University of Leicester Online Masters in Finance

This formative assessment module introduces you to the virtual learning environment and shows you how to effectively utilise this during your course. It assesses different approaches to learning and helps you to apply these to your own learning experience. Introducing different methods of note taking and methods of critique, it allows you to identify the best approach for you to get the most out of your studies so that you can tackle the assessments with confidence and flair.

This module will enable you to establish and critique the essential conceptual and ethical frameworks that lie at the foundations of modern financial analysis. It will allow you to explore the mutual interactions between ‘finance’ and the financial markets, on the one hand, and the so-called fundamentals, on the other. The module draws upon various disciplines, in particular economics and political economy, in order to explore parts of the package of conceptual tools employed by financial managers who have to provide information across a variety of topics. Emphasis is placed upon risk and uncertainty and, more broadly, upon the sociopolitical, cultural and economic environment in which financial decisions are made.

This module will enable you to become familiar with the key financial reporting documents, the information they contain and the potential users and uses of that information. It will teach you how to analyse the information within financial reports, appreciate the economic and behavioural implications of accounting decisions and policy choices and reflect upon the issues associated with accounting, particularly with respect to contemporary issues surrounding communication, agency and control.

This module is designed to consider corporate strategy, strategic investment decisions and the underlying financial management issues relevant to these decisions. Throughout this module key financial inputs to strategic formulation and implementation will be explored. This module will focus on strategies for growth and in particular on capital investment and merger and acquisition activity. The module will deal with practical decision-making issues faced by managers in organization of different types. Furthermore, issues will be dealt with both from a theoretical economics-based viewpoint and from a social perspective, which will recognize the behavioural aspects of organizations and their processes.

This module will provide a foundation in applied financial modelling. It is designed to show how quantitative techniques can be used to analyse financial information and aid decision making.

At the end of the module students will be able to:

• Summarise financial information in a format useful for decision making
• Construct and evaluate quantitative models
• Form an assessment of the likelihood of future events using past information
• Analyse problems/opportunities using numerical information
• Make inferences on the basis of survey information
• Construct and evaluate quantitative models
• Identify causal relationships
• Evaluate quantitative analysis undertaken by others
• Recognise the limitations of quantitative analysis.

This module provides an overview of risk management, forward and future markets, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Arbitrage Pricing Theory, swaps, options and corporate finance, warrants and convertibles, risk management strategy, interest rate risk and security design.

At the end of this module students will:

• Understand the nature of financial risks.
• Understand the trading rules for financial derivatives.
• Understand how financial derivatives can help to hedge financial risks.
• Have the ability to evaluate alternative methods available and their shortcomings in hedging.
• Have the ability to take decisions on whether or not to hedge a particular financial risk.

Corporate finance involves the study of the financial resources necessary for businesses to survive and prosper. As such, it is relevant to senior management who select the form and amount of funding appropriate to meet the strategic objectives of the company. Corporate finance is also relevant to investors and analysts in assessing the potential risks and rewards associated with provision of that funding. This module aims to introduce the debates of whether financing and dividend decisions affect firms’ market values. Different financing and distribution methods and their potential impacts will be discussed and the concepts and techniques of Equity Investment Management will also be introduced.

Learning

• This module is delivered by distance learning.

Assessment

• Dissertation proposal (100%)

Learning

Globalisation means that world trade and financial markets are becoming more integrated. At the same time, the global liberalisation of financial markets is facilitating or driving processes of wider globalisation. In this module you will explore the connections between international finance (and the internationalisation of finance), globalisation and underlying socio-political-economic relationships.

Learning

• This module is delivered by distance learning.

Assessment

• Essay (100%)