奧塔哥大學

The Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) degree programme enables each student to develop his or her own interests in business and related subjects. Students are able to create individualised courses using a range of papers offered across teaching departments in the School of Business and University as a whole. Students have the flexibility within the BCom degree to combine two specialisations and graduate with a double major.

Finance

Finance is a modern and fascinating discipline dealing with money, markets and valuation, that is relevant to all aspects of business and personal and professional planning. Professionals in finance are involved with a myriad of issues in investments, planning and risk. The subject is often confused with accounting. However, while both deal with money and value, accounting is concerned with systems of control, and recording and reporting the results of historical transactions. By contrast finance is concerned with the relationship between investor expectations about the future and current market values. By focusing on markets the subject can also be confused with economics. However economics deals with broad issues of resource allocation, whereas finance focuses more narrowly on how markets value risk and the implications for investment, financial planning, shareholder wealth and corporate governance.

Two recent trends have fuelled the value of finance as a mature, globally recognised profession and underpin its relevance for the 21st century. The first is the world-wide move to deregulation and the opening of markets which has coincided with an almost universal appreciation of the importance of capital and investment for growth and prosperity. The second is the rush of theoretical developments in the discipline which has provided the tools to manage risk and return. The impact has been extreme. There are few businesses today that are not acutely aware of the significance of markets and financial planning for their viability.

Structure of the Programme

1. shall consist of papers worth not less than 360 points;
2. shall include at least 180 points for papers above 100-level of which at least 72 points shall be for papers above 200-level,
3. shall satisfy the requirements of the major subject. No paper above 200-level may count for more than one Major Subject Requirement,
4. shall include the following Required Papers: BSNS 111, BSNS 112, BSNS 113, BSNS 114, BSNS 115
5. may include one or more optional minor subjects. No paper may count for both a Major and a Minor Subject Requirement or for more than one Minor Subject Requirement unless that paper is at 100- or 200-level and is specified as compulsory for both Requirements,

May include papers which are not listed in Commerce Schedule C

• up to 90 points; or
• as specified in the Commerce Major Subject Requirements and/or the Commerce subjects in the Minor Subject Requirements; or
• as specified in the Minor Subject Requirements.

At least three of these papers must be passed before enrolling in any 200-level Commerce paper, and all must be passed before enrolling in any 300-level Commerce paper. For single-degree BCom students, all five must be attempted in the first year of study or equivalent.