Admission and Unit Information - Master of Applied Finance

This unit provides foundational knowledge that is needed to appreciate the role of the major functional areas of a business and the complexities involved in managing these in an uncertain and complex global setting. Emphasis is placed on the influence of the economic, socio-cultural, economic, political, and technological environments on a business and the need for businesses to adopt a global perspective in formulating and implementing strategic interventions for enhancing competitiveness.

This unit focuses on developing the ability to use accounting information, as extracted from financial reports, to assist with managerial decision making. Students will gain financial literacy through developing an understanding of the information contained in financial reports and applying this information to practical decisions. This unit emphasises the function of both financial and management accounting in measuring, processing and communicating information useful for decision making.

This unit introduces the basic statistical concepts and techniques for descriptive and inferential data analysis. It will aid and improve business decision-making, especially when faced with uncertain outcomes.

This unit concentrates on both Microeconomic and Macroeconomic theories. Microeconomics is concerned with the study of individual units within the economy - the individual consumer, the individual firm, the type of market structure facing the firm and price and output determination. Macroeconomics is concerned with analysis of the factors determining the way in which the economic resources of an economy are utilised or under-utilised.

As an introductory finance unit, this unit introduces the fundamental concepts of finance theory and tools of financial decision-making in the context of Australian institutional environment. These concepts relate primarily to the time value of money, risk and return, capital budgeting and capital structure. The purpose of the unit is to develop an understanding of the basic practices of financial management from the perspective of a firm (both large and small). Students examine the investment, financing and dividend decisions of corporations.

This unit helps students to: understand the role and nature of financial markets and institutions; develop computational skills for transactions in financial markets; understand the factors that determine share price, interest rates and exchange rates; and understand major derivative products and their use in financial markets. This subject contains financial institutions and markets and the transactions that take place in them.

The general aim of this subject is to examine how financial and non-financial firms use key foreign exchange and interest rate products to manage the risk associated with their international investment and financing decisions. This subject compliments other aspects of managerial decision-making, including the marketing and production decisions of the international firm.

This unit provides an introduction to the major classes of derivatives: forwards, futures, swaps and options. These are studied in detail with the objective of elucidating the ways in which these instruments can be used for the purposes of hedging, speculation and arbitrage. In addition to the analysis of derivative usage and market growth, considerable attention is given to the objective of gaining an understanding of the fundamentals of derivative pricing.

This unit is essential to prepare students for applied financial analysis and modelling applications used extensively in other units in the Master of Applied Finance program. It familiarizes the students with the strengths and limitations of contemporary quantitative modelling techniques using multivariate statistical procedures and optimization approaches. The use of appropriate software notably STATA SE V.10.

This unit examines the valuation of assets, firms and securities. The focus is on the attempt by active investors to identify mispriced securities by projecting the future cash flows of a firm based on pro forma financial statements, translating those projections to values and dividing the firm value among the different security holders of the firm. Students develop their understanding of accounting, finance and economic concepts in this applied unit by building models of a firm and conducting analyses of the equity valuation.

This unit covers the tactics of financial institution management and the factors which determine short-term managerial decisions in financial institutions. A major part of the unit is the discussion of asset/liability management.

This unit teaches techniques necessary for running a successful lending book. It outlines the steps which must be taken in performing credit evaluation, and provides the analytical techniques necessary to carry out such evaluation. This unit does not cover the legal aspects of financial institution lending.

This unit provides an introduction to the theory, concepts, tools, techniques and applications of portfolio management. The Australian financial system is used for illustration. The unit introduces students to modern portfolio theory and its application to both active and passive investment management strategies.

Business Project equips professionals to address contemporary challenges through research and applying knowledge developed in earlier units of study. This student-centred unit provides close supervision of research and analytical practices to enhance skill development and capacity to engage with problems confronting organisations, taking account of contexts and multiple stakeholders. Students will have scope to focus on issues that are of particular concern to organisations or interest for their careers. As an integrating unit, it demands participants bring together their knowledge and curiosity to develop recommendations in a format that can showcase their achievements.

Internship is designed for students who want to gain industry experience and further their studies through a 20 credit point business internship. This Internship unit is based on a ‘project style’ unit which requires students to undertake a research project in their chosen field whilst attending an industry based internship. These highly sought after internships will be filled on a competitive basis.