Accounting and Finance [with Foundation Year]

Anglia Ruskin University

This module presents a fusion between the philosophies which underlie marketing, with a strong emphasis of integrating digital and traditional concepts and the real life application of marketing across a variety of sectoral contexts. You'll examine the core marketing concept of customer value and the interplay between marketing and sustainability and the ethical challenges and critiques of modern marketing. You'll gain a wide range of knowledge across a breadth of sectors and be able to adapt these to whatever career or future research you choose. On completion of the module you'll have not only a solid grounding in marketing philosophies and theories but also a critical view of marketing, based around the realisation of the reality of modern digital marketing operations and management in a context of increasing global economic challenges, but also within a context where the customer profile is shifting to become increasingly demanding, critical and questioning of the motivations and ethics behind the marketers activities.

You'll explore the factors that affect business, from a mostly external perspective, including elements of globalisation and international business and the fundamental skills needed in the world of business. Political, Economics, Social, Legal, Ecological and Technological factors will be examined in the macro business environment and how these interact in a competitive environment with globalisation, technological and social change to create complex strategic options for organisations. You will also explore in some detail the concept of sustainability and introductory economics.

As an introduction to a broad range of civil legal issues, you'll get an insight and appreciation of the various ways in which the law impacts on the world of commerce and our everyday life. The module provides a foundation across a broad range of fundamental legal principles and concepts of the English Legal System. The rights and obligations of legal entities/individuals under the Law of Contract and the Law of Tort will also be examined.

Finance and business information is the lifeblood of any organisations operations and decisions. You'll work with data and case studies from organisations, meet with businesses to understand the practical use this key information is put to and present your decisions on a going concern or start-up. As you present your analysis of key information and conclusions to other stakeholders, you'll develop your persuasion and negotiation skills.

You'll be introduced to a range of organisational behaviour issues that you may encounter in your career and be provided with evidence-informed analyses of ways in which culture, leadership, structure and motivation affect workers and workplaces. This foundation enables you to analyse the human side of management and diagnose problems affecting organisations both independently and as part of a group. You'll have the opportunity to take managerial, critical, symbolic-interactivist and feminist perspectives to business issues and organisational behaviour related theories, models and concepts to build your social capital and critical analytical skills. Specifically, we will equip you with the knowledge and human capitals to understand how people and organisations function in individual, group and organisational levels based on the latest academic evidence on topics such as motivation, leadership, teams, organisational structure and culture. Finally, we aim to inspire you to value and continuously use the best available academic evidence on effective management of people and organisations throughout your career.

Financial management is the assessment of the investment and financing decisions of firms and you'll gain knowledge of the theoretical foundations underlying much of financial management practice and learn how those theories should be applied in practice. You'll learn how to apply problem solving and analytical skills to complex and current issues in corporate finance.

You'll explore basic accounting concepts to develop the knowledge and skills required to understand and apply International Accounting Standards in the preparation of financial statements for entities. You'll consider the conceptual frameworks for financial reporting, the required accounting treatment for key items appearing in financial statements, the preparation of cash flow statements and the analysis and interpretation of financial statements.

As organisations develop they must always have an eye on the future and make decisions that influence performance. Planning and decision making is a core aspect of business strategy and this module looks at the accounting and finance information that is used in planning and support of the decision making process and control against those plans. It will introduce and demonstrate the accounting techniques used in planning and control and short and long term decision making. The module will also draw on aspects of organisational behaviour, and the risky, uncertain and quickly-changing environment in which many organisations operate.

Ruskin Modules are designed to prepare our students for a complex, challenging and changing future. These interdisciplinary modules provide the opportunity to further broaden your perspectives, develop your intellectual flexibility and creativity. You will work with others from different disciplines to enable you to reflect critically on the limitations of a single discipline to solve wider societal concerns. You will be supported to create meaningful connections across disciplines to apply new knowledge to tackle complex problems and key challenges. Ruskin Modules are designed to grow your confidence, seek and maximise opportunities to realise your potential to give you a distinctive edge and enhance your success in the workplace.

UK taxation can be exceedingly complicated for both companies and individuals in today's worldwide economy. You'll then develop this to assess individual liability to tax and the profits chargeable to UK Tax on companies and unincorporated businesses. This will involve a full understanding of the UK Tax system. A detailed study will be made of both Income Tax and Capital Gains tax. The impact of both overseas and UK subsidiaries will be studied in detail. This will culminate in the ability to compute the tax burden for individuals, unincorporated businesses and companies and groups of companies with overseas and UK subsidiaries. Tax planning issues will be introduced at the later stage of the module.

You'll gain a rigorous grounding in the theory and practice of corporate finance at an advanced level with an emphasis on the applications of the principles and a thorough synthesis of the most important current research. Both normative and positive aspects of the theory are examined, together with supporting descriptive and empirical evidence from various implications in practice. You'll focus on key aspects of the financial operations related to maximising the valuation of a corporation in an international financial environment. Principles that corporations use in their investment and financing decision-making are reviewed and evaluated using practical examples.

The role and requirements of a professional accountant extend far beyond that of being responsible for the preparation of financial and management accounts. You'll be responsible for compliance with the statutory requirements of company law and other frameworks whilst ensuring that accounting standards are adhered to, risks are identified and managed and internal audits and non-financial elements including Corporate Social Reporting and environmental issues are reported. In this module, you'll examine the nature, purpose and scope of assurance engagements, including the statutory audit, its regulatory environment and professional ethics relating to audit and assurance,

Corporations can operate in exceedingly complex international markets and so clear financial reporting requires the ability to interpret complex transactions by applying accounting principles and regulations. You'll develop the ability to exercise judgement in a corporate reporting environment and develop the skills and knowledge to understand and apply International Financial Reporting Standards (IFS) in the preparation of financial statements. You'll explore relevant accounting regulations and the skills to utilise sound judgement in the application of these regulations to specific situations and to be able to clearly communicate the conclusions of your analysis. The required accounting treatment for key items appearing in financial statements will follow and the analysis and interpretation of financial statements concludes the module. Key financial reporting standards, their application and theoretical background will be explained in lecture sessions and you'll work on practical examples and case studies for discussion and clarification in seminars.

You'll have the opportunity to bring together your learning on live brief assessments and be part of an interdisciplinary team addressing a current issue in business. You'll be presented with a current business issue and be required to research, analyse and evaluate the issue effectively as a team. You'll act as the expert in your field of study to bring the perspective of that specialty to a complex business problem. You'll identify the key problems and issues, conduct literature reviews, evaluate information, investigate and adopt suitable development methodologies, determine solutions, process data, critically appraise and present the findings of your project using a variety of media. You'll create a poster presentation on your project for your team to display, and answer questions on, to an audience of academics and employers at a poster presentation event.