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Key Information
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Free access
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Fee-based Certificate
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16 hours in total
About the content
How do governments acquire and spend public money? Take a fresh look at public financial management with this free online course.
- This free online course will provide you with the knowledge and tools to understand and evaluate the management of financial resources across the public sector, wherever you are. Drawing on the expertise of the Centre for Financial and Management Studies at SOAS, University of London, we’ll look at:
- how governments and public sector organisations obtain financial resources through taxation, fees, charges, natural resources and other means;
- how public sector organisations decide to use financial resources for attaining public policy goals and implementing public programmes;
- how public sector organisations report their financial performance to the public;
- how the use of public financial resources is audited;
- and how governments are made accountable for their financial decisions.
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Syllabus
What topics will you cover?
- Understanding financial statements: an examination of the information contained in common accounting terms
- Fiscal imbalances: causes and consequences
- Understanding public sector spending: how governments spend public money to implement public policies and execute programmes and projects
- Planning and budgeting: an analysis of how public expenditure decisions are made
- Evaluating public expenditures: understanding the effect of public spending decisions
- Cutting expenditures and the austerity agenda: how government austerity policies are used to reduce government activity
- Common sources of public revenues, including inter-governmental transfers, and alternative sources used by governments across the world
- Taxation: an exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of taxation, custom duties and fees, and their uses, from behavioural change to stimulating business activity
- Auditing and accountability: exploring the concept of accountability and explaining the importance of corporate governance in ensuring government accountability
- Understanding public governance: exploring how the crisis of public administration has led to financial disaster in cities like Detroit
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Instructors
- Alberto Asquer
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Content Designer

The University of London is a federal University which includes 17 world leading Colleges. Our International Programmes were founded in 1858 and have enriched the lives of thousands of students, delivering high quality University of London degrees wherever our students are across the globe. Our alumni include 7 Nobel Prize winners. Today, we are a global leader in distance and flexible study, offering degree programmes to over 50,000 students in over 180 countries. To find out more about studying for one of our degrees where you are, search for 'London International'.
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Platform

FutureLearn is a massive open online course (MOOC) learning platform founded in December 2012.
It is a company launched and wholly owned by The Open University in Milton Keynes, England. It is the first UK-led massive open online course learning platform, and as of March 2015 included 54 UK and international University partners and unlike similar platforms includes four non-university partners: the British Museum, the British Council, the British Library and the National Film and Television School.
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