Issues and Controversies in Financial Accounting: Home

This course aims at building the capacity to properly understand and critically evaluate the financial reporting system in order to wisely use the information generated by it for managerial decisions. The history of the development of the system is studied from different perspectives including but not limited to economic, political, linguistic, social and psychological perspectives. Financial reporting is probably the most miss-understood, miss-interpreted and miss-used discipline of the contemporary world. It’s the discipline where practice preceded the theory and conceptual framework. 

The development of a conceptual framework and key contemporary and historical accounting issues will be examined. The historical development of accounting standards and the role of theory in understanding current accounting standards, accounting practice and the use of accounting information by the stakeholders will be critically evaluated. The role of the human mind in processing the information will be discussed to understand the use of financial information for decision making.

The course aims to enable students to:

1. Acquire a deeper and more critical appreciation of what defines contemporary accounting practice
2. Understand the nature, scope and future of accounting
3. Analyze selected contemporary issues in accounting
4. Interpret the issues in financial reporting under the framework of Moral and Islamic principles

Upon successful completion of this class, you are expected to:

1) Understand the issues in Financial Reporting;

2) Develop skills in the analysis of financial statements;

3) Test your skills in communicating analysis, conclusions, and recommendations.