PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION: MPhil/PhD Accounting
1.
2.
8.
9.
Awarding Body
Details of accreditation by a
professional/statutory body,
e.g. ESRC; BPS etc
Name of final award
Programme Title
Duration of the course
Based in the Department/Institute:
Relevant QAA subject benchmark
statements (See Subject Benchmark
Statements)
UCAS Code
First written/last amended
10.
The programme aims to:
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
LSE
The Department of Accounting is recognised by
ESRC for FT +3 research training
MPhil/PhD
MPhil/PhD in Accounting
3-4 years (minimum 2)
Department of Accounting
N/A
N4ZB
Oct 2004 / Nov 2012

Provide a broad-based training in theoretical and empirical research methods in
Accounting broadly conceived;

Turn out well-trained PhD students who are able to develop and produce research of the
highest international standards;

Enable students to develop critical and analytical skills that are valuable in both academic
and professional career contexts.
11.
Programme outcomes: knowledge and understanding; skills and other attributes
Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the programme, students will have a thorough understanding of state-of-the-art
research in their chosen field and have contributed their own original research to advance the
subject.
Subject specific skills
At the end of the programme, and to the appropriate extent indicated by their level of award,
students should demonstrate:

Mastery of their chosen field;

Original research in that field;

Ability to produce publishable research of high quality.
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
data sources and relevant literature;

Where relevant, appropriate ability to obtain reliable original data through interviews,
questionnaires, case studies, surveys or other methods;

Appropriate ability to acknowledge and reference sources;

Appropriate capacities for independent learning and self-development;

Appropriate use of information technology and databases;

Appropriate communication skills such as ability to present quantitative and qualitative
information, together with analyses, arguments and commentary;

Ability to work in groups in so far as relevant to their research area and other appropriate
inter-personal skills, including oral and written communication skills.
12.
Teaching, learning and assessment strategies to enable outcomes to be achieved and
demonstrated
Teaching and learning strategies:
This programme provides research-led teaching enabling students to work at the forefront of
theory and practice in their selected areas of research specialisation. The teaching is of an
advanced nature and covers internationally significant conceptual and technical developments in
empirical and institutional aspects of accounting broadly conceived. Students acquire their
detailed knowledge and understanding of their chosen area of research, and their subject-specific
skills, through a combination of lectures, seminars and progression to guided independent study,
reinforced by tutoring with their MPhil/PhD supervisors and interaction with other faculty in the
department. Students are also required to make seminar presentations to faculty during their first
year and present work in progress during subsequent years.
Course reading lists include references to state-of-the-art research literature and primary sources,
including relevant examples from current practice, official and professional policy documents, and
other data sources.
Academic staff members, who act as MPhil/PhD supervisors, are leading-edge researchers and
give students an insight into current thinking and recent developments in their fields. Several faculty
and supervisors are also involved in policy advice and formation and give students the awareness of
real-world developments in empirical and institutional aspects of accounting, broadly conceived, and
the forces that shape them.
Students have the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience of information technology as well
as familiarity with electronic data sources.
Each student has a main and second supervisor. It is departmental practice to fit students’ topics
with the interests and expertise of supervisors, thus ensuring that students always work on
leading edge topics.
MPhil/PhD students are strongly encouraged to participate at an early stage in their research
training in appropriate international workshops and colloquia. Financial support is made available
to students who want to present their work at, or attend, conferences relevant to their discipline.
MPhil/PhD students must attend the departmental Accounting Research Forums. They are also
required to attend AC500 Accounting, Organisations and Society seminars in each year of their
programme and are encouraged to attend any relevant seminars in related areas offered
elsewhere in the School.
MPhil/PhD students are normally required to gain teaching experience, with appropriate training,
without detracting from their research time.
They are also encouraged to participate in the departmental MSc annual residential weekend for
staff and students, and the Staff-Student Liaison Committee (which meets once each term).
Assessment strategies:
Summative assessment of knowledge and understanding and of subject-specific skills is primarily
through 3-hour written examinations at the end of each year for taught courses, together with the
MPhil/PhD dissertation. For some options, coursework project assessment is also part 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 on professional publications.
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 in the MPhil/PhD Accounting Programme are initially registered for an MPhil degree.
MPhil students are considered for upgrading to PhD status normally by, or before, the end of the
second year of study. In order to progress to PhD registration, students must have achieved a
pass mark of at least 65% in their taught course exams, and have made satisfactory progress in
2
their research, which normally is understood to mean a solid draft of one complete chapter, plus a
detailed outline for the rest of the dissertation with abstracts for each proposed chapter.
The departmental Postgraduate Review and Assessment Committee reviews the progress of
each research student normally twice, sometimes three times, each year, and makes
recommendations for upgrading to PhD on a case-by-case basis, taking into account both the
adequacy of progress as outlined above, as well as the merits of the dissertation topic and the
likelihood that it will lead to a significant doctoral thesis.
The MPhil/PhD Programme in Accounting normally consists of three courses in the first two years,
of which courses to the value of at least 2.0 units are examined, and one is an unexamined
common research-training course to be taken by all students in the first year. Students normally
take their examined graduate-level courses in the first year, although availability and timetabling
constraints may require that a course is taken in the second year. Students must pass these
courses with a mark of at least 65% (MSc pass mark = 50%) in order to proceed to the following
year. The examiners may, in exceptional circumstances, condone a lower pass mark if there is
strength elsewhere. Students failing a paper can, at the discretion of the departmental
Postgraduate Review and Assessment Committee, and taking into account overall performance,
resit that paper on one occasion only. The departmental Postgraduate Review and Assessment
Committee may also decide to substitute a make-up assignment, such as a 5,000-word essay, to
redress any mark deficiencies.
In addition, students are required to give a seminar presentation in each year of the programme in
AC500 Accounting, Organisations and Society.
13. Programme structures and requirements, levels, modules and awards
See further information on MPhil/PhD Accounting.
Additional information
14.
Criteria for admission to the programme
There are normally 8-15 full-time students and very few, if any, part-time students on the
programme.
Entry to the programme is normally conditional on a candidate having obtained strong marks
(such as a first or upper second class honours degree from a British or overseas university, or
other degree accepted as equivalent for this purpose) in Accounting or a related discipline.
Satisfactory performance (normally at high Merit or Distinction level) in the MSc Accounting,
Organisations & Institutions, MSc Accounting & Finance, MSc Law & Accounting, or other MSc
degrees offered by LSE also meet the entrance requirements.
15.
Indicators of quality
 The School participates in the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES), which
provides indicators of student satisfaction with various aspects of their research degree
programme. Results from this survey have been positive for the School.
 Examiners’ reports from viva examinations are considered centrally within the School and
provide indicators on the quality of the research student experience and supervision quality.
 The LSE Careers Centre website provides data on career destinations of LSE research
graduates: click here.
 RAE rating (2008): Business and Management Studies: 70% of research outputs graded at 3* or
4* and ranked in top 5 UK HEIs.
 Faculty in the Department of Accounting are affiliated with major journals in the discipline as
Editors or Associate Editors.
 The Department of Accounting is recognised as an FT+3 research training outlet by the ESRC.
3
16.
Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standard of teaching and
learning
Departmental methods and processes for teaching and learning quality evaluation and assurance
are coordinated through the Department’s Teaching Quality Enhancement Panel. Primary
responsibility lies with individual course leaders, course lecturers, class teachers, and MPhil/PhD
supervisors whose evaluation, at departmental level, is conducted primarily through the
Department’s annual course reviews and peer-teaching observations, and the Department's
mentoring and staff appraisal processes.
Other departmental structures and processes include:

Ad hoc reviews;

The departmental Postgraduate Review and Assessment Committee, which meets at
least three times a year to examine MPhil/PhD student performance and also reviews the
structure of the MPhil/PhD Programme in Accounting;

The termly departmental meeting;

The responsibilities of the Programme Directors;

Student feedback and consultation through the MPhil/PhD Staff-Student Liaison
Committee (SSLC).
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.
4