Professor Steve Young and Professor Sandra Nolte Department of Accounting and Finance lancaster.ac.uk/lums/accounting-and-finance Welcome to Accounting and Finance at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS). I am delighted to introduce you to the department, the great work colleagues are doing, and the reasons why accounting and finance attracts so much interest. Accounting and Finance at LUMS is an acknowledged world leader. The department ranks 75th in the latest QS World Rankings by Subject (2024), and is one of the six subject areas that contribute to LUMS’ status as number one for research power among all UK business schools. Colleagues number more than 50, with expertise across a broad range of topics from financial reporting and analysis, through corporate governance and corporate finance, to asset pricing, portfolio management, and quantitative finance. You can find examples of the fascinating research they do throughout these pages. The breadth and depth of our expertise means we are ideally placed to address complex issues impacting financial markets. Take Mykola Babiak as example. His work investigates whether crypto fund managers provide positive value for investors. The answer suggests they do. Our range of expertise also enables us to partner with colleagues in other disciplines to work on the big challenges facing our economy and society, such as climate change, productivity, wealth inequalities, corporate behaviour, and digital technology. For example, our natural language processing work on corporate reports partners with researchers from computer science and linguistics to develop software capable of reading thousands of reports in minutes. We prioritise work that informs industry and business. As an example, Mahmoud Gad’s work on modern slavery reporting is a collaboration with the Financial Reporting Council and the UK Antislavery Commissioner. Argyro Panaretou’s project exploring how to account for credit risk is a partnership with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation. Our approach is based on a virtuous cycle where research informs our teaching and vice versa. This cycle delivers direct benefits to our students in the form of exposure to cutting-edge debates and insights that do not feature in standard textbooks but are nevertheless at the forefront of employers’ and regulators’ minds. Examples include work examining how executive pay arrangements can encourage corporate fraud; how corporate governance improves some aspects of reporting but not others; and how organised crime and tax avoidance are linked. Our expertise and applied focus delivers teaching that is academically rigorous and practically relevant – bringing benefits to lectures and seminars. Examples of our skills-focused approach to education include financial analysis using Bloomberg and Refinitiv, python coding, spreadsheet modelling, professional ethics, and support with the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification. And because we operate at the forefront of knowledge in the discipline, our graduates are attractive to top employers. We reinforce this appeal with extensive careers support that includes an award-winning business careers service, supplemented with specialist careers coaches who bring expert knowledge of graduate recruitment in finance and accounting. Our careers coaches work one-to-one with students to support their career journey. Our support starts before students arrive on their degree and continues after they graduate. I hope you enjoy reading more about our work; and if you would like more information then please do not hesitate to contact us. Welcome FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 3
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