Programme Specification: MSc Accounting and Finance
1. Awarding Body
2. Details of accreditation by a
professional/statutory body, e.g. ESRC;
BPS etc
3. Name of final award
4. Programme Title
5. Duration of the course
6. Based in the Department/Institute:
7. Relevant QAA subject benchmark
statements
8. Application Code
9. First written/last amended
LSE
Recognised for individual exemptions by the
Association of Chartered Certified
Accountants (‘ACCA’).
MSc
Accounting and Finance
Full-time 9 months; part-time 21 months
Department of Accounting
N/A
N4U1
Nov 2001 / November 2012
10. The programme aims to:
Offer the following benefits:

The opportunity to study in one of the most highly-rated Departments in the subject
area in the world, both for its research and its institutional links;

Exposure to world-class social scientists, business leaders, politicians, and modern
thinkers who visit and/or teach at LSE;

Research-led teaching in accounting and finance, bringing students to the forefront of
practice and theory in their selected areas of study;

A strong international and interdisciplinary orientation, covering conceptual and
technical developments of major contemporary significance;

Specialisation along alternative designated ‘pathways’ in finance, international
accounting and finance, and accounting and financial management;

Preparation for a variety of challenging careers in a range of countries. Typically,
students are employed in the fields of finance and accounting, strategic consulting
and/or general management. Many have gone on to achieve outstanding success in
business, governmental and academic careers;

Appropriate exemptions from professional accountancy and finance examinations.
11. Programme outcomes: knowledge and understanding; skills and other attributes
Knowledge and understanding: Students may focus on international accounting and finance,
accounting and financial management or finance in their choice of specialisation. At the end of
the programme, students will have a thorough understanding of the key aspects of:
Financial reporting in capital markets
and/or
Management accounting, strategy and organisational control
plus will have selected from:
a range of specialist courses in aspects of accounting and reporting, international accounting
and finance, and advanced topics in theoretical and empirical finance, investment and financing
decisions, market microstructure and intermediation, valuation and risk analysis, quantitative
analysis methods, or other social science disciplines
Subject specific skills: At the end of the programme, and to the appropriate extent indicated by
their level of award, students should demonstrate:

appropriate ability to communicate knowledge and understanding of several of the major
contexts within which accounting operates (both outside and within organisations), based
on a critical evaluation of related theoretical and conceptual frameworks and of empirical
evidence as to its effects;

appropriate ability to communicate knowledge and understanding of, and appropriate
ability to use and critically evaluate, current and major alternative technical languages
and practices of accounting, together with appropriate ability to apply them;

appropriate ability to manipulate financial and other numerical data and appropriate
understanding of and ability to apply mathematical and statistical concepts;

appropriate ability to analyse business strategies and activities and perform relevant
financial analyses and projections in appropriate contexts of planning, decision making
and control; and to recognize the limitations of these techniques;

appropriate ability to communicate knowledge and understanding of financial
management, risk and the operation of financial markets, based on critical evaluation of
theories and empirical evidence;
Cognitive abilities and non-subject specific skills: At the end of the programme, students
should be able to demonstrate:

appropriate ability to evaluate arguments and evidence critically;

appropriate ability to locate, extract, analyse, and draw reasoned conclusions from
multiple sources—including electronic sources—of appropriate literature and relevant
data;

appropriate ability to acknowledge and reference sources;

appropriate capacities for independent and self-managed learning;

appropriate use of communications and information technology, such as spreadsheets,
word-processing and on-line databases;

appropriate communication skills such as ability to present quantitative and qualitative
information, together with analysis, argument and commentary, in an appropriate form;

ability to work in groups and other appropriate inter-personal skills, including oral and
written presentation skills.
Information relating to careers can be accessed here
12. Teaching, learning and assessment strategies to enable outcomes to be achieved
and demonstrated
Teaching and learning strategies:
This programme provides research-led teaching which aims to bring students to the forefront
of practice and theory in their selected areas of specialisation. The teaching is of an advanced
nature and covers internationally significant conceptual and technical developments in
accounting, finance and financial management. Students acquire their detailed knowledge and
understanding of the course, and their subject specific skills, through a combination of lectures,
problem classes and progression to guided independent study, reinforced by the opportunity to
meet teachers and their supervisors one-to-one in office hours.
Course reading lists include not only leading textbooks but references to current research
literature and primary sources, including relevant examples from current practice, official and
professional policy documents, websites and other electronic data sources.
Academic teaching staff are leading researchers who give students an insight into current
thinking and recent developments in their fields. Several teachers and supervisors are also
involved in policy advice and formation and give students insights into real-world developments
in accounting and finance and the forces that shape them.
Professionals working in the field contribute as part-time lecturers and class teachers.
Students have the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience of CIT as well as familiarity
with electronic data sources and databases.
Assessment strategies:
Summative assessment of knowledge and understanding and of subject-specific skills is
primarily by 3hr unseen examinations at the end of each year. For some options coursework
project assessment amounts to 25%-40% of the final course grade.
Formative assessment is through class assignments, including numerical and computer-based
exercises, critical essays and commentaries, and individual and group presentations, for
example on case studies and mini-projects or in ‘role-plays’.
Cognitive and non-subject specific skills are developed in parallel with the development of—and
through the same teaching and assessment structures that are designed to achieve the
appropriate levels of—the knowledge and understanding and subject specific skills described
above.
Students are also encouraged to participate in the Departmental MSc annual residential
weekend for staff and postgraduate students and in the activities of the Departmental MSc
Society.
13. Programme structures and requirements, levels, modules and awards
See further information on MSc Accounting and Finance
Additional information
14. Criteria for admission to the programme



Entrants should usually have a good upper second class honours degree in
accounting and finance or a related subject from a UK university, or have reached a
similar standard in an overseas degree. Other qualifications, such as membership of a
recognised accountancy body, will also be considered;
A GMAT score in excess of 650 points is necessary for all applicants to the
programme unless in possession of a UK degree;
Non-English speakers: also have to meet the School’s standard requirement for
English language for all graduate programmes - IELTS 6.5, TOEFL 603 in the paper
test, 250 in the computer based test.
15. Indicators of quality





Applications for places: 1487 for 178 places in 2012;
RAE rating (2008): Business and Management Studies: 70% of research outputs
graded at 3* or 4* and ranked in top 5 UK HEIs;
The Department of Accounting is responsible for the management the Centre for
Analysis of Risk and Regulation (‘CARR’);
The academic staff include several professionally-qualified accountants who hold or
have held senior positions in their professional bodies;
A large proportion of the professors of accounting in the UK are former members of
staff and/or former graduates of this programme. Current and former members of staff,
and/or former students, have won nearly all the awards for ‘Distinguished academic of



the year’ awarded by the British Accounting Association (‘BAA’);
The Department is recognised as an FT+3 research training outlet by the ESRC
Professional accreditation by ACCA;
The LSE Careers Centre website provides data on career destinations of LSE
graduates.
16. Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standard of teaching and
learning
The Department’s quality evaluation procedures are coordinated through its Teaching Quality
Enhancement Panel. Primary responsibility lies with individual course leaders, course
lecturers, class teachers, and supervisors and their own self-evaluation is focussed primarily
through the Department’s annual course reviews and peer-teaching observations, the course
teaching survey (conducted by TQARO) and the School’s mentoring and staff appraisal
processes. Other Departmental structures and processes include:
 ad hoc reviews such as the recent review of all our MSc degrees and the review of
postgraduate finance courses, which has led to the designation of the different
specialist pathways and a wider choice of half-unit modules in response to student
demand;
 the annual Departmental Examination Sub-Board meetings and the External
Examiners’ reports;
 the termly Departmental meeting;
 the responsibilities of the Programme Director for the MSc Accounting and Finance
programmes and of the MSc Co-ordinating Committee;
 student feedback and consultation through the MSc Accounting staff-student
committee (SSC).
School quality assurance processes include:









regular staff appraisal and review;
improvements in teaching technique are effected by the Teaching and Learning
Centre (TLC) through observations, advice and further training;
induction programme and mentoring scheme for new members of staff;
Staff/student liaison committee;
centrally administered student satisfaction questionnaires by the Teaching Quality
Assurance and Review Office;
an improved system for ensuring that External Examiner’s
comments/recommendations are fed through to Departments and acted upon;
the School’s Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee (TLAC) which regulates
all aspects of teaching quality;
annual monitoring of courses and periodic reviews every 3-5 years. The outcomes of
the annual reviews are presented to TLAC;
the School’s Undergraduate Studies Sub Committee and Graduate Studies Sub
Committee which oversee all taught programmes and ensure that significant changes
to programmes and courses pass through a sequence of formal stages to ensure that
curricular changes are appropriate and compatible with other developments.