Interview with Prof. Zhang Tianyu | The Advantages of MSc in Accounting Programme
“Accounting needs imagination.” Unlike those of the traditional stereotypes, our students are expected to be open-minded and capable of analyzing problems from various perspectives, Prof. Zhang Tianyu said. “For example, what is the meaning of a company giving many stock dividends this year? It may be a good signal that the company distributes profits back to shareholders, but I would ask students to consider another possibility that the company fails to invest a more profitable project with shareholders’ money, so it returns money to shareholders. From the example, you might understand that when you analyze accounting data, you need to find out the business logic behind, which requires imagination.”
In Prof. Zhang’s opinion, the teaching philosophy of CUHK-Shenzhen and programmes is a significant advantage. The setting of curriculum is designed to develop students’ professional ethics, combine with practices and to cultivate their critical thinking in data analysis. This is a highlight of the MSc in accounting programme.
Strive for the Balance Between Theory and Practice, Learn for Practical Needs
“Accounting is an applied discipline. Only learning from textbooks is not enough for students in their future career”. Therefore, the curriculum setting presents a combination of practices, with business cases introduction and industrial experts’ participation. “An expert who previously worked on strategy analysis at Goldman Sachs offered his guidance in data analysis, model building, and back-testing of strategies to our students. Besides, he also presented the abilities and skills that are entailed in the front line.”
Prof. Zhang Tianyu pointed out that there is a great advantage as a team of professionals from diverse industrial backgrounds were gathered for this programme specially. There is a course taught by six professional tutors, including CEO from the Financial Cloud of ZTE, and Business Director of global credit from Philips, etc. These tutors also participated in the design of the curriculum and shared their opinions in improving the curriculum from their professional perspectives.
Latest Teaching Cases to Nurture Students’ Critical Thinking in Data Analysis
The internationalism of the faculty team is a key feature of CUHK-Shenzhen. Almost all teachers of the MSc in accounting programme received Ph.D. degrees from North American or Hong Kong universities, as well as our professional tutors. Therefore, the teaching contents are rapidly updated and always at the cutting edge of this field. “The concentration on the accounting analysis integrates traditional finance and data analysis, with the aim to make students understand where the data comes from and how to apply it further in the analysis. This is of great help in making business decisions for students themselves or in their future as executive managers. ”
Although some universities in Mainland provide similar trainings, “there are not many that attach the importance consistently from undergraduates to postgraduates. Through flexible teaching, we are able to follow the latest trends in updated teaching cases. Specifically, yesterday’s events may be the cases in the class today. ” According to Prof. Zhang Tianyu, almost all SME teachers have an academic background in data analysis. “Our colleagues take their leads in publication outputs and I have been devoted myself to this field for nearly ten years.”
Cultivate Critical Thinking and Stimulate Students Imagination of Accounting
At the stage of undergraduate education, students already get the basic knowledge of accounting. Furthermore, they will grasp the business logic behind corporate operations through data information of accounting after the study of this programme. Prof. Zhang defined this ability as “accounting imagination”.
“You learn answers to questions from undergraduate teaching, while here we encourage students to explore knowledge on their own, ” Prof. Zhang introduced. For example, in classes, he presented the IPO case of WH Group as simulation training. Students were divided into two teams to act as executive managers and professional employees (such as analysts and fund managers) to discuss the IPO prospect of WH Group. In such doing, students have a deeper understanding of IPO through intense discussions. Prof. Zhang believed that this teaching philosophy could encourage students achieve ‘outside-of-the-box’ thinking and nurture their adaptability and logical-thinking ability.
