Classes

The unit requires 3 hours of face-to-face teaching per week consisting of 1 x 2 hour lecture and 1 x 1 hour tutorial. The lectures provide a general overview of the topics highlighting a number of concepts and techniques and tutorials complement lectures by providing opportunities to further explore all relevant concepts and techniques.

The timetable for classes can be found on the University web site at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/

Tutorial changes can ONLY be made through eStudent. Students wishing to change tutorial times should log onto eStudent and enrol in a class where there is a vacancy. All questions of an administrative nature in respect of tutorial allocation should be addressed to Cissy Zhang (Teaching Assistant). Students must finalise their tutorial enrolment by the end of Week 2.

Prizes

Details of prizes awarded by the Faculty of Business and Economics are available at: http://www.businessandeconomics.mq.edu.au/undergraduate_degrees/prizes_scholarships

Recommended Texts and/or Materials

Recommended texts for the unit, which are available from the Coop Bookshop on campus:

• Gleeson-White, J. (2012) Double Entry. Allen & Unwin: Australia. 

Available at: http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741757552 

This text is recommended as an additional study tool in this unit with the key themes and discussion arising from and are explored in this text. 

• Customised edition of Issues in Accounting Theory and Practice, McGraw-Hill, 2016

This text is custom publication prepared for this course and consists of a compilation of selected chapters from a number of McGraw-Hill publications. This text informs the lecture material.

In addition, it is strongly recommended that students actively pursue a critical engagement with local and international business news and scholarly reading in order to gain a broad appreciation of the environment in which an accountant operates.

Technology Used and Required

Students will need access to the internet in order to obtain lecture handouts and notices from the unit’s web page.

Unit Web Page

Students should refer to the unit webpage for course material and any updates, announcements or general unit information.

You may access the ACCG399 webpage at http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/ where you can log into iLearn.

Please check the unit’s webpage on a regular basis for important announcements.

Learning and Teaching Activities

The teaching strategy in ACCG399 recognises that students learn independently and assume responsibility for the learning process. The teaching philosophy is articulated as follows:

In lectures, students are expected to grasp the main concepts and techniques that relate to the subject matter. In addition to the lecture materials it is expected that students will undertake a broad reading scholarship. Using the concepts and techniques presented in lectures or readings, students are required to explore these in weekly tutorials and complete written reflections on this.

Lecture material for each week will not be distributed in class but will be available online at the ACCG399 unit webpage, in the week before the lecture. Two versions of lecture notes will be made available to students. A student version will be loaded in the week prior to class and a lecturer version will be loaded following the completion of the lecture stream. This teaching philosophy enables students to further interact and engage with lecture material. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain a copy of the lecture notes before class. It is expected that you will lead and take ownership of the discussion and activities during tutorials, where you will actively participate in the tutorial setting. The tutorials should be viewed by students as an active forum for any problems or difficulties that they are experiencing with the subject matter. Solutions to tutorial activities will NOT be provided.

1. A class test has replaced the Group Discussion and Critique assessment in S1 2016.

2. In S2, the final report of the Professional Portfolio assessment is a group submission.

This unit uses research by Macquarie University researchers:

• Hines, R. (1988). Financial Accounting: In Communnicating Reality, We Construct Reality, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13(3), p. 251-261.
• Hines, R. (1989). Financial Accounting Knowledge, Conceptual Framework Projects and the Social Construction of the Accounting Profession, Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2(2), p. 72-92.
• Hines, R. (1991a). The FASB’s Conceptual Framework, Financial Accounting and the Maintenance of the Social World, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 16(4), p. 313-331.
• Hines, R. (1991b). On Valuing Nature, Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal, 4(3), p. 27-29.
• Jones, A. and Sin, S. (2013). Achieving professional trustworthiness: communicative expertise and identity work in professional accounting practice. In C. Candlin and J. Crichton, eds., Discourses of Ethics. Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Kern, T. & McGuigan, N. (2010). Socially Responsible Lending in Times of Crisis: An Exploratory Study of Australasian Banking Practice, International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, 6(4) p. 107-123.
• Simpson, G., Kern, T., & McGuigan, N. (2012) Holding Banks Accountable, Chartered Accountants’ Journal, 91 (1), p. 35-37.
• Sin, S., Jonees, A.and Wang, F. (2015). Critical thinking in professional accounting practice: conceptions of employers and practitioners. In Davies, M. and R. Barnett, eds., Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education, Palgrave Macmillan.

This unit uses research from external sources including the courses adopted text, and Andrews & Cortese (2007) Creating a Coalition of Interests: The Climate Disclosures Board, Working paper, University of Wollongong.

This unit gives you practice in conducting your own research and applying these findings in your assessment with reference to class participation (discussion forum posts) and case study.

This unit addresses global and sustainability issues as direct areas of study and as necessary implications arising from the materials, assessment and academic discussion and debate in classes/lecturers. We promote sustainability by developing ability in students to research, locate and engage information within accounting discipline and professional accounting context. We aim to provide students with an opportunity to obtain skills which will benefit them throughout their career. The unit materials have a reference list at the end of each chapter/module/text containing all references cited by the author. These provide some guidance to references that could be used to research particular issues.