Recommended Study Sequence

Corporate Finance is concerned with fulfilling those managerial tasks directed to the decision-making process, including asset and project valuation, leasing, capital structure and dividend distribution and working capital management. Students wishing to take this unit as an elective will need to seek approval from either the Head of Programs or Course advisor.

This unit ensures that students have knowledge of the basic institutional framework of the Australian banking industry and financial system. The unit briefly examines international financial markets and the interaction with their Australian counterparts.

This unit covers the basic principles of portfolio selection and funds management and examines share investments. The unit focuses on the factors that affect asset prices; calculations based on the Markowitz Model of portfolio selection; the Single Index Model and the beta of a share; performance measures for a managed fund; style differences in funds management; management of fixed-interest portfolios; and the use of share derivatives to manage share portfolios.

This unit is concerned with microeconomic policy development in an open economy setting. It applies and extends microeconomic theory to provide an understanding of the principles governing the formulation of international trade and industry policies. The unit reviews traditional and recent models of the behaviour of firms in international economics. It also overviews the traditional and strategic theories of trade performance and the design, formulation and implementation of trade policy. Unit available for masters only.

This unit is essential to prepare students for applied financial analysis and modelling applications used extensively in other units of the Master of Applied Finance program. It familiarises participants with the strengths and limitations of contemporary quantitative modelling techniques using multivariate statistical procedures and optimization approaches. The use of appropriate modelling software including Excel, SPSS, QM for Windows and MPT models is emphasised.

This unit covers the tactics of financial institution management – 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 describes the major derivative products and explains how they are used for hedging, speculation, and creating synthetic investments. In doing so, it analyses the effect of the growth of derivatives markets and their relationship to the market for the securities underlying them. Hedging applications are considered from the point of view of corporate treasurers and funds managers.

This unit covers the aspects of the law which are relevant to financial institutions and financing decisions. It describes the legal environment within which the finance industry operates and places special emphasis on the laws regulating the day-to-day conduct of financial business. It provides candidates with the knowledge of legal fundamentals necessary for finance professionals to function in a business and financial environment that is becoming increasingly sensitive to legal pitfalls.

This unit examines real estate/property as an asset class. Sectors considered are industrial, retail, residential, and agricultural/rural. The taxation environment in Australia and in selected overseas countries is examined in detail. The unit considers property performance indices (BOMA in Australia, and similar property index series in USA, Canada, UK and Europe), lease incentives and effective rentals, unlisted property trusts, and pre-commitment style property valuation, including the increasing use of DCF-based techniques in the property valuation/appraisal profession in Australia and overseas.

This unit outlines the basic principles of marketing and discusses their application to the marketing of financial services. The unit will provide an understanding of how markets function and of customer behaviour, giving students the ability to formulate a marketing strategy for financial services.

This unit examines the techniques of long-term (strategic) managerial planning. It describes the process where banks create strategic plans, and looks at some of the ethical issues that arise in banking. Emphasis will be on the practical aspects of bank strategic management with a focus on the challenges facing banks today in a rapidly changing environment and how they are looking to respond to these challenges.

Australian companies are increasingly competing on world markets for sources of finance and are looking for investment opportunities in foreign markets. This unit looks at the determination of exchange rates, the foreign exchange markets, effective management of exchange exposure on overseas investments, and sources of finance.

This unit looks at the models developed to guide investment choice including those beyond the dominant paradigm of the EMH/CAPM view. It provides an opportunity for students to develop advanced skills in the analysis of financial statements, to understand the investment significance of such analyses, and to use such analyses in portfolio applications.

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. Students wishing to take this unit as an elective will need to seek approval from either the Head of Programs or Course advisor.