Postgraduate Course: Case Studies in Finance (CMSE11481)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | The course is designed to extend and deepen an understanding of a range of topics in finance. It makes use of a case study approach, uses report-based assessments and student presentations. |
| Course description |
The course draws upon material introduced and developed in 1st semester core courses (i.e. Financial Markets & Investment, Financial Statement Analysis and Corporate Finance, Statistics for Finance). Students are also expected to apply the knowledge and understanding gained on other courses of the MSc programme, and their general insights into business problems.
Outline Content:
- Encourage participation in discussion and analysis of real investment problems;
- Ascertain the risks and validity of a particular investment strategy;
- Apply judgement and creative thinking to business problems;
- Develop evaluative tools to support investment decisions;
- Allow students to relate capital markets theories to practical examples;
- Recognise the particular issues and problems arising in corporate finance and investment;
- Apply judgement and evaluative techniques to problems in corporate finance and investment;
- Make use of analytical skills that are specific to corporate finance and investment;
- Apply a logical decision-making process to an investment problem.
Student Learning Experience:
The course is structured around the cases for analysis (details of which are given later in this course book). The course features a combination of taught material designed to clarify and explain the background ideas relating to a particular case. The learning elements include the case itself, participation in group work and evaluation of the set problems. This analysis at its simplest features the elements of problem definition, problem analysis, and policy recommendation. Other elements include presentations of one group's collective approach, discussion of the solutions presented and exploration of alternative solutions in a particular case as well as the case instructor's interpretation of the case. In addition, class participants can develop their report writing ability through the assessed reports.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Apply the case study method to discussion and analysis of practical problems in finance, where there is a range of alternative ways of solving a problem.
- Understand and critically discuss the key assumptions required in deriving a solution to an open-ended problem.
- Critically discuss the barriers to implementation of particular courses of action.
- Critically discuss how many management decisions rest on interpretation and judgments about inexact data and forecasts.
- Work as a team to synthesise knowledge and deliver professional quality report and presentation.
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Reading List
There is no required text for this course. For each case students will be referred to specific research articles and will also be expected to seek out up to date financial media and professional journals.
For prior reading for the first case study please review Valuation Ratios and the Long-Run Stock Market Outlook, J. Campbell and R. Shiller, Journal of Portfolio Management, winter 1998.
The Library subscribes to Science Direct, through which students can download full-text copies of papers published since 1 January 1995 in most major finance journals. The Economist and Financial Times are also available. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Cognitive Skills:
On completion of the course students should have demonstrated that they are able to:
- Identify the key aspects of a problem.
- Formulate an approach to investigating the issue
- Interpret the evidence
- Formulate clear evidence-based conclusions.
Intellectual Skills and Personal Development:
Key Skills:
Upon completing the course class participants should be able to:
- Apply analytic and interpretative skills in decision making
- Compensate in decision-making for incomplete information
- Show improved presentations skills
- Identify and use relevant facts in a given problem
- Use available information to interpret and model a problem
- Make judgements and apply criteria between different courses of action in a given management situation
- Point to improved team working skills
- Demonstrate better decision-making ability
- Understand and internalise their approach to tackling complex problems.
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Tatiana Rodionova
Tel: (0131 6)50 3789
Email: Tatiana.Rodionova@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yvonne Stewart
Tel: (0131 6)51 5333
Email: Yvonne.Stewart@ed.ac.uk |
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