PINS9520 Society and Sustainability Emneplan

Authorized materials: Norwegian-English dictionary

Grade scale A-F

Essay assignments: All answers are assessed by one examiner.

An external examiner is used regularly, at a minimum of every third completion of the course. When selecting answers for external evaluation, a minimum of 10 percent of the answers shall be included, with no fewer than 5 answers. The external examiner’s assessment of the selected answers shall benefit all students.

Multiple choice/digital test: quality assured by an examiner and automatically assessed.

Lectures, workshops, seminars.

Understanding how accounting choices influence the transparency, interpretability, and overall quality of financial information lies at the heart of this course, Valuation for Accountants. This course builds on foundational accounting principles to help students read, analyze, and interpret financial statements effectively. It bridges technical knowledge with real-world applications, enabling students to make informed decisions about investments, resource allocation, and business valuation. The course is ideal for students pursuing degrees in accounting, finance, business management, or related fields, aiming to build a strong foundation in financial statement analysis and valuation.

Course Objectives:

• Understand the accounting principles behind financial reporting

• Understand the role and importance of financial statements in business decision-making
• Analyze and interpret financial statements, including the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows
• Learn to assess accounting and financial statements quality, and identify potential manipulation
• Forecast financial performance and apply valuation methods for public and private firms
• Explore strategic frameworks for evaluating business operations, including SWOT and competitive analysis
• Examine how ESG performance impacts valuation and decision-making

Language of instruction is English.

None.

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• understand the fundamental principles of financial accounting and their use in valuation
• apply valuation techniques to evaluate corporate performance and value creation.
• understand how ESG factors influence financial analysis and corporate valuation
• is able to implement the valuation of a company using techniques and tools covered during the course

Skills

The student will

• extract critical insights from financial statements
• analyze financial performance using key ratios like ROE, ROIC, and liquidity measures
• prepare forecasts and pro forma financial statements
• conduct valuations using multiple methods and critically assess the results
• integrate ESG factors and strategic analysis into financial analysis and valuation models

General competence

The student has

• completed case work as constructive members of a student group.

Assessment is pass/ fail.

The final essay is assessed by the course lecturer and one other examinator. External examinators will be used regularly. The assessment of the essay is based on the learning outcomes for the course.

Sveinung Legard

Gavin McCrory