General provisions

The course is offered within the Bachelor Program in Business and Economics and as a freestanding course.

Entry requirements

Completed 30 credits from basic courses (A-level) in business studies, and attended 30 credits intermediate courses (B-level) in business studies of which at least 15 credits must be completed.

Learning outcomes

This course aims at providing the student with knowledge and skills in accounting and finance. Upon completing the course, the student will be able to:

• apply theoretical models when analysing problems in accounting and finance
• summarise and conduct comparative and critical analyses of different models within accounting and finance
• present findings verbally as well as in writing
• use acquired knowledge and skills when facing and solving problems in practice
• use acquired knowledge from the fields when analysing company specific problems
• critically reflect on knowledge acquired in this course.

Content

This course covers financial reporting based on international accounting standards, financial analysis, and corporate finance. The financial reporting section discusses initial recognition, subsequent measurement, and derecognition of assets and liabilities based on current and forthcoming accounting standards. It also covers accounting for business combinations. The financial analysis section is focused on valuation-based financial analysis seeking to make the financial analysis useful for current and potential investors when valuing companies. The corporate finance section covers standard corporate finance theory that have not been covered in previous courses, and can e.g., include a more in-depth analysis of payout policy, option pricing and corporate governance. It does not cover the basis such as investment appraisal, CAPM, WACC, dividend irrelevance et cetera, since such topics have already been studied in previous courses.

The course also introduces accounting and financial research where students are expected to read, write about and discuss relevant research articles. Areas that may be covered are e.g., value relevance, earnings quality, cost of capital, equity offers and event studies of quarterly reports. Students may e.g., also work on special projects designed to train them in accounting and finance research methods such as association-based and event-based methods.

This course focuses on providing a deeper understanding of the topics so that the student can independently and critically apply and evaluate models, principles and assumptions within the three sections.

Instruction

The course consists of lectures, seminars, project assignments and individual study. Active participation is required from the students.

Assessment

Students will be assessed on basis of both individual and group assignments and tests. The final grade is based on an assessment of all the parts of the examination. Grading criteria are presented in the study guide provided at the start of the course.

Grades will be given in accordance with the Swedish grading system. The grades VG (pass with distinction), G (pass) and U (fail) will be used.

Assignments and exams handed in late will not be graded.

Required supplemental work, if any, must be completed and handed in shortly after the end of the course, otherwise the entire course (all assignments included) must be redone a following semester, provided there is space in the course. The deadline for the supplemental work is specified in the study guide.

Uppsala University does not accept cheating and plagiarism. Suspected incidents of cheating or plagiarism are reported to the Disciplinary Committee of the University, which may issue a formal warning to the student or expel the student from the university for a certain period.

NOTE: Only completed courses can count toward a degree.

Other regulations

The course substitutes/overlaps among others Financial Accounting (Externredovisning) 2FE402, 2FE625, Accounting for Business Combinations (Koncernredovisning) 2FE403, 2FE624, Accounting Issues 2FE425, 2FE428.