The course will study the theory and practice of corporate insolvency processes and financial distress, including a consideration of the role played by the insolvency profession. Issues of accountability, corporate governance, bank lending practices and stakeholder concerns will be explored in depth, primarily from a UK perspective but also with reference to practices in other jurisdictions.

One 3-hour lecture for 10 weeks.

(some of these sessions will be used for guest lectures from insolvency professionals)

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ILO

Reassessments normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

The aims of this course are to:

■ Provide students with both a theoretical and practical understanding of corporate insolvency and financial distress.

■ Enable students to question the role of insolvency policy in society and hence to understand the impact of a change in policy on practice. 

■ Contextualise insolvency and financial distress against political, economic, social and international environments. 

■ Provide students with an understanding of the insolvency profession and to enable students to critically evaluate the role of insolvency practitioners and their impact upon distressed organisations and society.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Explain, compare and evaluate the different corporate insolvency procedures and restructuring processes available to financially distressed companies from a theoretical and practical perspective;

2. Explain and critically evaluate the impact of financial distress and the different procedures on different stakeholder groups, taking into consideration the economic, legal, political and social contexts in which distress occurs;

3. Identify and evaluate developments in insolvency practice and law internationally and assess their potential impact on stakeholders, organisations and society;

4. Describe the evolution of the insolvency profession in the UK, its historical significance to the development of the accountancy profession and critically appraise the role of the insolvency practitioner within society;

5. Critically evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of regulation of the insolvency profession and company directors, recognising and evaluating the inter-relationships between different institutional bodies and the effectiveness of legislation;

6. Evaluate inter-disciplinary research and debate and evaluate its potential value to enhance knowledge, theory development and/or practice development.

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