ACCT40115: Auditing and Accountability

• None

• ACCT40315 Financial Accounting and Reporting

• None.

• To examine the practice of auditing and the underlying concepts including:
• the development of the role of the audit function in modern business society;
• the governance roles/responsibilities of external audit functions;
• the concepts of audit quality and assurance;
• the contribution of audit research in understanding practice and informing policy/regulatory debates.

• An Introduction to audit and other assurance services
• Legal and professional duties of auditors
• Professional ethics and auditor independence
• The audit process issues such as audit planning and accessing audit risk
• Other process issues such as sampling, materiality and audit evidence
• Audit reports
• Other auditing topics/issues for example alternate assurance and attestation services, applications of audit techniques

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of the module students should have a specialist knowledge and critical understanding of:
• the role of external audit function
• the enduring issues surrounding the quality of external audit
• the contribution of audit research in informing policy debate

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of this module students should be able to:
• critically appreciate the role of external audit function in the modern business society.

Key Skills:

• written communication
• planning, organising and time management
• problem-solving and analytical skills

• A combination of lectures, seminars, small group work and guided reading will contribute to achieving the aims and learning outcomes of this module.
• The summative written assignment will test students' specialist knowledge and critical understanding of the material covered in the module, and their communication, problem-solving and analytical skills.

Small group presentations during seminar sessions. Additional formative assessment, and feedback, may take a number of forms such as oral feedback on work prepared by students for seminars; answers to questions either discussed during a seminar, or posted on discussion boards.

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