Management Accounting and Strategy by Boyd Hain

The course provides a good summary of all management accounting and strategy material that as a business student you should have already dealt with for the most part at your home university. Accordingly, the learning curve is clear, but it should not be underestimated in order to get a good grade. Due to the largely already known subject, it must also be said that the learning effect is rather limited. Two lectures of 1h 45min each are given per week by a lecturer who has a lot of practical experience as an accountant and has his own company. The lectures are rather monotonous and consist of the presentation of the lecture slides. Spontaneous contributions from the lecturer’s professional life are interesting. Most of the students in the course completed an MBA which, however, does not mean a disadvantage for «normal» master’s students and is actually an enrichment. The examinations include a mid-term and a final exam, for each of which a double-sided cheat sheet may be brought into the exam. With a reasonable learning curve, good grades can be achieved here, although the lecturer does not give outstanding grades as a matter of principle. In addition, a short presentation (10min) about a company of your choice must be given in group work and a balanced score card concept (3000 words & 10min presentation) created for this company. Careful selection of group members is certainly a contributing factor in achieving good grades. Attendance is checked especially at the beginning, but is not part of the grade.

Relational Communication

The course offers a broad but also deep insight into the research of interpersonal communication. The course consists of various communication theories and models. This course helped me a lot because I learned a lot. The effort for this course is also relatively high. I had to write three papers that totaled around 30 pages. Furthermore, a 30-minute presentation with a handout had to be prepared and held and finally there was an extensive final examination. Dr. Donna Henson is a very committed lecturer and has high expectations, which can, however, be achieved with sufficient effort. The evaluation of the various examination performances is very fair. Since the course is rarely attended by exchange students, it offers a good opportunity Getting to know Australians. If you like to write a lot and find the course interesting, you will get good grades here and be satisfied.

• Australia is a major country in Oceania continent. For information about Oceania, please visit computerannals.

Strategic Organizational Communication and Leadership (Marilyn Mitchell)

The subject deals with communication and leadership in companies. The topics discussed were relatively incoherent and ranged from different organizational structures to leadership styles and the cultural dimensions of Hofstede. The lecturer was very committed and gave very detailed feedback. She even offered to watch seminar papers with her before handing it in, which was very helpful. Achieving a really good grade, however, took a lot of effort.

Strategy (Gary Bowman)

Typical business administration subject that deals with the basic concepts from the field of strategy. The theory discussed was applied in case studies, a simulation game and in group work, where a strategic analysis of a company had to be made. The lecturer was entertaining and always linked the theory with current examples. The two exams were extremely fair and they checked exactly what was announced. The group work was a bit tedious, as the lecturer only gave very rough guidelines and you couldn’t choose the group members yourself.

Regional Study

• Type: Intensive (block course on two weekends at the beginning of the semester)
• Examination performance: Open book exam (on the first day of the second block; 30%)
  • Presentation individually (on the last day of the second block; 20%)
  • Paper individually (4 weeks after the last block; 30%)
  • Participation in class (20%)
• Lecturer: Neva Maxim:
  • Senior Teaching Fellow with many years of experience whose voice has a significant impact at Bond University. She has an inexhaustible wealth of experience in business (was self-employed) and politics (worked for the Australian government) with which she adorns her lectures. However, their experiences strongly shape their opinion and seldom leave room for other views.
• Content
  • 1. Globalization
  • 2. Regionalism
  • 3. Regional Development
  • 4. EU origin
  • 5. Regionalism in Asia
  • 6. Australasia case study
  • The subject ranges from historical content to political contexts and specific business cases. It expands the general knowledge of the students to include international business understanding and its dynamics.
• Effort: The effort is roughly equivalent to 7.5 ECTS, as some reading has to be prepared for the written examination and since a new topic has to be worked out for each of the three examinations.
• Other: There were some inconsistencies with deadlines because the lecturer published different deadlines on the information sheets, in the classroom and on the online platform “iLearn”. It is therefore worthwhile to have this confirmed in class.
• Conclusion: The course was definitely instructive and provides a good basic political knowledge, which is an advantage for any international business. Unfortunately, the grading can sometimes seem a bit arbitrary, which is why it can be worthwhile to have a cup of coffee with the lecturer before an exam is due. This rule applies specifically to this course, but can be applied in general as the lecturers are very sociable due to the small classes.