On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Financial Reporting, 3rd Edition, Loftus et al. (2020) ISBN: 9780730369462

• Issues in Financial Accounting by Scott Henderson, Graham Peirson, Kathy Herbohn, Tracy Artiach, Bryan Howieson.  Published 2017 by Pearson. ISBN 9781488611643

This is a good text that you may find useful. It covers much of the course material and are available in the University library. If you have trouble locating them please ask at the Help Desk.

You should access the most recent version of acounting standards from the AASB website.  Printing the required standards from the AASB website are a convenient resource. Alternatively, you may choose to purchase the Financial Reporting Handbook published by Wiley. Note that accounting standards will not be allowed in the examination room.

Lectures

Lectures are held once a week starting in the first week (Week 1). You are expected to have read the relevant material and attempted the pre-lecture quiz before coming to the lecture, except Week 1 lecture (further detail is provided in this course outline, in the Assessment Summary section below). The lecture is designed to summarise the topic, explain concepts, stress important points, and work through examples. You will gain more benefit from the lecture if you read the relevant section of the textbook and attempt the pre-lecture quiz before coming to the lecture.

Tutorials

Tutorial classes will be held weekly commencing in the second week of semester (Week 2). Tutorials are designed to elaborate on the material presented in the previous week’s lecture. It is a chance to work through examples, ask questions, and discuss issues. To gain the most benefit from tutorials you need to prepare answers to the questions in advance. The activities for each week are in the Study Guide. 

Membership of tutorial classes is to be finalised by the end of the second week of semester. Students wishing to swap between tutorial classes after this time are required to present their case to the Lecturer-in-Charge, but should be aware that such a request may not be approved.

Tutorials are an important component of your learning in this course. The communication skills developed in tutorials by regularly and actively participating in discussions are considered to be most important by the school and are highly regarded by employers and professional bodies.

At the Masters level of study, you are much more responsible for the quality of your learning than an undergraduate student. Consequently, at this level of study the emphasis is upon active learning, rather than passive learning. It is expected that students will actively involve themselves in the discussion during each tutorial. In general, a good participant will, among other things:

• Take the initiative and lead the discussion on a question;
• Be prepared to control the level of their involvement so that other class members can participate equally in the discussion;
• Present their points in a structured manner with reference to relevant accounting standards, readings, and research evidence;
• Be prepared to accept and explore alternative viewpoints;
• Be willing to go beyond the suggested readings and resources and use their initiative to present other topical material as examples, e.g., recent newspaper articles;
• Speak clearly;
• Assist other members of the class with understanding the material;
• Be prepared to work cooperatively and productively in small groups;
• Be sensitive to the needs and feelings of other participants; and
• Be punctual.

It is not reasonable to expect that you will always have the “right” answer and, indeed, it should be recognised and understood that valid alternative points of view might well exist on an issue. This does not mean that “anything will do” when trying to find a solution to controversial topics – rather a “good” answer will be one that is grounded in, among other things, references to relevant and valid accounting standards and concepts.

Preparation prior to attending your tutorial is important to your successful completion of this course and if you have not prepared beforehand you may have difficulties in understanding what is happening in the class session. Full solutions will NOT be provided for all tutorial questions because there is often no unique answer. Different assumptions and judgements may be used to support different arguments and solutions. However, the teaching staff are very happy to provide further assistance to you with a question PROVIDED you have made a thorough written attempt beforehand.