Financial Management

Do you have a science background and now stepping into a role that touches finance?
This course equips participants with a comprehensive understanding of the financial decisions faced by organizations. Structured in three parts, it discusses various aspects related to the accounting, investment and financing.

• Part 1: Financial Accounting & Reporting
  Basic concepts of financial accounting, the annual reports and the associated financial statements are discussed. In this section, questions such as how a company can show positive profits when maintaining a negative cash balance can be understood. Likewise, what having a low liquidity ratio and a long cash conversion cycle can imply.
• Part 2: Cost Management & Budget Control
  Cost behavior and cost allocation, and the concept of budget variance are introduced. These concepts show how budgets can vary from actual spending either because of a change in the company’s level of efficiency or because of a change in their cost structures.
• Part 3: Investment & Financing Strategies
  Investment and financing decisions are investigated. New projects also require additional funding. Firms are generally financed by both equity and debt. Several methods will be discussed in the course. In this section, questions such as the following will be answered: Suppose a firm can choose between several potential projects to invest in, how should the firm decide which project to pursue? What determines the value of a firm’s stocks and bonds, or in other words, for which value can the firm issue new instruments to increase funding?

This course is part of the master Science & Business Management and specifically designed for participants without a background in the subject matter and with a focus on organizations that operate in (life) science sectors. Participant will be in a mixed classroom with master students.

Upon completion of the course, you are able to:

• Articulate the role of the finance function in organizations, and derive financial data – for example through accrual versus cash flow accounting, annual reports, and ratio analysis – with implications for managerial decision making.
• Evaluate how budgets may fluctuate after organizational change, applying techniques such as cost-volume-profit analysis, absorption costing, budget variance, and time value of money.
• Appreciate financing decisions related to equity and debt, by analyzing bond valuation and stock valuation, capital budgeting decision rules, risk and return trade-off, capital asset pricing model (CAPM), and weighted average cost of capital (WACC).

This course is aimed at professionals working in healthcare science, with a bachelor’s/master’s degree (or even PhD) in the science field and with an interest in the business side of organizations.

6 weeks, 2 contact moments of 2 hours + 14 hours of work in between per week

Exam / final assessment in week 7

This face-to-face course is offered via lectures and tutorials on-campus, which require your physical attendance (mandatory). Only 1 seminar needs to be attended, either choose Seminar 1 or Seminar 2 from the schedule.

Alongside these, participants are expected to dedicate approximately 14 hours per week to self-study, individual assignments and groupwork on projects. Questions on theory and exercises can be posted on the appropriate forum on the university digital learning environment (Brightspace) or asked during the lectures or tutorials. The exam will be on location (i.e. not online).

To enroll in this course, you need to have:

• Dutch residency
• Master Degree in Life Sciences or Natural Sciences, with graduation date <10 years
• No previous formal education or work experience in the course topic

Please note that this course is part of an existing program within the Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) in collaboration with the Graduate School of Life Sciences. Tuitition fees may alter during the year.

General questions

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Content questions

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