BSc Honours in Accounting Degree Programme Programme Structure
Bachelor of Science (BSc) Honours in Accounting Degree provides a comprehensive academic and professional education in the fields of accounting, finance, and management, with the objective of producing academically competent, professionally qualified, and ethically responsible graduates. The programme is designed to equip students with both theoretical knowledge and practical exposure necessary to pursue successful careers in accounting and related professions, while also preparing them for postgraduate and research-based studies.
The degree programme spans four years and requires the successful completion of 126 credit hours for graduation. This includes 31 credit hours completed during the first year under the Common Management Programme and 95 credit hours completed during Years 2 to 4 within the specialised Accounting Degree Programme. The curriculum integrates academic learning with practical and professional development components to enhance students’ analytical, technical, communication, and decision-making capabilities. All lectures throughout the four years of the programme are conducted exclusively in the English medium. However, during the first year, students are permitted to sit examinations in either Sinhala or English according to their preference.
First Year – Management Common Programme
All students enrolled in the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce are required to follow the management common programme in the first year of study. This programme is intended to provide the core business knowledge by teaching basic concepts in all functional areas in business.
The structure of the Management Common Programme is depicted in Table 1.1.
Description of Courses
A short description of each course offered in the common programme is provided below.
BUS 1370: Principles of Management
This is an elementary course which aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the key facets of an organisation, its environment, the process of management and new trends in Business Management. Along with an introduction to the historical evolution of management, the course facilitates participants to gain a basic knowledge of the concepts, models, theoretical foundations of management, and the role of management in organisations and society. Thereby, the course provides the students with a profound knowledge and management skills vis-à-vis planning, organising, leading, controlling and organisational decision making while making them socially responsible towards the environment. The knowledge gained through this course will be beneficial for participants to follow their degree programme successfully.
DSC 1370: Business Mathematics
This course, as the first course in mathematics, the students to basic principles, laws and rules that are necessary to develop an overview of application capabilities of the subject matters in the field of business and economics. Business Mathematics course covers functions, differentiation of functions, maxima and minima of functions, partial derivatives, integration, and area under curve and between curves and mathematics of finance. The course also includes the applications of differentiation and integration in business and economics. Under the applications of differentiation, the topics such as profit maximisations, cost minimisations, elasticity of demand, and marginal analysis are included. The major topics covered under applications of integration include marginal revenue and marginal cost, consumer’s surplus, producers’ surplus, total change in revenue, etc.
ITC 1370: Information Technology for Business
Information technologies and systems are transforming the business environment, and most of us are connected to them in multiple ways. The course provides theoretical knowledge and practical skills relating to information technology and information systems. The theoretical module discusses the importance of information systems, elements of information systems, applications of information systems for organisation effectiveness and efficiency. The practical module provides the knowledge and operational skills in word processing applications, spreadsheet applications, presentation applications and online communication technologies which are frequently required in an organisational environment.
BCC 1370: Business Communication I
This course aims to help students reach the level of Band 4/5 of the UTEL. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to construct both simple and complex sentences accurately, express their views meaningfully in brief discussions and telephone conversations, obtain required information from auditory texts, read and extract information in texts for a variety of purposes, write short texts and business letters.
PUB 1270: Socio Political Environment
Socio-political environment and profit-oriented businesses are interdependent In one hand, businesses are influenced by the social and political forces while on the other hand, socio-political environment is influenced by the businesses. Accordingly, this introductory course unit is designed for the management undergraduates to gain fundamental understanding about social and political environment in which every business operates. As prospective professionals and citizens who will interact with the social and political institutions, it is necessary for an undergraduate to learn civic, social and political dimensions. This course facilitates learners to identify and respond to various social trends and changes in the political milieu, focusing on the substance of culture, socialisation, social trends, social institutions, government, democracy, and interactions between different agents in the society. Further, it discusses the government mechanism which is currently being practiced in Sri Lanka.
LAW 1270: Legal Environment
Legal Environment is a core subject offered by the Legal Studies Unit for first-year undergraduates of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce. Upon completing this course, undergraduates are expected to be in a position where they can appreciate the varied effects of different areas of law and be adequately prepared to face legal issues they may encounter throughout their careers. For this purpose, the course is designed under three major topics i.e. Introduction to Law, Legal System of Sri Lanka, and Law of Obligations which together cover a spectrum of laws affecting businesses. The course incorporates new legal developments in important fields such as white-collar crimes and anti-bribery & corruption to train undergraduates to understand their role and responsibility within the ever-changing business environment. A sound knowledge of the legal environment is required to effectively eradicate uncertainties of conducting business and management. Arming students with the ability to manage legal risks when making decisions at different organisational levels is the main objective of this course. The course is further aimed at encouraging undergraduates to make ethical decisions in their future work environments to ensure more disciplined economic development within the country. Undergraduates will hone their skills of logical reasoning and problem-solving for better evaluation of the legal, regulatory, and ethical concerns and be able to incorporate the knowledge gained from this course into their business and managerial decision-making.
HRM 1370: Human Resource Management
An obvious interdependence exists between our society and organisations that produce goods and services to fulfil our needs. The standards of living and even survival of people in society depend on the goods and services of the organisation. Thus, any society/nation wants organisations that need people to achieve organisational objectives. Human Resource Management (HRM) is managing these people in organisations. The main objective of this course is to provide a systematic and rational understanding of HRM, both conceptual understanding and job-oriented practical understanding. It focuses on a systematic and scientific approach to the analysis and handling of issues/problems in HRM with special reference to the Sri Lankan context. The main areas covered are introduction to HRM, organisation of the HR department, job design, job analysis, human resource planning, recruitment, selection, hiring and induction, performance evaluation, pay management, training and development, employee movements, management of discipline, safety, health and welfare administration, grievances handling and management of labour relations.
DSC 1371: Business Statistics
This course introduces the fundamental concepts, principles and methods of Business Statistics. The topics include descriptive techniques, probability theory, probability distributions, and inferential techniques. The major topics discussed under descriptive techniques include data collection, presentation of data, organisation of data and statistical summary measures. Three important theoretical distributions, namely, Binomial, Poisson and Normal distributions are discussed under probability distributions. The major topics under inferential techniques include sampling, sampling distributions, estimation and hypothesis testing. Correlation and regression theories are also introduced in this course.
BEC 1370: Microeconomics
This basic course is designed to introduce the microeconomic theories, tools, and methods of analysis that are useful in the study of various economic issues in micro-level decision-making. This is a compulsory course that covers the intermediate theory of demand and supply, theories of consumer behaviour, short-run and long-run cost and its behaviour, production in the short run and in the long run, market structures and competition, factor market for labour, general equilibrium, and welfare. At the end of the course, students will be able to explain microeconomic concepts and apply microeconomic principles in day to day and business decision making. The pre-requisite for this course is Business Mathematics.
BCC 1371: Business Communication II
This course aims to help students reach the level of benchmark Band 5/6 of the UTEL. This course introduces the students to language skills required in different business situations. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to participate in business meetings confidently and effectively, communicate effectively in a variety of situations, take down notes from auditory texts, read and respond to texts for a variety of purposes, write short formal texts and business letters, and use presentation techniques effectively and make brief presentations.
ACC 1370: Financial Accounting and Reporting
This course aims at developing students’ knowledge and understanding of accounting standards, and their application in the preparation and presentation of financial statements of a corporate entity. The areas covered are overview of financial accounting and reporting; conceptual framework for financial reporting; reporting information through financial statements; fair value accounting; impairment of assets; overview of accounting for assets; property, plant and equipment; inventory; intangible assets; investment property; borrowing cost; liabilities; leases; and revenue. An understanding of the financial accounting content covered in the G. C. E. Advanced Level (A/L) Accounting subject is essential to follow this course.