Accounting, Economics and Finance Department

• Hugh Bigsby is Head of Department
• Paul Dalziel is Professor of Economics
• Ross Cullen is Professor of Resource Economics

Select from the category headings below to find out more about a particular subject, or go to the Postgraduate Students section and select a category to find out more about current postgraduates and their chosen areas of research. 

• Accounting
• Economics
• Finance
• Contact details

Postgraduate students

Information on the requirements and regulations for a postgraduate studying in the Commerce Faculty can be found in the Postgraduate Commerce Handbook (PDF 3,134 KB). 

This page also contains tables displaying lists of postgraduate students, their chosen topic of research and their principal and associate supervisors. Tables are sorted into categories for easy reference:

• Accounting Postgraduates
• Economics Postgraduates
• Finance Postgraduates
• Postgraduate Enquiries

Accounting

Accountancy is a powerful practice. By identifying, collecting, documenting, summarising, and providing information, accounting enables people who govern organisations to make good decisions, to explain their affairs to others, and acknowledge their conduct. The availability of information about organisations permits people inside them to make better decisions and people outside them to understand, question, and comment on the affairs of organisations. Thus, accounting facilitates informed-decision making and accountability. By facilitating accountability, accounting helps to maintain economic order and good social relationships among organisations and societies in which they operate. Considered broadly, this is the power and the utility of accounting.

In our Accounting programme at Lincoln University, we recognise the power and utility of accounting in this broader sense. And, we aim to inspire such a view on accounting among prospective accountants, managers, and other decision-makers who complete our programme. This approach, we believe, presents us with three important challenges, which we focus on throughout our Accounting programme: (i)  to develop students’ theoretical understanding and critical thinking skills to adequately question what accounting is and what it ought to be so that it can fulfil its obligations to organisations and society; (ii) to develop technical competence so as to enable students to understand and independently carry out various accounting related tasks; and (iii) to develop a strong sense of and a disposition to professionalism and ethics, which provide meaning to technical competence possessed by accounting professionals.

A Commerce degree majoring in Accounting together with the Chartered Accountant qualification is regarded as one of the top professional qualifications in New Zealand. Our programme at Lincoln has been accredited by both the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA),the Certified Practising Accountants (CPA) of Australia and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). These professional qualifications are widely recognised internationally.

Further information

To find out more about a Commerce Degree majoring in Accounting, contact Jack Radford. 

Accounting

Dr Tracy-Anne De Silva

Dr Jamal Roudaki

 Associate Professor Sidney Weil

Economics

Exciting and often controversial, economics focuses on the problem of choice that arises because 'you can't have your cake and eat it'. It also examines how processes of resource allocation and the efficiency of resource use are affected by information problems, property rights and institutions such as firms, markets and the State.

Economics has been taught at Lincoln University for over forty years. It began on a small scale under Professor Brian Philpott, with a focus on agricultural economics. It has since grown, particularly in the last decade, into a strong grouping of around a dozen staff undertaking research that spans both New Zealand-related issues and topics of international interest.

Economists at Lincoln University keep at the leading edge of their research areas both by collaborative work amongst themselves and by joint work with leading researchers in other institutions. Many of the newest recruits are fresh graduates from leading overseas doctoral programmes. Each year the flow of new ideas is further enhanced by overseas visitors spending time at the University.

Staff bring a wide range of capabilities to teaching the discipline and extending knowledge of it through their research and the supervision of graduate students. Not surprisingly, given the heritage of economics at Lincoln University, there is a particularly good concentration of expertise in the area of resource and environmental economics.

Much applied work is also undertaken in the areas of international trade policy, applied econometrics, ecological economics, forestry and business economics.

As well as providing a wide range of opportunities to develop the economic way of thinking, the Economics group also offers courses in quantitative methods and econometrics from introductory to advanced levels.

Courses featuring economics are included in a very wide variety of degrees. At one extreme it is possible for students to incorporate a large number of courses when majoring in Economics for the Bachelor of Commerce and specialised Commerce degrees. At the other extreme, the introductory 100 level course in economics is one of the most popular courses at Lincoln University and forms part of the 100 level requirements for the Bachelors' degrees in agriculture, horticulture, landscape architecture and environmental management as well as Commerce programmes.

Economics is helpful for the specialised Commerce degrees and for the Bachelor of Environmental Management and Planning because it helps students to understand issues as diverse as the workings of financial markets, problems of businesses such as hotels or transport companies, and problems relating to natural resource depletion and pollution.

Diploma students can also draw on economics in courses ranging from introductory coverage in diploma studies in farm or horticultural management to advanced units in the diplomas taken by graduates seeking to move from a physical or life science into commerce by enrolling in 300 level courses in the commerce area.

Further information

To find out more about a Commerce Degree majoring in Economics, contact Dr Baiding Hu.

Economics

Associate Professor Hugh Bigsby

Professor Ross Cullen

Professor Paul Dalziel

Dr Baiding Hu

Associate Professor Michael Lyne

Associate Professor Sandra Martin 

Professor Caroline Saunders

Bert Ward 

Finance

Lincoln University offers one of the broadest finance programmes available in New Zealand, emphasising both theory and practice in its courses so that graduates have the means to apply proven financial theory in real world situations.

A commerce degree with a major in Finance offers access to a wide range of satisfying career opportunities across a wide range of private sector firms and industries, as well as in government and Crown entities. That's because wherever financial resources are involved – and most activities carried out within organisations have financial implications – they need to be valued and managed by appropriately qualified people.

Within the private sector, there are careers available in corporate finance, financial management, treasury management and financial analysis in sectors such as banking, stock broking, manufacturing, mining, retailing, consulting, insurance, importing and exporting. Within the public sector, there are opportunities within the budgetary sections of government departments, quasi-government organisations and statutory bodies.

Increasingly, students are opting for a double major, with Finance and Accounting, and Finance and Economics, being two popular choices. It is also possible to study elective courses in Business Management, Computing, Marketing and Property Management to complement studies in Finance.

Further information

To find out more about a Commerce Degree majoring in Finance, contact Associate Professor Christopher Gan.

Finance 

Associate Professor Christopher Gan

Dr Gerry Nartea 

Want more information?

General enquiries:  (Secretary)
Email: Margot.Beck@lincoln.ac.nz 
Phone: +64 3 321 8304
Extn: 8304 (within Lincoln University campus) 
Room: C104

Postgraduate enquiries: Annette Brixton 
Email: annette.brixton@lincoln.ac.nz
Phone: +64 3 321 8250