Preparatory Course for BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting notes

Preparatory Course for BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting in April 2017 – Preparatory seminar (3-hour) notes

Prepared by Joseph, K.K. Ho

Dated: March 4, 2017

A.   Course Structure of BSc(Hons) in Applied Accounting

Part 1: Preparatory Seminar (3 hours)

·      Choosing a suitable topic

·      Referencing and report writing

·      Preparing the mentor meeting and the role of mentor

·      Report presentation and submission

Part 2: Mentor Meetings (1.5 hours)

·      Three mentor meetings between students and mentor (30 minutes per meeting, total 90 minutes) with email support.

·      Support and consultation for students in the preparation of their project

·      Advise student in writing up the research report

·      (Include a 15 minutes presentation of project)

B.   Preparatory seminar

B1: Choosing a suitable topic

(re: Information Pack: Submission Periods 33&34, 2016-2017)

If you intend to submit a Research and Analysis Project (RAP) to Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Brookes University requires that you choose one of the following twenty approved project topic areas as the basis for your RAP.

1) An analysis and evaluation of an organisation’s budgetary control system and its links with performance management and decision making. 2) An evaluation of how the introduction of a new technology can assist an organisation in achieving its business objectives.

3) An assessment of the potential impact of an aspect of impending legislation on the operations and financial position of an organisation.

4) A review of the business management and accounting issues of environmental costs of an organisation.

5) An evaluation of the use of short term and long term Islamic financial instruments and their impact on the financial statements of an organisation.

6) A critical review of key factors or indicators in the motivation of employees in an organisation.

7) A critical evaluation of the restructuring of an organisation’s operational activities and the effect on the organisation’s financial performance.

8) An analysis and evaluation of the business and financial performance of an organisation over a three year period.

9) A critical evaluation of the planning and implementation of an information system in an organisation.

10) A review of the effectiveness of the use of costing techniques within an organisation.

11) An investigation into the financial and operational costs and benefits of the internal audit / internal review activities within an organisation.

12) An investigation into the possible effects of a proposed accounting standard on the financial statements and business activities of an organisation.

13) An evaluation of the contribution made by human resource activities to the attainment of business and financial objectives.

14) An appraisal of the business and financial objectives of a strategic investment decision made by an organisation and its impact on key stakeholders.

15) An analysis and evaluation of the management of an organisation’s working capital over a three year period and its impact on the organisation’s funding strategies. 16) A critical evaluation of the financial and operational risk management within an organisation.

17) An assessment of the quality of the corporate governance within an organisation and the impact on an organisation’s key stakeholders.

18) A review of the marketing strategy of an organisation and its effectiveness.

19) An analysis and evaluation of the financial and operational consequences of a merger between two organisations or of the acquisition of one organisation by another.

20) An assessment of an organisation's corporate social responsibility policies, including business ethics, and their impact on business practice and key stakeholders.

·      For topic 8 and topic 15, you should ensure you are using the most current 3 years financial statements available at the start of the submission period. For topic 8 you are required to use a comparator.

·      The main focus of your project research must be an analysis / evaluation of the project topic area issues in the context of your chosen organisation

B2: Referencing and report writing

·      Use Harvard referencing (re: Appendix 3 of Information Pack: Submission Periods 33&34, 2016-2017).

·      The word limit for your Research Report is 7,500 words (this is a maximum not an absolute number).

·      Report structure template is as follows:

TITLE PAGE

CONTENTS PAGE

PART 1 - Project objectives and overall research approach – approx. 1,000 words

The first part of your Research Report 'sets the scene'. It should include the following:

· The reasons for choosing your project topic area and choosing the particular organisation that was the focus of your research work

· What you wanted to find out in your research work. i.e. your project objectives and research questions

· An explanation of your overall research approach. This should provide the reader with an understanding of the overall framework that you developed to meet your project objectives and answer your research questions.

PART 2 - Information gathering and accounting / business techniques – approx. 2,000 words

The second part of your Research Report should provide more detail about (i) the information that you have gathered and (ii) the accounting and business techniques you have chosen to apply to this information. It should include the following:

· The sources of information from which you have obtained relevant data

· A description of the methods used to collect information, including online access

· A discussion of the limitations of your information gathering

· Identification of any ethical issues that arose during your information gathering and how they were resolved

· An explanation of the accounting and / or business techniques you have used, including a discussion of their limitations.

PART 3 - Results, analysis, conclusions and recommendations – approx. 4,500 words

The third part of your Research Report should provide a detailed account of what you have found from the application of your chosen accounting and business techniques to the information that you have gathered. It should include:

· A description of the results you have obtained and any limitations

· Presentation of your results in an appropriate form e.g. tables, graphs, pie charts

· A critical analysis / evaluation of your results which includes an explanation of your significant findings

· Your conclusions about your research findings and how well you have met your project objectives and research questions

· If appropriate, recommendations on specific courses of action to identified individuals within your chosen organisation.

LIST OF REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Information about report format

·      Your Research Report must be word processed using A4 size pages. You should use black text on a white background. Avoid background graphics or pictures behind the text and remember that italics and heavy bold type are less easy to read.

·      You should use an appropriate standard business font such as Arial with a font size of 11 or 12. You may use a larger font size for section headings. We recommend a maximum of 1.5 line spacing.

B3. Preparing the mentor meeting and the role of mentor

·      Oxford Brookes University requires that you have at least three meetings with your Project Mentor, each of which would normally be about 30 minutes in length.

·      If your Project Mentor agrees, you could have additional meetings, or longer meetings, but you should negotiate this before you start your RAP work.

·      Further information about the three meetings

The first meeting - planning and your RAP title

Before your first Project Mentor meeting you should identify possible project topic areas and/or the organization that you wish to study. You should also think about the way in which you plan to undertake your research work and prepare a draft RAP timetable.

The second meeting - Research Report progress update

The second meeting is the opportunity for you to get feedback from your Project Mentor on the indicative findings of your Research Report.

The third meeting - the presentation

By the time you get to the third meeting, you should have completed your research and nearly finished writing your Research Report. You should provide a copy of your draft Research Report to your Project Mentor before the third meeting. This meeting includes a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation that you give to your Project Mentor.

B4. Report presentation and submission

·      The third meeting - the 15 minute PowerPoint presentation

·      The Skills and Learning Statement (SLS):

The SLS is also made up of two parts, one being a reflective statement covering four specific questions and the other a requirement to give a fifteen minute presentation to the student’s mentor and provide evidence of this presentation.

The four specific questions:

1. Reflect on what you have learnt from the meetings with your project mentor, including the presentation that you gave to your project mentor?

2. To what extent do you think you have achieved the RAP research objectives you set?

3. How have you demonstrated your interpersonal and communication skills during the project work?

4. Reflect on how undertaking the RAP helped you in your accountancy studies and/or current employment role?

Although there are four questions with a total word limit of 2,000 words, you do not have to write exactly 500 words to answer each of the four questions.

Your Skills and Learning Statement will be assessed Pass or Fail; it will not be given a grade.

Guidelines on presentation slides

Always start with a clear opening slide with the title of the presentation and the student’s name and ACCA number to identify the presenter.

· It can often be helpful if the next slide lists the areas to be covered by the presentation.

· Remember that the presentation is NOT about how the topic was decided upon or how the research was carried out – that is part of the RAP. This is a presentation on the topic.

· Include relevant findings from the analysis carried out. This could be graphical (with explanations) or in chart or tabular form where key numbers are concerned.

· The analysis and findings will have led to conclusions being drawn by the student and recommendations being made. These conclusions and recommendations are a key part of the presentation so should be shown on the slides.

Submission periods: some information

Earliest submission of RAP online: May 1, 2017

Latest submission of RAP online: May 17, 2017

Fees: 250 GBP

URL link: http://www.obusubmissions.co.uk

References

Information Pack

Oxford Brookes University mentee registration page: http://www.oxfordbrookesmentoring.co.uk/mentees/register.

Basic information about the BSc(Hon) programme: http://business.brookes.ac.uk/undergraduate/2016/acca/.
Topics with e-resources

General research methods e-resources

Facebook page on research methods: https://www.facebook.com/literature.researchmethods/.

Facebook page on literature review: https://www.facebook.com/literature.literaturereview/.

Facebook page on dissertation project & writing: https://www.facebook.com/literature.dissertation.writing/.