Dr John A Anderson is currently teaching AFM3/540 Fraud Prevention and Investigation and AFM3/504 Financial Statement Analysis – he shares with us some of his experiences and reflections on delivering these units to 3rd year and postgraduate students.

While the first unit is a naturally fascinating field with stories of intrigue, thieves and scammers, the second is a far more technical and dry unit and a bit harder to get students inspired – especially when we hit the highly technical elements if the unit. Dr Peter McClenaghan discussed the possibility of utilising the skills of guest speakers via Skype to help make the unit more interesting. From the time I have done this my units have grown in enrolments and unit evaluations have improved significantly.

For AFM3/504 Financial Statement Analysis we have brought in guest speakers including market expert Marcus Padley (often seen on ABC TV), Keith Foreman from investor group TeamInvest who share their very Warren Buffett-based investor style, former journalist and now principal of news and advisory firm FNArena and regular TV guest expert (and UNE graduate) Scott Phillips from investment think-tank The Motley Fool.

AFM3/540 Fraud Prevention and Investigation has seen a very diverse range of guests including Judge Michael Holmes who was also one of the architects of the ICAC in Hong Kong (on which our ICAC is based), a Senior Detective (who can not be named on security grounds) from the NSW Fraud Squad who specialises in fraud and the illegal bikie gang syndicates and ethical ‘White Hat’ hacker Adrian Wood from WhiteHack who specialises in finding security flaws in his client’s networks by mounting relentless attacks from his team of hackers with some stories that are literally breathtaking and truly scary. For the redesigned FIN101 (now AFM103) we are covering property and have already secured a Skype meeting with Steve McKnight, property guru, presenter and author of the best selling book ‘0-130 Properties in 3.5 Years’ – if we can’t learn something from him, we just weren’t listening!!

I would highly recommend including this approach into teaching in any unit you may be involved with. I am yet to have a potential presenter say no, it allows students to immediately see how the technical skills being covered are applied by practitioners in industry – and also does plenty to help keep me current and on my toes!! One other substantial benefit, especially in AFM3/504 Financial Statement Analysis, is that students get to see a wide range of views on how market industry professionals approach the analysis of companies for their investment decisions, and they are indeed very diverse. Would I ever teach a unit again without this? NO!!

Dr John A Anderson holds a BFinAdmin from the University of New England, a Master of Business by Research from SCU and a PhD in Finance from RMIT University and is currently Senior Lecturer in Finance at The University of New England.