2018/19 Undergraduate Module Catalogue
LUBS3120 Forensic Accounting and Finance
10 creditsClass Size: 30
Module manager: Prof. Steven Toms
Email: j.s.toms@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2018/19
Pre-requisite qualifications
LUBS1225 Accounting for Managers OR LUBS1235 Introductory Financial Accounting OR LUBS1915 Introduction to Financial Accounting OR LUBS2290 Intermediate Financial Accounting OR LUBS2205 Corporate FinanceThis module is approved as a discovery module
Module summary
Forensic Accounting and Finance is an optional level three module intended to provide a critical appreciation of the causes and consequences of financial fraud. It involves an evaluation of the key issues in a researched case study of a financial fraud, acknowledging and referencing appropriate source material and comparison with other frauds and financial scandals. The module provides analytical models that allow you to appreciate the consequences of unethical behaviour at all levels of organisations, from employees to entrepreneurs, and offer professional solutions and advice.Objectives
The module aims to set out the context, motivations and rationalisation of financial fraud. It explains how such frauds are perpetuated, detected and investigated with a view to understanding how effective enterprise level and regulatory mechanisms to prevent recurrence might be successfully implemented, using examples from the present day, historical and international contexts. The module will illustrate how forensic techniques are employed to investigative fraud and provide an understanding of associated legal processes and utilise analytical models to illustrate the common and unique features of frauds, developing understanding of appropriate professional responses to it.Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to interpret and outline:
- the causes and consequences of financial statement fraud
- theories and relevant empirical research evidence in the field of accounting, corporate finance, organisations, psychology, law and financial markets
- alternative historical, national and regulatory contexts in which legal and illegal uses of accounting occur
- alternative methods of accounting and business valuation
- strengths and weaknesses in current technical standards and accounting practice by evaluating their usefulness in preventing unethical practices
Skills outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to
Transferable:
- Apply numerical and statistical skills to manipulate and interrogate data
- Apply critical thinking in independently locating, extracting, analysing arguments, data and information from multiple sources
- Structure and communicate quantitative and qualitative information
- Work effectively in a team
Subject specific:
- Extract relevant information to understand the determinants of fraud and formulate potential solutions to prevent the occurrence of fraud in structured and unstructured business situations
- Interpret financial and non-financial information to provide a professional insight into the operations of a complex business
Syllabus
Indicative content:
- creative accounting
- business valuation
- psychology of fraud
- corporate crime, productive and destructive entrepreneurship
- historical and international perspectives
- financial and accounting regulation
- fraud investigations
Teaching methods
Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
Lectures | 11 | 2.00 | 22.00 |
Seminar | 5 | 1.00 | 5.00 |
Independent online learning hours | 20.00 | ||
Private study hours | 53.00 | ||
Total Contact hours | 27.00 | ||
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 100.00 |
Private study
The students undertake desk research into a case study of a particular fraud or accounting scandal. They work in teams to investigate the facts of the case and develop recommendations about what the organisation, profession or regulatory action could have been taken to prevent it. Each group presents (20 mins + 10 mins Q&A) their case study. The presentation PowerPoints will then be uploaded to the VLE together with formative feedback from the module leader.The tutor feedback will assess the quality and depth of the research and indicates how it could be developed further.
Exam questions will be based on the case study material.
Opportunities for Formative Feedback
Students will be able to monitor their progress through fortnightly seminars. Model answers and answers and marking schemes are available for workshop and past examination papers against which students can assess their own performance;Formative feedback is provided in the second half of the course through comments on the student group presentations. Students are strongly encouraged to hand in a practice essay which will be used to provide formative feedback as preparation for the examination.
Teaching staff on the module will be available at set desk times each week to give students the opportunity to deal with problems as they arise and receive feedback on an ongoing basis.
Methods of assessment
Exams
Exam type | Exam duration | % of formal assessment |
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc) | 2 hr | 100.00 |
Total percentage (Assessment Exams) | 100.00 |
The resit for this module will be 100% by 2 hour examination.
Reading list
The reading list is available from the Library websiteLast updated: 12/12/2018 10:48:53
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- Undergraduate module catalogue
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