Accounting Theory, 7.5 credits

Main field of study

Course level

Advancement level

Course offered for

• Business and Economics Programme - International - French
• Business and Economics Programme
• Business and Economics Programme - International - Spanish
• Business and Economics Programme - International - German

Entry requirements

For admission to the course general entry requirements apply, as well as the specific entry requirements (threshold rules) that apply to the specialisation part within the Economics Programme and the International Business Programme, or the equivalent.

Intended learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• account for the historical development of accountancy and accounting and its dependence on surrounding social conditions
• account for basic theoretical concepts within the accounting theory field and relationships between these concepts
• describe how different definitions of value, capital and measurements affect the financial results of a company
• account for how standardisation processes are organised in external accounting and what actors are involved and affect these process
• account for the driving forces and processes in the international harmonisation work
• apply new perspectives, such as environment, sustainability and social responsibility and their consequences for the design of the financial accounting
• independently analyse current issues in accounting from a theoretical and practical perspective

Course content

The field of the course Accounting theory is the company's external financial reporting. The demand for external reporting of information about the company's financial position and results started growing during the Middle Ages. In the following centuries, many of these requirements have been encoded in legislation, inter alia combined with taxation, and in accounting norms. Today, the demand from the capital market for information as basis for investment decisions constitutes an important basis for the external financial reporting.

The course Accounting Theory covers concepts, models and theories in the field of external accounting. The aims of these is to serve as a basis for understanding how external accounting has been designed and is designed. With the concepts, models and theories, it is also possible to evaluate the practise of today and through a critical review facilitate development of the external accounting field.
The course also gives an overview of the current and international discussion in the external accounting field concerning how accounting is best regulated to correspond to the information demands of the rest of the world.

Teaching and working methods

The course is organised around lectures, seminars and group assignments. The students should also study independently.

Examination

The course is examined partly through written examination at the end of the course, and partly through group assignments that are presented and discussed at the seminars.

Students failing an exam covering either the entire course or part of the course twice are entitled to have a new examiner appointed for the reexamination.

Students who have passed an examination may not retake it in order to improve their grades.

Grades

Other information

Planning and implementation of a course must take its starting point in the wording of the syllabus. The course evaluation included in each course must therefore take up the question how well the course agrees with the syllabus. 

The course is carried out in such a way that both men´s and women´s experience and knowledge is made visible and developed.

Department