BA (Hons) International Banking and Finance (Top-Up)

The banking and financial services industry operates in a risk structured environment. The business is about the measurement, management and transfer of risk. It focuses on the specific areas of credit and market risk within the context of the relevant regulatory framework and draws on case study material provided by high profile banking and financial institutions. The module is delivered through lectures and workshop based seminars. The workshop-based seminars are used to reinforce both lectures and directed learning. As such, the workshop based seminars will involve individual and group work, presentations and discussion and will also be used to develop students’ skills of discussion and analysis.

The module is assessed by a 3,000-word assignment and a group or individual presentation on contemporary issues in risk management plus a reflective statement.

Responsible financial management is at the heart of business decision making. How much should we spend? How much should raise the money? What sustainable value are we creating? These are all crucial international corporate finance questions. This module takes a holistic and reflective approach to your learning, with you developing a portfolio of your consideration of financial topics. You will engage with financial news stories in the Financial Times or Bloomberg and apply your learning on the module to them, as well as your reflections on financial documentaries, movies and leading applied research in the area which is available on the modules eLP.

This module will develop you to have an awareness of contemporary financial events and the underpinning academic literature surrounding them so that when you go for an interview with an employer you are able to display a reflective, evaluative and critical understanding of the financial challenges modern business face.

Risk Management is fundamental to banks and financial institutions. This module examines and evaluates the interest rate, liquidity and operational risks face faced by banking and financial institutions. In doing so, it examines the sources of these risks and how they may be measured and managed using models. Prominent real-life financial disasters are examined to demonstrate how these issues can impact the banking and financial industry. Further, a key aspect of the module is to determine why an effective fraud risk assessment framework is essential to the banking and financial institutions. An effective fraud risk assessment framework would be developed as part of the module.

The module is delivered through lectures and seminars. The seminars are used to reinforce both lectures and directed learning. As such, the seminars will involve individual and group work, presentations and discussion and will also be used to develop students’ skills of discussion and analysis. The module is assessed by a 3,000-word assignment.

Students will receive support in extending their academic skills so that they can take a critical approach to this module and their wider studies, in recognition of the fact that most of the students on the top-up awards will have little or no experience of higher education in the UK this module begins by supporting students to understand and demonstrate advanced academic study skills. This will enable students to take a more critical, deeper and more research-informed approach to their studies.

Students will develop valuable knowledge and skills of the global graduate labour market drawing upon national and international examples, whilst exploring key aspects of their skills, knowledge, personality, values, abilities and interests to make a well-informed career choice and develop a career plan.

To support an individual investigation into an applied business problem or issue each student will develop a topic based on existing research with the support of a specialist workshop tutor. This individual investigation will draw on relevant academic theories, concepts and frameworks and will result in a critical synthesis of business practice and academic theory.

This workshop programme is supported by directed reading and advice specific to the investigation of the student’s specific business issue/problem and the development of their professional awareness and competence. Students will be introduced to the module at the beginning of the academic year (before the start of semester 1). In semester 1, a session will be delivered introducing this module and a list of topics relevant to the current issues within the area of their study (e.g. Marketing). Students are to select a topic of their choice (which could relate to some aspect of their employment) or choose a topic from the list of suggested topics.

In this module you will study areas of academic skills which have been identified as useful to you, this includes academic English writing but also includes computer skills. This module will develop your skills in critical thinking and reflection, develop your ability to undertake a critical review of existing literature on a contemporary issue within the business and management disciplines as well as be able to write a critical literature review.

The overall aim of the module is to teach students how organisations can compete successfully in economic terms while managing their social and environmental responsibility. At the end of the module, students will be able to critically evaluate the factors which underpin an organisation’s success (or otherwise) in managing the triple bottom line and will have learned how to use appropriate frameworks to analyse research material and draw useful conclusions.

The lectures and directed reading will be used to introduce theories, concepts and frameworks and explain how these can be applied to business organisations. Seminars will give students the opportunity to practice the use of the material introduced in lectures to evaluate the extent to which organisations are successful in managing the triple bottom line.

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject-specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject.

The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing as well as to develop your use and application of language and communication skills to a higher level.