This paper introduces the three core areas of finance -- financial management, investments, and capital markets and institutions. The paper also examines applications of corporate finance concepts to personal finance.

Lectures

The lectures will be delivered on campus (The lecture will be recorded via Panapto and the video will be available on Moodle after the lecture). The students are encouraged to attend the on-campus lectures and use the videos as a tool to review the contents.

We will discuss one chapter per week (see Timetable below for the details). To help students’ learning, the lecturer will chunk down the contents of each chapter into multiple sections. Each section will cover one or two specific topics for around 10-20 min long.

Provide quick access to the whys and hows of dealing with the questions in finance. Provide easy-to-understand information, including equations and examples that can be quickly applied to the problems of finance.

The PowerPoint slides are uploaded onto Moodle for students to download before lectures. The slides with notes will also be uploaded to Moodle after each lecture. I hope the slides with notes may save student time in copying my notes, so they can concentrate on understanding the course materials during the lectures.

Tutorials

The tutorials will be scheduled on-campus and online (The students need to do the tutorial selection through Moodle). The students are encouraged to attend the scheduled tutorials on campus.

All students should attend one tutorial session each week. These sessions are conducted by tutors who are senior students. Tutorials normally include revision of lecture material and exemplar questions for the tests. The tutors will be available to assist students in completing these tutorial questions and to answer any other questions about the topic.

The PowerPoint slides are uploaded onto Moodle for students to download before the tutorials. The slides with answers will also be uploaded to Moodle after each tutorial.

Extra credit:

The students who select on-campus tutorial sessions and attend over 60% of tutorials will receive 5% bonus points for Test I and Test II. For students selecting online tutorials, they need to attend 80% of tutorials in order to receive 5% bonus points. To count attendance, the tutors will do roll call at the beginning and/or end of tutorials. The design of extra credits is to encourage the students to attend the tutorials, particularly on-campus tutorials. There would be five (six) tutorials before (after) teaching recess. Extra credits for tutorial attendance before (after) teaching recess will be accounted into Test I (Test II). The maximum mark of Test I and Test II is 100%.

Content/Foundational Skill

Both critical-thinking and problem-solving questions will be included in Test I, Test II and Group Assignment.
The critical-thinking questions (i.e., short essay questions) will be evaluated by Communication Skills, Professionalism and Innovation. There is an expectation that students demonstrate academic integrity when they attempt the assignments in this paper. Moreover, referencing academic research articles to answer the questions will be rewarded in terms of marks (But referencing non-academic websites, such as Investopedia, will not have a reward). The design is to motivate students to achieve effective academic reading. The critical-thinking questions also allow for the evaluation of effective academic reading by students as their answers will demonstrate their understanding of the concepts explored in the paper. And the short essay questions require students to demonstrate their business writing ability. For the problem-solving questions (i.e., calculation questions), students are required to show all their workings. These questions require students to perform calculations on data and then to demonstrate their understandings of the numbers calculated, and thus equip students with numeracy skills/using data.

Lecture slides, tutorial resources and related teaching materials will be available in Moodle.

The course has 36 (3 X 12) contact hours (lectures and tutorials). The rest of the 150 hours expected workload in this 15-point paper can be distributed as follows: 20 hours to complete the Assignment, 20 hours to prepare for and attend Quizzes, 34 hours to prepare for and attend Test I and 40 hours to prepare for and attend Test II.

There is a significant interrelationship between finance and non-finance areas. First, finance and accounting are related since accounting information is needed for finance decisions. Second, finance and economics are related because economic activity and policy affect finance decisions, and vice versa. Finance and management are related because the management decisions, such as setting salary, hiring new staff and paying bonuses must be coordinated with finance. Finance and information systems are related because finance decisions rely on information. Last but not least, there are the four p's of marketing, product, price, place and promotion. Clearly, the price and promotion, e.g., advisement are related to finance.