Elective Courses

Since the 1997-98 Asia financial crisis and the 2008-09 financial tsunami in the Western world, corporate governance and social responsibility have attracted widespread public attention in Asia. In the past few decades, Asian organizations have undergone dramatic transformations in their governance strategies. But, what are the characteristics of corporate governance in Asia? How are Asian businesses adapting their governance in response to the dynamic regulatory and business environment? What are the impacts? All of these questions are still under-explored. This is mainly because we do not fully understand our institutional and business environment and how these factors affect corporate governance. This course is designed to provide a theoretical framework to analyze these questions.

Taxes have a significant impact on many business decisions, and this course will provide a conceptual framework for incorporating taxation into business strategies. Drawing from accounting, corporate finance, business law, and economics, the course will focus on tax planning concepts and how taxes influence business decisions, rather than on detailed tax rules. Real-world cases will be used to illustrate the business and societal implications of specific tax policies, including their effects on investment, financing, and international tax issues. Contemporary topics at the intersection of ESG and taxes, including carbon taxes and tax transparency initiatives, will also be discussed. These topics are highly relevant for business managers, strategy consultants, investment bankers, and financial analysts.

This course introduces the basic topics of management. It provides the students with an understanding of what the job of a manager involves. In addition to covering the basic theoretical concepts, the course also allows the students to have some hands-on practice as an effective manager. Furthermore, this course has a strong emphasis on learning through real world examples. Upon finishing this course, students should have a solid understanding of (a) the contemporary issues faced by most managers today, and (b) the roles managers play in the process of attaining organizational goals.

This course introduces corporate finance topics, including capital budgeting techniques and financial and risk management. It identifies and provides a framework for analyzing the major financial decisions made by a firm. Issues addressed include asset valuation models, investment decision making, analysis of risk, financial planning, dividend policy, working capital management, sources of long-term finances and the cost of capital, and the financial mix for the firm.

The ability to store, retrieve, and manipulate data using modern database systems is essential to the success of data analytics. Besides relational databases that have been widely used in transactional systems and dimensional databases that have been the core of data warehouses, non-relational databases have also gained much popularity nowadays because of their flexibility to handle semi-structured and unstructured data. This course aims to introduce the fundamental principles of the design, development, and administration of various database models. Students will learn the basic concepts involved in the design and management of relational databases, dimensional databases, and NoSQL databases.

This course aims to introduce students to the fundamental concepts in forensic accounting, enhance students' awareness to various fraud schemes, including financial statement frauds and corruption, promote detections and preventions of earnings management, frauds, and corruption. Students will gain the concepts and applications of the course content through a variety of teaching and learning materials and activities, including and not limit to book chapters, articles, slides, videos, cases, presentations, discussions, connections with industry professionals in Forensic Accounting, and other interactive lecture activities.

This course is designed to help students develop strategies to create and extract value from applying social media analytics.  Techniques covered will include web scraping, data management, machine learning, social network analytics, text analytics, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and knowledge mining.  Students will also learn how to carry out a business analytics project from beginning to end.

The course aims to examine questions on different aspects of a modern full-service bank, including how it makes profit in each of the main business areas, as well as the main risks that it faces and how it manages those risks.  The course focuses on financial statement analysis and also analyzing the accounting and disclosure rules for financial instruments, in order to reveal the strategies followed by the bank given the various regulations under which it operates.

This course is designed to provide students an opportunity to acquire first-hand knowledge of international business environment. Experiential learning and knowledge exchange will be applied throughout the study field trip to develop students’ understanding of international business environment in a different cultural context and help them construct a global perspective. Firm visits and cultural related activities will be arranged during the study field trip to arouse students’ awareness in cultural diversity and enhance their understanding of how culture can impact international business strategy.

This course is an in-depth exploration of the intersection between sustainability/ESG (environmental, social, and governance) factors and their influence on the financial markets. The goal of the course is to introduce economic frameworks to critically view the dynamics of ESG in practice nowadays to graduate students. Topics covered includes the economics root of sustainability/ESG, ESG reporting and disclosure framework, ESG investing, rating agencies and measurement, and social impacts of ESG. Course materials combine the insights from academic research and real-world business cases. Through lectures, case studies, guest speakers, and interactive workshops, participants will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to critically engage with and contribute to the field of ESG in capital markets.

This course aims to provide specialized knowledge on accounting topics and issues which are practical for students to develop their professional career in financial reporting for both profit and non-profit organizations. We will cover more complex issues in group accounting such as inclusion of associates and joint arrangements in the consolidated financial statements, changes in group structures, and consolidation of foreign operations. We will further discuss other advanced topics such as accounting for government grants, employee benefits, share-based payments, insurance contracts, and fair value measurement. The differences in financial reporting between profit and non-profit organizations will also be examined. This course will make use of a lot of case studies and examples to help students effectively apply the relevant International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) into practice. Lecture preparation and active class participation are expected in this course.

The course aims to provide students with practical knowledge and workplace skillsets shared by practitioners from various commercial and industrial sectors for the professional development and career advancement of students. Trending topics and current issues will be covered to equip students with the mindset and calibre for the challenges they are going to come across at workplace. With an emphasis on practice, the course instructors will deliver in-depth lectures on real world business issues.

This course offers a valuable opportunity for students to take ownership of their learning and produce an original and substantive piece of work. It allows them to tailor their studies to their individual interests and career aspirations. Students will produce a report or research paper on a topic of their choice on a specific business issue, industry or problem that they are particularly interested in. It gives them the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge gained throughout the master’s programme in a self-directed study project under the supervision of a faculty advisor.

You can take up to two electives from the Master of Economics, Master of Finance, Master of Finance in Financial Technology, Master of Global Management, Master of Science in Business Analytics or Master of Science in Marketing programme at HKU. Enrollment in electives from other programmes is subject to seat availability and approval by the Programme Directors concerned based on your profile, capabilities and performance in the MAcct programme.

Since enrollment in other taught postgraduate electives is not guaranteed, you should always choose four MAcct electives during the course enrollment in our programme. Course enrollment results of other programmes may only be confirmed after that course has started. If your enrollment is successful, you can drop the MAcct elective(s) and enroll in the other taught postgraduate elective(s).

It is your responsibility to make sure you obtain 72 credits to fulfill the graduation requirements and there is no overlapping of classes and exams in courses from different programmes.

*The list of available electives from other programmes may have prerequisite requirement(s) and is subject to change for future intakes.