Programme Specification: Diploma in Accounting and Finance
1. Awarding Body
2. Details of accreditation by a
professional/statutory body
eg 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. UCAS Code/application code
9. First written/Last amended
LSE
Recognised for individual exemptions by the
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
(‘ACCA’).
Diploma
Accounting and Finance
Full-time 9 months
Department of Accounting
N/A
N4ED
6th Nov 2001 / November 2012
10. The programme aims to:
offer the following benefits:
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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 and for its research-led teaching;
Exposure to world-class social scientists, business leaders, politicians, and modern thinkers who
visit and/or teach at LSE;
The opportunity to acquire a solid foundation if students have little or no background in accounting
or finance, or extend their knowledge in this area within a flexible programme;
The opportunity to subsequently join MSc programmes in the Department (subject to satisfactory
performance in the Diploma programme and an appropriate selection of courses);
The opportunity to prepare for careers in the fields of finance and accounting, consulting, and
general management.
11. Programme outcomes: knowledge and understanding; skills and other attributes
Knowledge and understanding: At the end of the programme, all students will have a thorough
understanding of the key aspects of:
Principles of finance
or
Corporate finance and financial markets
Management accounting and financial accounting: decisions, control, reporting and disclosure
or
Financial accounting, analysis and valuation
and/or
Managerial accounting
and/or
Management accounting, financial management and organizational control
plus will have selected from:
a range of more specialist courses in aspects of accounting, auditing and reporting, international
accounting and finance, valuation and security analysis, and portfolio management or related courses
in business, economics, econometrics, operational research, Law, organisational theory or in 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
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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 record and summarize financial data and prepare outline accounting reports
suitable for internal management reporting and external financial statements;
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, wordprocessing 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 offers research-led teaching to provide a conversion course for students with little or
no background in accounting or finance, such as students with undergraduate degrees in arts,
economics, law, business, science, or engineering. It also provides students with a more thorough
background in accounting and finance the opportunity to extend their knowledge and understanding in
areas of special interest within a flexible programme.
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-edge 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
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Students have the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience of IT as well as familiarity with
electronic data sources and databases.
Assessment strategies:
Summative assessment of knowledge and understanding and of subject-specific skills is mostly
through unseen examinations at the end of each year..
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.
The Diploma students are also encouraged to participate in the Departmental ‘postgraduate’ annual
residential weekend for staff and students.
13. Programme structures and requirements, levels modules and awards.
See Diploma in Accounting and Finance programme regulations for further information.
Additional Information
14.Criteria for admission to the programme
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Entrants should usually have a good upper second class honours degree (in any subject) from a UK
university, or have reached a similar standard in an overseas degree;
Non-English speakers: also have to meet the School’s standard requirement for English language
for all graduate programmes - IELTS 6.5 (at least 6.0 in each section) or 100 in the internet-based
TOEFL (at least 21 in writing and 20 in the other three elements);
The LSE Careers Centre website provides data on career destinations of LSE graduates.
15. Indicators of quality
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Applications for places: 205 for 45 places in 2012;
RAE rating (2001): 5*A;
The Department is responsible for the management of 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 students of the department. 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’);
Professional Accreditation by ACCA;
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16.Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standard of teaching and learning
The Department’s additional 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 TQARO student
questionnaires and the School’s mentoring and staff appraisal processes. Other Departmental
structures and processes include:
 ad hoc reviews such as the recent review of the Diploma which has led to a clearer specification of
the aims of the award for students from different undergraduate backgrounds and the designation
and redesign of the financial reporting and management ‘conversion course’;
 the annual Departmental Examination Sub-Board meetings and the External Examiners’ reports;
 the termly Departmental meeting;
 the responsibilities of the Programme Director for the Diploma programme;
 student feedback and consultation through the Diploma staff-student committee (SSC).
School procedures include:
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The Teaching and Learning Centre is available to monitor and observe teaching and offers
constructive advice on how to improve the standard of teaching and quality;
The Teaching Learning and Assessment Committee which regulates all aspects of teaching quality;
Departmental TLAC review once every five years;
The Graduate Studies Sub-Committee which oversees all graduate programmes and ensures that
significant changes to programmes and courses pass through a sequence of formal stages, so that
curricular changes are appropriate and compatible with other developments.
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