International Year One in Accounting and Finance

The Academic English Skills course teaches students the specific academic language skills they need to develop for success at Cardiff University. The course focuses on receptive (listening and reading) and productive (speaking and writing) skills through practice in semi and authentic task-based activities which build a strong foundation in preparation for each student's future studies. This critical module places particular emphasis on developing academic reading and research skills; research-based writing along with presentation and seminar speaking skills.

This is a core module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. The aim of the module is to cover the basic mathematical and statistical tools necessary for quantitative analysis within business, economic and accounting environments. It also prepares the students to understand the basic concepts of statistics to apply these concepts in real-life situations. Topics covered include:

• Functions, first and second derivatives. Applications including elasticity of demand. Partial differentiation, method of Lagrange multipliers.
• Series, including application within Investment Appraisal.
• Matrices, including applications to solving simultaneous equations and Leontief input-output analysis.
• Linear programming, including shadow prices and sensitivity of the solution.
• Summarising information, including percentage frequency and cumulative frequency tables. Graphical presentation of data including Bar chart, Histogram.
• Summary Statistics for raw and grouped data including measures of central tendency.
• Probability, including binomial, Poisson and normal distributions.
• Central Limit Theorem, including the sampling distribution of percentages, point and confidence interval estimation.
• Hypothesis testing. Correlation and Regression including significance of rank correlation.

Introduction to Economics is a core module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. The module is suitable to the students who have never studied economics before, to introduce them to the fundamentals of the subject. The aim of the module is to provide students of business accounting and finance with an understanding of the applicability of economic concepts and theories in order to explain and solve an economic problem. It will give a basic grounding firstly in economic interaction at the level of individual consumers, employees and firms, and then in aggregate at the level of the national and global economy, and show students how an understanding of how economic ideas and concepts can be of considerable relevance to the challenges and decisions faced by businesses and their leaders.

The Legal Studies module is a core module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. The objective of the module is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the court structure, procedures, and personnel of the legal systems of the United Kingdom and the European Union. The module guides students to develop an understanding of the law and regulations that underpin the operation of limited companies and to appreciate the laws and regulations that affect the operation of limited companies. It also enables students to focus on the law relating to contractual and tortious liability. Topics covered include:Definitions of law;

• Differences between criminal and civil actions;
• the Common Law and doctrine of Precedent;
• legislation and the supremacy of Parliament;
• legislative process, and pressure groups;
• powers, duties, composition of the institutions of the European Union, personnel within the legal profession, including training and functions;
• criminal courses structure, including magistrates and juries;
• development of equity and equitable remedies and procedures including trusts;
• tortious liability, including the concept of duty of care;
• defence to a tortious action;
• contract law – components of a contract, comprising offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relations, vitiating factors in contract formation, limitation of liability in contracts, application of UCTA 1977 and subsequent legislation;
• assessment of damages for breach of contract, practical application of contractual principles;
• employment law – common law and statutory rights and duties including health and safety legislation;
• agency – rights and duties arising in the principal agent relationship; information technology and its legal environment.

This module is a first semester module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. This module aims to furnish the students with the fundamental skills and concepts in financial and management accounting to facilitate an appreciation of the way in which the characteristics and principles of accounting are applied and develop the skills necessary to prepare, interpret and use accounting and financial information in a business context. Topics covered include:

• Double-entry book-keeping
• Accounts of sole traders
• Stock valuation
• Costing; Budgeting
• Short-term decision making
• Standard costing and variance analysis
• Control accounts
• Bank reconciliations.

This module is a second semester module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. The objective of the module is to introduce students to the basic concepts of finance, including investment projects under a number of conditions, understand the different sources of finance available to UK businesses, and have achieved an understanding of the fundamentals of UK markets. Topics covered include:

• Basic concepts in finance, the objectives of the firm and an introduction to market efficiency.
• Project/investment appraisal with decision relevance concepts and the impact of taxation and inflation. Short-, medium- and long-term sources of finance.
• Business choices between sources of finance and market measures for the financial evaluation of shares and debt.
• Issue methods for ordinary shares.
• Financial intermediation.
• Financial markets.

This module is a second semester module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. The aim of the module is to further develop fundamental financial accounting skills with a focus on financial reporting. This course is intended to develop in students the skills necessary to prepare, interpret and use accounting and financial information in a business context and to introduce the environment and practice of financial reporting.

• Topics covered include:
• The accounts of partnerships, companies, manufacturing organisations, and clubs and societies.
• The preparation of accounts from complete and incomplete accounting records
• Statements of cash flow
• Interpretation of financial statements using ratio analysis
• Limitations of historical cost accounting

This module is a first semester module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. The module is designed to introduce students to key theories of management and organisation. It will also further students understanding of the nature of organisations as well as the internal and external environments in which they exist. The aim of the module is to provide students with knowledge about the various types of organisations and organisational culture. Students will explore different ways of motivating and coordinating employees before using different approaches to strategy to understand the opportunities and threats presented by the organisational environment. Topics covered include:

• Forms of ownership
• Hierarchical management
• Market forms of management
• Network management
• Core competence
• Business environment
• Outward facing strategy.

The Principles of Marketing and Strategy module is a second semester module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. This module is designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of marketing and strategic management, and to provide students with the tools to apply the philosophy of market-led strategic change. The aim of this module is to provide an overview to the key elements of marketing and strategy in order to equip students with a clear understanding of the topic before moving to more detailed analysis in the second year. Topics covered include:

The marketing concepts

• The marketing environment
• Marketing objectives and strategies
• The marketing planning process
• Managing the marketing mix
• Marketing information
• Implementation and control of marketing strategies.

The concept of corporate strategy

• The corporate and marketing strategy interface
• The strategic planning processes
• Strategic audits
• Tools for strategic analysis
• Strategy implementation and control.

This module is a first semester module for International Year One in Accounting and Finance. The aim of the module is to introduce students to the principles of professional ethics and provide an understanding of the accounting profession and skills that are vital for success as an accounting and finance professional. Topics covered include:

• The accounting profession
• Professional ethics
• Commercial awareness
• The business audits
• Effective business communication
• Microsoft Excel
• Specialist accounting software.