General provisions

Master's Programme in Accounting and Financial Management - specialisation 'Accounting, Governance and Financial Analysis'.

Entry requirements

Strategy and Contemporary Issues, 15 credits. A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university. Also required is 90 credits in business studies. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6. As all teaching takes place in English, very good language skills in English are a necessity to be able to partake in the course.

Learning outcomes

Corporate governance, risk management, and auditing have gained increased importance in an effort to align managerial behaviours with the expectations of regulators and investors. After completion of this course, students should be able to:

• understand how corporate governance systems vary across countries and regions,
• understand how owners can monitor and direct management's decisions,
• evaluate corporate governance systems and apply corporate governance theories in different contexts,
• understand how risk governance defines the risk management system's structure, responsibilities, authority, and accountability, as well as its decision-making rules and procedures,
• evaluate how enterprise risk management (ERM) is implicated in increasingly complex strategic decisions that are characterised by risks and uncertainties,
• understand auditing's role in governing the organisation, and how that role relates developments in the areas of ESG risk management and assurance, and the use of digital technologies,
• identify, evaluate, and integrate information independently and creatively to analyse and provide solutions to complex problems and situations related to business studies, even with limited information.

Content

The content of the course concerns the interplay between corporate governance, risk management and auditing. Topics that are dealt with during the course include:

• International variations in ownership and corporate governance systems
• The role of different kinds of owners in corporate governance
• The functioning and structure of boards of directors and their consequences
• The institutionalisation of risk management into organisational practice and the resulting implications
• The challenges and opportunities associated with integrating risk management into strategic decision-making and performance, and the role and methods of risk experts
• Auditing's role in governing organisations and their increasingly important role in ESG risk assurance
• The emergence and usage of advanced digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, and their ramifications for the auditing industry

Instruction

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars, and project assignment components. Seminar and project assignment components contain elements that involve individual and group work. The course is taught in English.

Assessment

The student will get one single grade, equivalent to 7.5 credits.

Examination includes active participation in seminars, including written as well as oral assignments, done individually and in groups, and an individual written exam. The grade for the entire course is based on an assessment of all parts of the examination.

Grading criteria are presented in the study guide that applies to the course section. The following grades will be used: pass with distinction (VG), pass (G), and fail (U). Examinations handed in late will not be assessed except under special circumstances. Any remaining supplemental work must be completed and handed in by the deadline specified in the study guide. Otherwise, the entire course (all examinations included) must be retaken during subsequent course sections.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Uppsala University does not accept cheating or plagiarism. Suspected incidents of cheating or plagiarism are reported to the Vice-Chancellor, which may issue a formal warning to the student or suspend the student from studies for a certain period.

NOTE: Only completed courses can count toward a degree.

Other regulations

The course substitutes/overlaps Corporate Governance and Financial Decisions, Master Course 2FE854.