70 %,
Coursework
30 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework 30%: individual presentation
Examination 70%: two-hour exam, with a choice of essay-style questions |
| Feedback |
Generic feedback on your coursework, together with individual marks, will be available on Learn 15 working days from the submission date.
Your examination marks will be posted on Learn (together with generic feedback and examination statistics) as soon as possible after the Boards of Examiners' meeting (normally early-mid June). |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand and discuss critically arguments and debates concerning the topics covered.
- Understand and discuss critically theoretical and empirical research in corporate finance.
- Understand and critically evaluate the financing arrangements of companies.
- Understand advanced methods of research in finance, for example analysis of numerical data.
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Reading List
| A programme of study with topics and selected readings will be provided at the start of the course. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Cognitive skills
On completion of the course, students should have developed their ability to:
1. Understand complex reasoning of the sort found in journal papers in corporate finance.
2. Learn and assimilate large amounts of information.
3. Write answers to essay-style questions.
4. Communicate complex material verbally via a presentation.
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| Keywords | CF |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Seth Armitage
Tel:
Email: Seth.Armitage@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Tamara Turford
Tel: (0131 6)50 8074
Email: Tamara.Turford@ed.ac.uk |
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