'Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.'
Wernher von Braun

 

Financial institutions and regulatory bodies need to conduct research to make better decisions in response to new developments in financial markets. Their research in Finance can be related to topics as diverse as corporate investments and financing policy, security valuation, portfolio management, the behaviour of prices in speculative markets, financial institutions, capital markets, intermediation, banking and systemic risk and very recently cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The knowledge in these areas has grown beyond all recognition both in terms of content and depth.

This course gives you the opportunity to expand your knowledge in one of these areas in finance, while you learn how to identify a research problem, formulate and complete an applied research project in a team in that area. We will discuss different research approaches and tools and you will become familiar with systematic steps in collecting, recording and analysing financial data. You will learn step by step how to conduct this research project and present your research outputs in every stage and at the end of the project. In this course, you will learn how you can build up and work in teams effectively. We also review some techniques to enhance your communication and presentation skills.

 

At the completion of this course you are able to identify a research problem in Finance in general, and formulate, conduct and present your research project, professionally. You are also aware of current issues in your field of interest in Finance that you can leverage in your future profession. In this course, you develop a set of skill sets that put you in a competitive position in the job market in Finance and related industries. This includes but is not limited to programming skills, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork skills, interpersonal as well as communications and presentation skills.

 

Your class runs on different days and times during the week or over selected weekends in various locations. Refer to the course calendar for location and date/time details. Your consultation time is 12:30pm to 1:30pm on Fridays.

 

I hope you enjoy the class and find this course a challenging and rewarding experience.

 

  

Course Coordinator and lecturer: Dr. Reza Bradrania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students will normally have completed 36 units of their program (inclusive of credit or advanced standing) before undertaking this course.

There are no corequisite courses to be completed in conjunction with this course.

On completion of this course, students should be able to:

CO1. Acquire and apply knowledge of current advanced research methodologies used in finance research and/or other business related research fields

CO2. Acquire knowledge of and apply knowledge of current advanced statistical and econometrics tests and procedures used in financial data analysis

CO3. Identify topical research issues and evaluate research designs and advanced methodologies used in current finance research and/or other business related research fields

CO4. Develop a broad range of the analytical skills required in advance research in finance and other business-related fields

CO5. Develop discipline specific skills in summarising, critical analysis, reporting and presenting of both quantitative and qualitative data and research results

CO6. Demonstrate Business School Enterprise Skills in the context of the Finance discipline: i) Self-Management (advanced level); ii) Ethical Awareness (advanced level); iii) Teamwork (advanced level); iv) Written Communication (advanced level); and v) Oral Communication (advanced level)

Upon completion of this course, students will have achieved the following combination of Graduate Qualities and Course Objectives:

A graduate of UniSA:

GQ1. operates effectively with and upon a body of knowledge of sufficient depth to begin professional practice

GQ2. is prepared for life-long learning in pursuit of personal development and excellence in professional practice

GQ3. is an effective problem solver, capable of applying logical, critical, and creative thinking to a range of problems

GQ4. can work both autonomously and collaboratively as a professional

GQ5. is committed to ethical action and social responsibility as a professional and citizen

GQ6. communicates effectively in professional practice and as a member of the community

GQ7. demonstrates international perspectives as a professional and as a citizen

Students will be familiar with different topics in mainstream finance, and conduct an applied research project on this area. The coures embeds the research approaches and quantitative tools required to define and complete a research project under supervision. The focus of the course is on developing skillsets that increase graduate employability.

4.5 units

There are no textbooks listed for this course.

Hair, JF, Celsi, MW, Money, AH, Samouel, P & Page, MJ, 2016 Essentials of Business Research Methods, 3rd edn, Routledge, New York.

 

Mitchell, ML & Jolley, JM 2013, Research Design Explained, 8th edn, Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, California.

Sekaran, U & Bougie, R  2013, Research methods for business: A skills building approach, 6th edn, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.

 

Zikmund, WG, Babin, BJ, Carr, JC & Griffin, M 2013 Business Research Methods, 9th edn, South-Western
Cengage Learning, Mason, Ohio.

 

There are many other potentially useful references in the library and on the web. Students are required to use a wide range of up-to-date resources such as books and peer reviewed academic journals available electronically at the University Library catalogue and databases.


Catalogues and databases
Students are expected to use the University Library catalogue and databases. Students can access the
University Library at http://www.library.unisa.edu.au/
Click on A-Z databases

Find database subjects, then click on the subject/topic of your choice. For example, Business and management AND then Finance to see databases related to Finance.
Students can access these databases from the links. As no single database will give access to all the relevant journals, students must use several databases to cover any topic. Note that these databases include sources for journal articles and other materials that help you review the literature as well as the secondary data sources that you may use to collect data to conduct your research. The full list of these databases are available via "Online Assessment Help" for this course.


Note: the textbook and other above sources are only for your reference. Throughout the semester, you will be provided with journal articles, reports or other materials. So you do not need to buy above sources.

All course related materials can be accessed through your learnonline course site which you will be able to access from the my Courses section in myUniSA.

All study related materials can be accessed through: https://my.unisa.edu.au

Details of assessment submission and return are listed under each assessment task. Assessment tasks will be returned to you within two to three weeks of submission.

If the Course Coordinator allows submissions in hard copy format, you will be required to attach an Assignment Cover Sheet which is available on the learnonline student help (https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=1843&chapterid=567) and in myUniSA.

The feedback proforma is available on your course site.

Overview of all assessments:

 

In this course, you will define and complete an applied research project in Finance. Three related individual assessments are designed to assist you to complete your research project by the end of the study period. The project is conducted in a team of two and all the assessments are based on either teamwork or individual activities. You, as a team, need to finalise your topic after session 3 and by 8 March. In session1, teamwork, its benefits and requirements are discussed. In session 2, you need to fill out a teamwork sheet (available on the course website), where you specify the name of the individuals in your team and answer questions related to your last teamwork experience.

 

Assessment 1 is a continuous assessment and mainly includes one page written piece (one pager) by your team and 4 presentations (preparation in team, presentations by individuals) on your progress in your research project. In assessment 2, you submit a report in which you pitch your research idea (business case) to industry audiences. Assessment 3 has two parts; in part one you, as a team, produce your final report on your research projects. In part two, you, as an individual, need to write the "executive summary" of your final report. Details of each assessment are listed below under each assessment task.


Note 1: The research project that you define and complete in this course is an opportunity for you to develop necessary skills and knowledge that make you competitive in the job market. The project is not a thesis or an academic paper aimed to be published, so please do not seek for a supervisor or co-author to define and conduct your project/assignments. While seeking advice from others (other than your team) is recommended, having others (out of your team) do part of the assignments or the project is a breach of academic integrity which results in zero marks for the whole assignment automatically, and your case will be reported to the integrity officer.

Note 2: The projects need to be conducted by a team of two. It is expected that both individuals in a team contribute to the project equally from the beginning. This will be monitored throughout the semester and necessary feedback will be provided by the lecturer. Free riders may lose significant marks (up to 25%) or fail to pass the course.

 

Assessment 1: Continuous Assessment — One pager/Presentations and active Participations
Type of task: team- and individual-based

Weighting: 10%

Due date: one pager, 08 March, 2pm, Adelaide time; for presentations and participations due date, please refer to the course calendar

1- One pager-your research topic (team based task-weighting=2%): you need to write one page in which you explain your research topic and explain your research question(s) informed by relevant literature and issues in industry. This report needs to be submitted after session 3 by 8 March, 2019, 2pm in person. One team member can submit the one-pager. You can  drop it at my pigeon hole in level 3, Way lee building, or my office (under my office's door).

In this one page piece, you are required to explain and propose at least one research question in Finance. You will be given specific guidelines that will assist you to find a research question in sessions 1 and 2.

You need to study journal articles and popular press reports around areas of your interest to identify research question/s. You can use a range of sources including academic journal articles via catalogues in the library (http://www.library.unisa.edu.au/) to conduct your preliminary research to find out your area of interest.

Ensure that the study you are proposing in the one pager can be started and completed during the semester (about 2.5 months). Particularly, you should consider the availability of data to answer your research questions. A list of potential data sources is available on the course homepage. You may want to consider other credible data sources. Please check with the Academic Library Team (Library-business-team@unisa.edu.au) if you have any queries about data sources.

 

Requirements for the one pager assessment

Find a research question in Finance, and choose a topic for your research. You should

 

• Write a title for your study
• Write a concise introduction, explaining your idea (research question)
• Provide brief background information about the area. Discuss briefly what the literature and press say about the problem you identified
• Explain why your proposed research is important and should be done

Your one pager will be assessed to ensure its viability and possibility. You might be asked to revise your topic and re-submit your one pager multiple times to ensure you have the right topic to start your project.


2- Presentations and participation (individual and team based task-weighting=8%): there are four presentations and active participation requirements for marking of these presentations during the semester as part of this assessment. These presentations are related to the research project in Finance that you start in this course at the beginning of the study period. Details of requirements for each presentation are listed under each presentation task and available on the course website/assessment section. These presentations give you the opportunity to present your progress in your research and receive feedback from the lecturer and the class to improve your research study. Your participation in marking after each presentation gives you a chance to better understand the requirements of good, quality research in Finance.

 

The presentations are prepared and practiced by the team (both individuals), but presentations in the class are done by each member of the team. Each member of the team has 50% of the allocated time for the whole presentation. The team decides which parts of the presentations are covered by who. Individual presentations need to complete each other and look like one unique presentation conveyed by two people. In session 2, your team will be allocated randomly to the presentation group A or B. The presentations start from session 5 (23 March, 2019), but each session only teams in the group A or B present. Please refer to the Course Calendar to find out the date of the presentations for each group. Each session, the students who do not present will participate in the marking of the presentations for students who present. Details of marking the presentation are explained below. Please note that marking and presenting are assessed  as an individual task, although you prepare the slides in a team and present part of your team work activity. This means both students of a team are given equal chance to present and are assessed individually by the lecturer and the whole class.

Your presentation and participation in marking are both graded; each presentation has 1% weight of your total mark, and each participation in marking has 1% weight of your total mark. Therefore, each session from session 5, you will be assessed either for your presentation or for your participation in marking, and you need to attend the class even if you are not required to present.



How you participate in the marking of presentations:
1- You will be given a marking guideline at the beginning of each presentation. The guideline is based on the requirements mentioned below under the explanation of each presentation.
2- You assess the presentation of your fellow student based as per the guideline and return your mark sheet to the lecturer.
3- The lecturer assesses the presentation against these requirements and gives the student a minimum and maximum mark.
4- The lecturer takes the average of all your marks for a given presentation. The final mark for the presentation is this average mark, if it is between the lecturer’s minimum and maximum mark. Otherwise, it is equal to the min or max mark set by the lecturer whichever is closer to the average mark.

Please check the course website/assessment section for the details of each presentation and its requirements.

Assessment 2: Industry Pitch (Business Case)

Weighting: 30%
Type of task: team-based
Due date: Monday, 1 April 2019 at 22:00:00, Adelaide time

In this assessment, you write an industry pitch (business case) for your research project in which you propose at least one research problem/question in Finance. At the beginning of the semester, you will be given specific guidelines that will assist you to develop this research pitch. This pitch is based on Professor R.W. Faff's framework (available on the course website). You have already presented your pitch in session 4 and 5. However, you need to incorporate the lecturer’s feedback and comments that you received after your presentations in class into this report.

Also, you need to make the scope of your research clear to ensure you are able to complete the project by the end of the study period. Particularly, you should consider the availability of data to answer the research questions you propose in your pitch. A list of potential data sources is available on the course homepage. You may want to consider other credible data sources. Please check with the Academic Library Team (Library-business-team@unisa.edu.au) if you have any queries about data sources.

Requirements for assessment #2
Use the template suggested by Professor Faff in his working paper (available on the course website) and complete the form. Make sure you

1. Write a title for your pitch. The title of your pitch is the same as that of your study.
2. Write a concise pitch for your study of no more than 1500 words that

• States your working title and research question(s)
• States your key papers and industry reports
• States the motivation of your study
• Explains research idea/data/tools and methods
• Discusses what is new in this study
• Answers the "so what?" question 
• Explains the significance and contribution of your study

3. The pitch of your study should be based on the feedback and comments you received after your “industry pitch” presentation in weeks 4 and 5. Failure to do so will result in a penalty of 10% deducted from the total awarded mark for the assessment 2.

4. The whole report for assessment 2 must not exceed the word limit of 1500 words. Note that the content of your report beyond this limit will not be assessed.

5. A minimum of 5 academic references (other than the textbook) are expected in this assessment.

6. The report must be written clearly (with content well organised). It is strongly recommended to have someone check your grammar and writing before submission.

7. UniSA treats academic misconduct seriously. You should use the Harvard-UniSA referencing style and list the bibliographic references at the end of your report that correspond to your in-text citations. The library has information on referencing styles http://www.library.unisa.edu.au/learn/manreferences.aspx. Please contact the Academic Library Team (Library-business-team@unisa.edu.au) if you have general questions about referencing or credible sources of information. Please contact the Student Engagement Unit, Study Help (http://w3.unisa.edu.au/study-skills/index.html) if you have a specific question on how to refer to a particular source. Violation of this requirement will result in a penalty of 10% deducted from the total awarded mark for assessment 2.
Also, please have a quick look at this video (http://helix.unisa.edu.au/flash/11460547_hi.mp4) that may help you figure out the scope of Academic Integrity. More information about Academic Integrity is available at https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252142.

 

Please be careful about paraphrasing. The definition of paraphrasing and extra information can be found at https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252144. Any academic integrity misconduct will be reported to the UniSA integrity officer who will examine the case independently and decide your final mark for the assessment.

8. Submission due date is Monday, 1 April 2019 at 22:00:00, Adelaide time. Submit your complete introduction including references and appendices as one document via TurnItIn on the LearnOnline system. Please write your names, student IDs and the word count of your document at the first page of your report. One member of the team should submit the report.

9. Late submission: a 10% penalty (of the maximum mark allocated for the assessment) will be incurred for each calendar day the assignment is late by. The closing date is 11 April, 2019 at 22:00:00. No submission will be accepted after the closing date.

10. While you may consult with others, please note that this is an individual assignment. To protect the academic integrity of the course, if there are doubts that the work that you have submitted for an assessment item is your own, you may be asked to complete an additional test (which may be verbal). This test would be held within 2 sessions of the submission of the assessment. If it appears that your submitted assignment is not your own, your mark for this assignment item will be automatically zero and your case will be reported to the integrity office.

Assessment 3: Final report, and Executive Summary (two parts)

Weighting: 60%
Type of task: part one (final report) is team-based, and part two (executive summary) is individual-based
Due date: Sunday, 9 June 2019 at 22:00:00, Adelaide time

 

Assessment 3- part one: Final Report (team-based task)-weighting=48%

 

The objective of this assessment is to write a final report of your research project of no more than 3000 words. In section one, you are required to write an introduction. In section two, you are required to write a "background section" related to your research question, and in section three, you discuss your data and explain the research methods you have employed in your project. In section four, you present and discuss your results and findings by referring to tables and graphs. You are required to write a conclusion in section 5.

The whole report excluding the abstract should be no more than 3000 words.

Requirements for assessment #3-part one:

Your report should include the following parts and address the respective requirements:

 

 

1- Introduction (Weighting = 10%)

      You write an introduction of your study based on the feedback and comments you received for assessment 2 as well as your finding and results. It should include:

• A brief background of the area and your research that led to your research question
• Your research questions and problems
• Motivation of your research
• How it contributes to the existing body of knowledge
• Answer to "so what?" question
• Summary of data sample and methods
• Summary of findings and contributions
• Implications of your research
• Any suggestions for future work
• Any suggestions for decision makers and industry players or academics

2- Background (Weighting = 10%)

    Write an elaborate background section for your report. This is a literature review for your study related to the research project you have done during the study period. To write a literature review, you need to search UniSA Library’s electronic databases, download and read academic journal articles as well industry outlets and reports that are related to your research questions and topic. Your textbook and other readings recommended in this course can be used to help you produce a good literature review. The background section should:

• Review current and relevant academic and non-academic literature related to your research topic. Note that “Reviewing the literature” means reviewing articles, papers and reports critically rather simply reporting their outputs, findings and results.
• Address the research question guiding your study from within the literature 
• Set the boundaries of the review 
• Show the relevance between the points you make and the references you cite 
• Locate your study within the existing knowledge 
• Identify gaps in the literature 
• List the research question(s) arising from the literature review

3- Data and Methods (Weighting = 5%)

    Describe your data sources and the methodology that you have used to conduct your research project. This section should detail how you collected and analysed your data for the study you undertook this study period. The Data and Methods section of your report should:

• State the research question that guided your study
• Describe your data sample
• Describe all the steps you took to collect your data
• Describe all the steps you took to analyse your data
• Describe the steps you took to ensure the reliability and validity of your data
• Discuss all the ethical issues that your chosen methodology raised

4- Findings (Weighting = 15%)

    Present and discuss your results. You should use tables and plots to present your results and refer to current literature in your discussion. You should refer to related journal and industry articles and reports in the area of your research to design and adopt your own style of presenting your results. This section should:

• State the research question that guided your study 
• Present your tabulated results 
• Include discussion of your results 
• Compare and contrast your results with findings in the current literature 
• Explain the significance of your results

5- Concluding remarks (Weighting = 8%)

 

    Conclude your report in this section. The conclusion should:

• State the research question that guided your study
• Present a summary of results
• Explain the significance of your results
• State any limitations in the study and a guide for the future research

6- References

Assessment 3- part two: Executive Summary of the final report (individual-based task)- weighting=12%

 

The executive summary is an overview of your final report, highlighting the main points of your research in a condensed form. It is an important part of an industry report that is written in easy-to-understand language, with limited use of technical terms at the beginning of the report. It is particularly helpful if the reader would like to get a quick but precise idea about what you have done in the project. The executive summary is the gateway to the document and needs to be interesting and engaging to encourage the reader to continue onto the main report. Each team member submits her own version of the executive summary. This provides an opportunity for all team members to demonstrate their knowledge of the project.

     Each member of a team should submit an executive summary for the project that the team has completed. It should be no more than 750 words. The executive summary should include:

 

• A summary of the background
• A brief explanation of the research problem and the motivation
• The important results and findings
• Conclusions, implications, recommendations and future work

Note: although you have completed your project in a team, you need to write the executive summary as an individual task based on your understanding of the whole project. While seeking advice from others-including your team member- is recommended, having others to do part of this task is a breach of academic integrity which results in zero mark for the whole assignment (60% of the total mark)  automatically for both individuals in the team, and your case (a member or the whole team) will be reported to the integrity officer.

General guidelines for both parts of assessment 3:
 

1. The word limits exclude tables, figures, table of contents, bibliography and reference list, and appendices. Note that the content of your report beyond this limit will not be assessed.

2. All tables and graphs referred to in the text of your report should be embedded in text and not placed in the appendices. Otherwise they will not be assessed and your mark for the relevant section will be reduced.

3. A minimum of 15 academic references (other than the textbook) are expected in the final report (part one). Violation of this requirement will result in a penalty of 10% deducted from the total awarded mark for assessment 3.

4. The reports must be written clearly, with content well organised. It is strongly recommended to have someone check your grammar and writing before submission. You may need to include sub-sections for each of your main sections to make your reports structured.

5. The content in each section/sub-section must be clearly related. Violation of this requirement will result in a penalty of 5% deducted from the total awarded mark for assessment 3.

6. UniSA treats academic misconduct seriously. You should use the Harvard-UniSA referencing style and list the bibliographic references at the end of your report that correspond to your in-text citations. The library has information on referencing styles http://www.library.unisa.edu.au/learn/manreferences.aspx. Please contact the Academic Library Team (Library-business-team@unisa.edu.au) if you have general questions about referencing or credible sources of information. Please contact the Student Engagement Unit, Study Help (http://w3.unisa.edu.au/study-skills/index.html) if you have a specific question on how to refer to a particular source. Violation of this requirement will result in a penalty of 10% deducted from the total awarded mark for either part of assessment 3.
Also, please have a quick look at this video (http://helix.unisa.edu.au/flash/11460547_hi.mp4) that may help you figure out the scope of Academic Integrity. More information about Academic Integrity is available at https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252142.

 

Please be careful about paraphrasing. The definition of paraphrasing and extra information can be found at https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252144. Any academic integrity misconduct will be reported to the UniSA integrity officer who will examine the case independently and decide your final mark for the assessment.

7. Use the title of your research project as the title of your Final Report as well as the Executive Summary.

8. Submission due date is Sunday, 9 June 2019 at 22:00:00, Adelaide time for both parts of assignments 3. Submit your complete introduction including references and appendices as one document via TurnItIn on the LearnOnline system. Please write your names, and student IDs at the first page of your report. The final report can be submitted by any team member.

9. Late submission: a 10% penalty (of the maximum mark allocated for the assessment) will be incurred for each calendar day the assignment is late. The closing date is 19 June, 2019 at 22:00:00. No submission will be accepted after the closing date.

10. While you, as a team or individual, may consult with others, you must not ask others to do and write the project for you, partially or fully. To protect the academic integrity of the course, if there are doubts that the work that you have submitted as a team (part one) or individual (part two) for an assessment item is your own, the team may be asked to complete an additional test (which may be verbal). This test would be held within 2 weeks of the submission of the assessment. If it appears that the team submitted assignments (final report or the executive summary) that are not their own, their mark for this assignment item will be automatically zero and their case will be reported to the integrity office.

Re-submission of any assessment item is not available for this course.

This course does not have an exam.

Variation to exam arrangements does not apply to this course.

Supplementary assessment or examination has not been approved for this course.

All students must adhere to the University of South Australia's policies about assessment:
http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/.

There are no additional assessment requirements identified for this course.

Students with disabilities or medical conditions or students who are carers of a person with a disability may be entitled to a variation or modification to standard assessment arrangements.  See Section 7 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual (APPM) at:  http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/

 

Students who require variations or modifications to standard assessment arrangements should make contact with their Course Coordinator as early as possible in order to ensure that appropriate supports can be implemented or arranged in a timely manner.

 

Students can register for an Access Plan with UniSA Access & Inclusion Service. It is important to make contact early to ensure that appropriate support can be implemented or arranged in a timely manner. See the Disability Hub for more information:  http://www.unisa.edu.au/Disability/Current-students

Students are advised there is a deadline to finalise Access Plan arrangements for examinations. Further information is available at:  http://i.unisa.edu.au/campus-central/Exams_R/Before-the-Exam/Alternative-exam-arrangements/

Deferred assessment or examination is not available for this course. APPM 7.6.4

Special consideration is available for this course. Note: Special consideration cannot be granted for a deferred assessment or examination, or a supplementary assessment or examination. APPM 7.7.6

Variation to assessment methods, tasks and timelines may be provided in:

Unexpected or exceptional circumstances, for example bereavement, unexpected illness (details of unexpected or exceptional circumstances for which variation may be considered are discussed in clauses 7.8 - 7.10 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual). Variation to assessment in unexpected or exceptional circumstances should be discussed with your course coordinator as soon as possible.

Special circumstances, for example religious observance grounds, or community services (details of special circumstances for which variation can be considered are discussed in clause 7.11 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual). Variations to assessment in expected circumstances must be requested within the first two weeks of the course (or equivalent for accelerated or intensive teaching).

 

Students with disabilities or medical conditions please refer to Students with disabilities or medical conditions.

Academic integrity is the foundation of university life and is fundamental to the reputation of UniSA and its staff and students. Academic integrity means a commitment by all staff and students to act with honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, respect and responsibility in all academic work.

An important part of practising integrity in academic work is showing respect for other people's ideas, and being honest about how they have contributed to your work. This means taking care not to represent the work of others as your own. Using another person's work without proper acknowledgement is considered Academic Misconduct, and the University takes this very seriously.

The University of South Australia expects students to demonstrate the highest standards of academic integrity so that its degrees are earned honestly and are trusted and valued by its students and their employers. To ensure this happens, the University has policies and procedures in place to promote academic integrity and manage academic misconduct. For example, work submitted electronically by students for assessment will be examined for copied and un-referenced text using the text comparison software Turnitin http://www.turnitin.com.

More information about academic integrity and what constitutes academic misconduct can be found in Section 9 of the Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual (APPM): http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/. The Academic Integrity Module explains in more detail how students can work with integrity at the University: https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252142

 

As part of the Business School’s Assurance of Learning process in Programs, the following Program Learning Outcome(s) (PLO) will be assessed in this course and the overall findings will inform continuous improvements within Programs. Performance on the PLOs will not form part of any course grade and no feedback on individual performance will be provided. Nonetheless, students are encouraged to consider the performance traits in their assessment.

MFin PLO1 – Knowledge & Self-Management: Demonstrate an understanding and capacity to apply theoretical and technical knowledge and skills in business to solve complex problems and contribute to business growth while demonstrating high level capacity for self-development as a business professional throughout one’s professional career.

• Engagement and independence: Usually/ substantially demonstrates self-directed initiative and ability to find and evaluate new resources to learn independently.
• Critical reflection: Topic is analysed with some depth, and comments are substantial and comprehensive.
• Transfer of learning: Makes references to prior learning and applies to a broader perspective about career/ life .
• Drawing meaningful conclusions: Key meaningful conclusions are drawn

MFin PLO2 – Effective Problem Solving: Demonstrate competency in reviewing, analysing, identifying and providing meaningful solutions to complex business problems for organisations and institutions.

• Identification of business issue: Problem/ issues of strategic relevance are defined accurately and sufficiently.
• Synthesis of information: Adequate use of facts and relevant evidence.
• Analysis and interpretations: Substantial analysis and key interpretations are evident in deriving at conclusion. Sufficient application of relevant knowledge/ skills learnt in the process. Generation of feasible and meaningful solutions: Solution developed is adequate and appropriate for the organisation’s purpose. Feasible alternative solutions are offered, with the pros and cons provided, and sufficient justifications provided for recommended solution.

MFin PLO3 – Ethical Actions: Demonstrate a high level of personal autonomy and the ability to work in teams,
applying judgement in an ethically and socially responsible manner, and to contribute to leadership in projects
and organisations.

• Identification of ethical dilemma: Recognises and defines complex ethical issues, and analyses some inter-relationships among issues/ different perspectives.
• Response to the ethical dilemma: Application of ethical perspectives/ concepts in a well-considered manner. Some consideration of stakeholder perspectives is demonstrated.
• Reflection on lesson learnt: Explains core beliefs with self-reflection.
  
  

MFin PLO4 - Work Alone and In Teams: Work effectively as an individual, contribute constructively to teams and to contribute to leadership in projects and organisations.

• Commitment and reliability towards meeting team’s objectives - Demonstrates commitment and reliability to the team. Examples: engagement at meetings, regularly participates in communication and meeting agreed deadlines.
• Effective and equitable contribution - Effective and equitable contribution. Examples: appropriately prepared for team meetings and contributing to workable ideas and solutions to the team.
• Facilitation of a collaborative team environment - Facilitates a collaborative team environment. Examples: offering helpful suggestions to support team mates to complete their work and seeking/providing feedback from/ to others.

MFin PLO4.1 – Written Communication Skills: Demonstrate good communication skills in business practice, with a variety of stakeholders. Display sensitivity to the audience in organising and presenting ideas in a diverse workplace.

 

• Clear and succinct focus on the business issue at hand: Focus on the business issue is clear, with the key relevant information included.
• Adaptation to target audience knowledge/needs: Used appropriate vocabulary but sometimes used words the audience was probably unfamiliar with without defining them.
• Addressing concerns of different target audience and use of appropriate appeals: Consistently adapts writing to a variety of audiences and purposes. Uses logical and emotional appeals consistently to influence attitudes, beliefs, and actions.
• Clear analysis and conclusion: Conclusions/Recommendations logically flow from the analysis.
• Professional Presentation: Attention to the presentation of the document formatting is given, but may not be well-executed. Occasional lapses in spelling, punctuation, grammar, but not enough to seriously distract the reader.

MFin PLO4.2 - Oral Communication Skills: Demonstrate good communication skills in business practice, with a
variety of stakeholders. Display sensitivity to the audience in organising and presenting ideas in a diverse
workplace.

• Clear and succinct focus on the business issue at hand: Focus on the business issue is clear, with the key relevant information shared (spoken/ in audio visuals).
• Appropriate language/ words to address target audience knowledge and needs: Used appropriate vocabulary but sometimes used words the audience was probably unfamiliar with without defining them.
• Content and organisation to aid audience understanding, engagement and/or buy in: Presentation has a clear and logical flow, engages the target audience(s) most of the time and gets buy in.
• Delivery of message: Speech was audible and understood most of the time, resulting in message communicated across effectively

 

 

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