1996 Swinburne Higher Education Handbook

BC400 Accounting Honours
Students should seek advice from the appropriate
Accounting staff when formulating their discipline-specific
course of study and their research project proposal.
To encourage a multi-discipline approach, students may,
subject to approval, undertake selected honours level
coursework subjects from other schools, divisions, or
institutions provided that they show the relevance of these
coursework subjects to their proposed area of research. Such
arrangements are subject to the student having any necessary
prerequisite studies and may be subject to any quotas
imposed on these subjects by the offering School.
Students must submit their proposal to the Accounting
Honours Convener for approval prior to the
commencement of their honours program. Approval for a
student's discipline-specific course of study and research
project proposal shall be subject to the availability of any
necessary resources and the availability of appropriate staff
supervision.
Advanced Accounting
This subject is designed to broaden the student's
understanding and awareness of contemporary issues in
accounting and to provide the student with an opportunity
to undertake in-depth study of the relevant theoretical
concepts and techniques in a variety of accounting areas.
Attention will be given to the application of accounting
developments in different sectors of the local and
international economy and to the impact of rapid
technological and organisational change on accounting.
Issues of current concern in the areas of finance,
management accounting, tax, auditing, reporting,
behavioural accounting and the profession may be included.
Students will be required, with guidance, to research selected
topics and make presentations to the class and to attend and
participate fully in a series of seminars conducted by staff.
Accounting Honours Research Project
Students will be required to undertake a substantial research
project, with individual and group supervision, on a research
topic that is currently being reported and extended in the
accounting literature. Topics may be drawn from the areas
of management accounting, finance, tax, financial
accounting, auditing, accounting theory, corporate reporting
and computer accounting. Students will be required to make
class presentations at progressive stages in their research and
will be required to submit a written dissertation of
approximately 15,000 words in length.
Students intending to complete their degree with honours
must apply for entry into the honours year by the end of
their three year degree.
Note that entry into the honours year is competitive and the
number of places is subject to a quota.
BC401 Accounting for Management
2.35 hours per week Hawthorn Prequisite: nil
Assessment: assignments
A subject in the Graduate Certificate in Business
Administration
Objectives
The objectives of the subject are to develop a manager's
ability to understand and apply financial information in
making business decisions and assessing the performance of
a business.
The subject will aim to produce a more effective user of
accounting information. A minimum of technical
accounting will be used but emphasis will be placed on
understanding sufficient accounting to be aware of the
appropriate uses and limitations of information produced by
the accounting system.
Content
No prior knowledge of accounting is assumed.
Topics include:
general purpose financial statements;
financial statement analysis;
cash flow statements;
business finance and investment decision analysis;
cost, volume, profit analysis;
costing products and services;
segment performance evaluation;
budgeting and profit planning.
Recommended reading
Meredith, G., Accounting and Financial Management for Business
Decisions, Sydney, McGraw-Hill, 1994
Hey-Cunningham, D., Financial S~tements Demystified, Allen &
Unwin, 1993
Gaffikin, M., Principles of Accounting, 3rd ed. Sydney Harcourt
Brace Jovanich, 1993
BC41 0 Introduction to Taxation
2.25 hours per week Hawthorn Prerequisite: see Graduate
Certificate in Taxation and Finance
Instruction: lectures and class discussion of issues and
problems Assessment: Assignments
A subject in the Graduate Certificate in Taxation and
Finance
0 biedives
The overall objective is to develop in students an
understanding of the Income Tax Assessment Act, 1936, as
amended, together with those acts which are complementary
to the Assessment Act.
Specifically, the subject will:
familiarise students with recent Court and
Administrative Appeals Tribunal decisions in the area of
income taxation;
develop research skills in students in relation to current
and landmark taxation cases; and