BA (Hons)
Finance & Investment
Degree Programme

YEAR 1

Courses

• ECN 3200 Foundations of Economic Ideas

  The course introduces students to the history of economic thought and ideas. The course covers the time period of the early days until today’s post-financial crisis period. This course is of value to students who pursue a course of study in business, finance or economics as well as in other disciplines as it covers a wide range of issues including sociology, political philosophy and international relations. The course intends to provide a wide perspective of ideas rather than a more closely focused presentation of standard and mainstream theory as provided in Economics courses at higher levels.

• MGT 3200 Foundations of Business

  An introductory survey course designed to introduce students to the principles and functions of a business. The various functional areas of business will be discussed, including economic systems, small business, management, human relations, marketing, accounting and finance. The course will also review the role of businesses in society and business ethics.

• MTH 3111 Functions with Applications

  This course is designed to provide students with the necessary mathematical background for calculus courses and its applications to some business and economics courses. It covers the fundamentals of real-valued functions, including polynomial, rational, exponential and logarithmic functions and introduces students to the concepts of derivative and integral calculus with its applications to specific concepts in micro- and macro-economics

• MGT 3120 Foundations of Computer Applications

• GEP 3105 Tools for Change

  In this course, students will discuss and respond to social issues in the local area through group work, reflecting on how they can become both collaborative and independent learners. They will research the context of and plan for service learning in the local area. They will learn to use a range of digital platforms for individual and group project work, focussing strongly on effective communication, including oral presentation and written reports using a range of relevant primary and secondary sources.

• GEP 3180 Research and Writing I

  This core course concentrates on developing the students’ ability to read and think critically, and to read, understand and analyse texts from a range of genres. How do you successfully negotiate a path through a sea of information and then write it up? Using essential information literacy skills to help with guided research, this course develops the ability to produce effective and appropriate academic writing across the curriculum. This is the first course in the Richmond academic research and writing sequence.

Plus one of the following:

• GEP 3150 Visual Thinking

  This course provides an interdisciplinary grounding in the practice and theory of critical visual thinking. Through theoretical frameworks such as semiotics, it explores predominantly photographic images, from across a range of cultures and contexts: the arts, politics, science, sport and technology. Through visual analysis, it considers digital forms of observation and image making, as well as building understanding by visual practice. It examines questions concerning curating, circulating and making public the images we produce. It asks: What are the values and truths hidden in images? How can the practice of image production advance our thinking around images? How, in the context of a range of disciplines, can we learn to communicate ideas visually and verbally?

• GEP 3170 Narratives of Change

  This course considers a landscape of global ideas through the lens of contemporary literature. Students will be introduced to pivotal moments of recent thought surrounding gender, race, environment and technology, exploring how literature both shapes and responds to our changing world. Students will analyse literary, political, and theoretical texts from a variety of cultures, exploring the relationship between written form, content and context particularly the ways in which social change might play out in literature. There will be the opportunity to produce both critical analysis in essay form and creative writing that responds to the texts studied.

YEAR 2

Courses

• ACC 4200 Financial Accounting

  An introduction to the accounting model, the measurement and classification of data and terminology essential to effective interpretation and use of financial statements, balance sheets and income statements. Underlying concepts are stressed and they are made concrete with illustrations. While mechanical and procedural details are explored, measurement and communication of data to external parties are emphasized.

• ACC 4205 Managerial Accounting

  This course introduces students to the generation of cost data for the preparation of proper, representative financial statements, and for optimal planning and control of routine operations and long range organizational goals. It focuses on the uses of formal cost accounting systems and quantitative techniques to make managerial decisions. Topics include: direct absorption income statements, job and process costing, allocation and proration, pro-forma and capital budgeting.

• ECN 4105 Introduction to Microeconomics

  An introduction to basic economic methodology. Within a framework of supply and demand analysis, the behavior of producers and consumers is examined in the context of the efficient allocation of scarce resources in society.

• ECN 4110 Introduction to Macroeconomics

  This course introduces students to a theoretical treatment of national income and its key component parts. Macroeconomic models are used to examine policy issues and contemporary problems relating to output, income, spending and employment as well as inflation and growth.

• MTH 4100 Calculus with Applications

  This course provides a sound understanding of the concepts of calculus and their applications to business and economics. Emphasis in providing the theory side by side with practical applications and with numerous examples. Topics include co-ordinate geometry of straight lines, quadratic curves, exponential and logarithmic functions; elementary differentiation and integration; and applications to maxima, minima, and optimization. It also deals with differentiation and integration of trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions.

• MTH 4120 Probability & Statistics I

  An introductory course in probability primarily designed for business economics and psychology majors. The course coverage will include: descriptive statistics, elementary probability theory, random variables and expectations, discrete probability distributions (Binomial and Poisson distributions), continuous probability distribution (Normal distribution), linear regression analysis and correlations, elementary hypothesis testing and Chi-square tests, non-parametric methods and SPSS lab sessions targeting applications of statistical concepts to business, economics and psychology and interpretations of hardcopies. All practical work will be produced using SPSS statistical software.

• GEP 4180 Research and Writing II

  How do you train your critical research and writing skills to be effective in the academic and professional arenas? How do you design and structure an argument that is convincing? This core course focuses on the principles of good scholarship and academic practice that will be required throughout the students’ studies and in the workplace. These skills are developed throughout the course so that students may, with increasing confidence, produce well-researched writing that demonstrates critical engagement with a self-selected academic topic. This is the second course in the Richmond academic research and writing sequence.

• GEP 4105 Change in Practice

  This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyse London-based social and environmental needs. Students will discuss key texts related to service learning and apply a range of planning and research techniques to deliver a community-based project related to a chosen social or environmental issue. Students will use local resources when available including registered not-for-profit and community-based organizations and reflect critically on their ability to create a positive contribution to society. Students will engage in community-based service learning, with guided academic tasks and reflection.

YEAR 3

Courses

• ACC 5210 Fundamental Analysis

  The primary focus of this case-based course is on the use of financial statements to make informed financial decisions, including whether or not to lend or invest in the equity of a firm. The course recognises that financial analysis is a process, which begins with analysis of strategy, leading through financial analysis and concluding with prospective analysis. While some devotion to bond and equity evaluation is considered, the ultimate emphasis is on company valuation, a prospective analysis.

• ECN 5215 Econometrics I

  This course focuses on applications of statistical techniques to economic decision-making, both at micro and macro level. It examines case studies in economic analysis and business decision-making

• FNN 5200 Corporate Finance

  This course examines the financial needs of corporations and the range of mechanisms available to meet them. The key concept of the time value of money is studied and applied to several decision models in capital budgeting and investment valuation. Other basic theories of Finance examined include risk versus return, modern portfolio theory, and basic financial statement analysis. Different financial requirements are considered with some emphasis in comparing internal and external sources of funds, their relative availability, and costs. Other topics considered include capital structure and dividend policy.

• FNN 5205 Principles of Investment

  Focusing on financial investment, the course familiarizes the student with a range of financial instruments and capital market operations, including new issues, trading, and the role of financial intermediaries in the investment market. Investment companies are investigated. Fundamentals of portfolio theory are introduced and applied to investment management. Valuation of fixed-income securities, equity instruments, and common stock is discussed on the basis of modern capital market theory. The course introduces financial derivatives, including options, futures, forward rate agreements, and interest rate swaps, and relates the use of derivatives to fixed-income investment, portfolio analysis, and interest rate risk management.

• MTH 5120 Probability and Statistics II

  Continuing MTH 4120, the course is concerned with inferential statistics. It covers sampling distributions, point estimations, interval estimations and estimating confidence intervals for populations and proportions, hypothesis and significance testing, goodness-of-fit test and Chi-square test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), applications of non-parametric statistics, linear regression analysis. All practical work will be done on SPSS statistical software.

• FNN 5215 Compliance and Regulation

  This course is designed to examine both the theory and practice of financial regulation, as well as the nature and role of compliance. The regulatory framework for the financial system is investigated, from both a theoretical perspective and empirically. This includes examining the roles of the regulatory bodies, primarily in the UK and USA, but with some consideration of other countries. Some consideration is given to potential future changes in regulation.

• MGT 5200 Research Methods and Data Analysis

  This course provides an overview of how research in business and economics can be conducted. Topics covered include research philosophies, critical literature review, and quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. This course prepares students for their Senior Projects.

Plus one of the following:

• GEP 5101 Service Learning: Digital Collaboration

  This Digital Collaboration Service-Learning course is a student community engagement course that aims to provide students from all disciplines and majors with the intellectual, professional, and personal skills that will enable them to build professional links and function well in culturally diverse communities both locally and globally, in a digital capacity. In addition to the hours of field work (typically 30 hours*), the student will also produce a critical reflective progress report of their experience (a learning log), a ‘community action’ portfolio (analytical essay), and a final oral presentation, based on their own creative project. These assessments have been designed to help the student reflect on the application of their specialist knowledge, the skills they are learning, and the benefits gained from the service-learning experience. During this service-learning course, the faculty supervisor work closely with each student to ensure that the community engagement is a successful one.This course enables students engage with organizations and communities outside of the university. Over two semesters, students will devise, plan and construct their own digital project for Charities, NGO’s and non-profit organisations via digital engagement and media networks. This course expands theories from digital global service learning, across different employment sectors, and aspects of society. It equips students to identify the ranges of opportunities for innovation and employment that digital skills offer, using digital resource and community building for physical and mental health. The course examines decolonial theories of global digital community. It is highly recommended that students have access to the use of a laptop and a smartphone for the duration of the course.

• GEP 5102 Service Learning: Leadership in a Changing World

  This is a Service Learning course that focuses on emerging forms of leadership. It aims to introduce students from all majors to the professional, intellectual and personal skills to enable them to understand different approaches to leadership and function well in culturally diverse communities globally. In addition to the hours of field work (typically 30 hours* depending on the organisation), the student will also produce a critical reflective progress report of their experience (a project log), and a portfolio of their work (potentially as an analytical essay, or a video or a Report or an oral presentation). These assessments have been designed to help the student reflect on the application of their specialist knowledge, the leadership skills they are learning, and the benefits gained from the critical experiential service-learning. It will also help them determine if their current career goals are the correct fit for them.This course enables students to engage with organizations and communities outside of the university. During the semester, students will consider topics such as negotiation and behavioral influence. They will devise, plan and carry out their own engagement project for Charities, NGO’s and non-profit organisations. This course combines design thinking and behavioural design theories with global service learning theory, across different employment sectors and aspects of society. It equips students to identify opportunities for influence, leadership and employment both in and adjacent to their field. The course is underpinned by JEDI approaches to justice, equality, diversity and inclusion across the global community.

• GEP 5103 Service Learning: Environment and Society

  This Environmental Service Learning course is a student community engagement course that aims to provide students from all disciplines and majors with the intellectual, professional, and personal skills that will enable them to build professional links and function well in culturally diverse communities globally and within an Environmental perspective. In addition to the hours of field work (typically 30 hours* depending on the organisation), the student will also produce a critical reflective progress report of their experience (a learning log), a ‘community action’ portfolio (analytical essay), and a final oral presentation. These assessments have been designed to help the student reflect on the application of their specialist knowledge, the skills they are learning, and the benefits gained from the service-learning experience. It will also to help them determine if their current career goals are the correct fit for them. During this service-learning course, the faculty supervisor will work closely with each student to ensure that the community engagement is a successful one.

• GEP 5104 Service Learning: Global Citizenship and Migration

  This course examines the theoretical, political and sociological conceptions of citizenship and their limitations. It looks at both the theoretical constructs and the concrete policies that have shaped the experience of the citizen and of the migrant. The course therefore considers the development of the nation state and the establishment of legal and social citizenship. It also examines the border as a mechanism of control and security. The course further addresses the intersection of experiences of citizenship across economic, racial and gender differences in the context of international governance as well as the globalization of economies and environmental issues. This is a Service-Learning student community engagement course that aims to provide students with the analytical and inter-personal skills to support key non-governmental and policy-making actors around the broad theme of citizenship and migration as well as to build an understanding of the needs and challenges faced by key stakeholders and local communities globally. Through consultation with key stakeholders, students will produce analytical written assessments on key questions around the theme of global citizenship and migration, they will also produce a range of work introducing them to a range of key employability skills in a range of key sectors related to citizenship, these might include: the local and global charity sector, local and national policy-making, as well as regional or international organisations. Students will be required to maintain a progress report that tracks learning and can act as a reference point for problem solving in the future.

YEAR 4

Courses

• FNN 6107 The Financial System

  This course focuses on the role of financial institutions both within individual countries and in the global economy as a whole. The functions and operations of banks, neobanks, fintech firms, institutional investors and other agencies are examined from a strategic viewpoint, along with those of the financial markets, and the role of central banks and regulators. Recent developments in technology, such as the introduction of digital currencies and payments systems are discussed. Some of the controversies about the effectiveness of regulatory and monetary policies are also considered.

• FNN 6101 Valuation and Cash Flow Modelling

  This is a comprehensive course that focuses on cashflow model-building and other methods used by professionals engaged in finance. The course focuses on applying mathematical formulas utilizing Microsoft Excel™ across a broad range of financial and investment situations. The primary focus of the course is on corporate valuation and its utilisation.

• FNN 6103 The Global Investor

  This course critically considers the tools and techniques available to the contemporary investor facing a near-global financial system. A consideration of the practical implementation of modern portfolio theory (MPT) across a broad range of instruments, including standards for individual instrument selection, leads to critical analysis of its conceptual foundations. Alternatives are considered, including APT, fundamental analysis and technical analysis.

• FNN 6104 International Finance

  Taking a global perspective, the course focuses on the basics of multinational financial management from an international finance perspective. An understanding of multinational finance begins with a mastery of the principles of exchange rates—how they are determined, how they affect the prices of goods and services, and their relationship to interest rates. The course also covers foreign exchange markets, multinational accounting, foreign exchange risk, strategies and tools for managing exchange rate exposure, import and export finance, and multinational financial management.

• FNN 6297 Senior Project in Finance

  The senior project in Finance forms the culmination of a student's studies in the areas of finance and investment. The project requires a significant level of enquiry and research. It will typically investigate a hypothesis, an issue or case on a relevant topic. The investigation will make use of quantitative and/or qualitative research methods as appropriate to the particular topic. Students will be guided by their supervisor and conduct individual research work on an agreed topic. The supervisor will facilitate the process through regularly-scheduled meetings.This course is only open to seniors, ideally final semester students should take this course.

Plus one of the following:

• FNN 6102 Derivatives

  This course provides an analysis of financial economics of exchange-traded futures and options and selected over-the counter derivatives. The course covers areas which include the market structures of the futures and options markets, the valuation of futures and options contracts, as well as their use in global risk management strategies.

• ENT 6101 Entrepreneurship: Valuation, Funding and Growth

  Early start-up failure is not a rare occurrence in the world of entrepreneurship. Despite that, the chances of success are raised significantly with the right tools and skills set. This course is designed to give students a holistic view and an in-depth knowledge of funding sources, funding process, and growing the venture. Arming students with the knowledge of valuation of a start-up, analysing funding options and how to fail well, this course will prepare students to make knowledgeable decisions regarding the future of their start-up.

• ECN 6103 Econometrics II

  This course is an applied course in modelling data particularly time series data as a practical guide to quantitative research in Economics, Finance, Development Studies, and areas of business such as Marketing. The focus of the course is to build on principal econometric techniques learnt and to extend them by dealing with real- world issues without adopting an excessively esoteric and/or mathematical approach.

• FNN 6105 Wealth Management

  This course is designed to enable students to build upon the knowledge gained in the prerequisite courses to be able to analyse in-depth the specific services offered by a wealth management company or division of a bank. They will learn the various methods and techniques necessary for the complex financial planning required by clients of significant net worth.

• MTH 6101 Financial Mathematics

  This course will cover: Essential mathematics (calculus, differential equations, linear algebra and elementary probability theory), mathematics in finance (Central Limit Theorem and Brownian motion, Stochastic calculus and random behaviour, Markov Processes and Martingales, Wiener process, Monte Carlo simulation of pricing and simple trading models), Binomial and Black-Scholes Models and their significance in asset pricing and analysis of financial derivatives.

Integrated Internship

• FNN 6901 World Internship in Finance

  The Internship in Business Management is a student work placement that aims to provide students with the experience of working within the finance sector in London.Students will develop the intellectual, professional, and personal skills that will enable them to function well in a culturally diverse working environment. All internships are supervised by faculty, and all last a minimum of 6 weeks in length and are carried out full time Monday to Thursday/ Friday. Each student will also complete a series of assessments throughout the internship, such as keeping a written journal of their experience, preparing an internship portfolio, and delivering a final presentation. These assessments have been designed to help the student reflect on the skills they are learning and the benefits gained from the internship experience, and also to help them determine if their current career goals are the correct fit for them. During the internship, the staff of the Internship Office and a faculty supervisor work closely with each student to ensure that the placement is a successful one. Students’ final grades are based on several factors including, written assignments, presentation, and a report from their workplace supervisor which is taken into consideration.

• FNN 6902 Internship in Finance

  The Internship in Business Management is a student work placement that aims to provide students with the experience of working internationally within the finance sector.Students will develop the intellectual, professional, and personal skills that will enable them to function well in a culturally diverse working environment. All internships are supervised by faculty, and all last a minimum of 6 weeks in length and are carried out full time Monday to Thursday/ Friday. Each student will also complete a series of assessments throughout the internship, such as keeping a written journal of their experience, preparing an internship portfolio, and delivering a final presentation. These assessments have been designed to help the student reflect on the skills they are learning and the benefits gained from the internship experience, and also to help them determine if their current career goals are the correct fit for them. During the internship, the staff of the Internship Office and a faculty supervisor work closely with each student to ensure that the placement is a successful one. Students’ final grades are based on several factors including, written assignments, presentation, and a report from their workplace supervisor which is taken into consideration.