Course descriptions

The objective of the course is to introduce the students to the theory and practice of portfolio management. Topics included are formulation of appropriate portfolio objectives, alternative asset-allocation techniques, portfolio revision, criteria for evaluating investment portfolios, and the analysis of various investment constraints. The course will employ different equity and bond portfolio management techniques in addition to covering the essentials to professional asset management.

The course explores the risk management issues facing firms and individuals, examining how to protect firm value and personal wealth. It covers the areas of general risk management process, property and liability insurance, life and health. insurance, annuities and employee benefits. The insurance industry and regulatory concerns are also addressed. In addition, the course touches on some of the new products emerging in the risk management arena and how the insurance industry responds to them.

This course focuses on capital budgeting and long-term financing decisions. All major topics concerned with strategic investment decisions are covered in the course, including investment value measurements, cash flow analyses, risk assessments, and capital structure/financing analyses. The use of cases and problems will be emphasized throughout the course. The cases and problems will provide the opportunity to apply concepts and methods presented in the text and lectures. Course Objectives and Outcomes This course will enable the students to: 1. Analyze the application of firms’ long-term financial decision-making process, and explore the detail description of the capital budgeting process. 2. Identify the theoretical foundations in capital budgeting models and the applications of these models for valuation purposes. 3. Use the computer skill of MS Excel and have access to a computer spreadsheet program. Although such a program is not a required part of the course, students will be able to identify those certain cases and problems will be easier and faster to solve with a spreadsheet program.

This course focuses on international financial management and international foreign exchange markets. The course undertakes an in-depth overview of the multinational corporation business, risks of international operations, the international flow of funds among countries, the international financial markets, and the foreign exchange determinates. A significant part of this course introduces how governments can affect exchange rates changes and how such changes can affect the economy. Furthermore, this course explores the relationship between inflation, interest rates and currency values.

The entrepreneurial startup community is aggressively developing new Financial Technology, "Fintech", applications which are dramatically changing the way financial services and products are delivered. Some commentators foresee a revolution in finance, where there will be no need for brick-and-mortar branches, investment counselors, or even physical money itself. The reality is likely to be more gradual adoption and integration of innovative technology and mobile applications into the existing financial system. The course gives a broad understanding on the current and emerging technologies around money and payments, markets and consumer experience, and explores key ideas, principles, and frameworks around FinTech. It covers the economic, regulatory, and technological impact of the Fintech industry.

This course is designed for students to analyze the promises and challenges of crowdfunding and look closely at impact investing. The course examines peer-to-peer lending and its effect on the consumer credit landscape and marketplace lending. The course helps the students to develop analytical skills to exploit opportunities to use financial technologies to improve financial health. The course demonstrates peer-to-peer lending platforms as an alternative method to finance debt to better analyze the methodology behind fintech companies that refinance loans for consumers.

?The course provides a comprehensive understanding of current and emerging technologies in the financial industry, specifically in the areas of money, payment methodologies, markets, and consumer experience. Through exploration of key ideas, principles, and frameworks around FinTech and using a related software, students gain insights into the technological applications of finance and exposure to new FinTech services. Additionally, the course analyzes modern-day investment strategies that utilize FinTech and examines how FinTech is emerging as an entrepreneurial solution for both investments and payment systems. By the end of the course, students will have a deep understanding of the latest developments and trends in FinTech, empowering them to engage with this dynamic and rapidly evolving field.

This course introduces students to the principles, concepts and practices of corporate financial management, and the theories and applications underlying the financial decision-making process. The major topics covered include financial statement analysis, risk and returns, time value of money, valuation of stocks and bonds, capital structure and its cost, and capital budgeting.

?Given the importance of derivatives and the dynamic risk management industry, this course is expected to provide students with the basic necessary knowledge regarding derivatives and risk management in the field of finance. This course is mainly structured to cover options first, followed by forwards, futures and swaps. The first part of the course will present an overview of the subject by introducing the basis characteristics of options and their markets, together with the fundamental principles of pricing options. Under this concern, the simple binomial model for pricing options, the Black-Sholes- model which is the premier tool for pricing options-, in addition to option trading strategies will be introduced as well. Forwards, futures and swaps will be given in part two, which introduces the basic characteristics of forwards and futures markets. The second part will present the principals of pricing forwards, futures, also, options on future contracts will be introduced. Some of the hedging strategies will be provided throughout the third part of the course.

Special Topics in Finance

This capstone course offers the students the opportunity to apply their academic experience to conduct an experiential learning project in a designated field in a practical manner. Students will work in teams where they will read a case to analyze an existing business or engage in a business simulation. This experience will allow the students to gain a better understanding of everything they have learned through hands-on experience so that they can be better prepared for the workforce. This course will improve the investment literacy of the students by applying the theory with equity analysis and investment discussions. The course aims to give the students the credibility and knowledge they need to compete for the positions in the investment profession. Students will be able to perform equity research to a publicly listed company from Boursa Kuwait. This research will expose the students to the full cycle of the analysis including and not limited to financial analysis, industry and competitors' analysis, assumptions and projections basis, financial modeling, and valuation methods. The students will learn how to reach to an investment decision based on their professional and solid analysis. The course is applied, industry- and skill-oriented, and applicable to many career paths in finance and is a fantastic opportunity to enhance students' resume and overall marketability.

Finance Internship

The course demonstrates on corporate decision processes and its structure. As such, the course applies the valuation techniques and estimate the parameters necessary towards formulating capital decisions. Also, the course describes the capital markets efficiency and its behavioral changes, in conjunction with the ability to develop an efficient set of securities. Theories of risk and return, namely the capital assets pricing model as well as the arbitrage pricing theory.\n\nThis course is primarily quantitative in nature. For many students, this course may be the first quantitative course in which they will need to apply the knowledge and skills developed in prerequisite math and accounting classes. In addition, while this is an analytical course, your success, as a student, will primarily depend on your ability to relate a few problem-solving procedures to new problems. This ability is developed through many sessions of individual practice. You are expected to be able to integrate individual concepts into practice and study.

This course will deal with in-depth analysis of issues in corporate finance. Topics include financial asset pricing, risk and return, short-term and long-term investment decisions, the choice of capital structure, dividend policy, and mergers and acquisitions.

This course is developed to provide students with detailed understanding of identifying financial risks facing financial institutions. This course is structured to include three main parts. Part one will identify and explore the concepts of most risks facing a typical financial institution, namely interest rate risk, market risk, credit risk, off-balance sheet risk, foreign exchange risk, country risk, technology and other operational risks, in addition to liquidity risk. Especial focus will be given to the impact made on firms’ profitability and owners’ equity. Part two will be devoted towards measuring risks. This part will investigate the interest rate margin a source of profitability and risk, in addition to the mismatching of assets and liability durations. Models of measuring trading risk and credit risk, as well as other types of risks, will be presented in this part. Part three will be focusing on managing risks. Especial interest will be directed to liability and liquidity management, capital adequacy, loan sales and derivatives.

Exposure to Shariah Rules and Regulations governing financial activities: Islamic law of contracts, Islamic mode of financing , and issue related to Islamic money market, Islamic capital market, Islamic instruments, risk, uncertainty, gharar, interest / usury (riba) , gambling, etc.

This course will focus on the study of the foreign exchange market and other international markets as a background to the analysis of international financial operations, including arbitrage, hedging, speculation, investment and financing. International parity conditions are examined critically as they relate to business decision making.

FinTech is the label for increasingly technological approaches to the main financial intermediation functions. In today's FinTech businesses, consumers bank via mobile apps integrated into social media and institutions trade electronically. Fundamentals of Financial Technology (FinTech) course introduces the theory and practice of FinTech, as well as, it has been designed to educate students in a systemic approach to understanding disruption in the context of digitalization and enables them to build better firms with an opportunity to launch new FinTech ventures and harness new technology. The course gives a broad understanding on the current and emerging technologies around money and payments, markets, and consumer experience, and explores key ideas, principles, and frameworks around FinTech.

This course is designed for students to analyze the promises and challenges of crowdfunding and look closely at impact investing. The course examines peer-to-peer lending and its effect on the consumer credit landscape and marketplace lending. The course helps the students to develop analytical skills to exploit opportunities to use financial technologies to improve financial health. The course demonstrates peer-to-peer lending platforms as an alternative method to finance debt to better analyze the methodology behind fintech companies that refinance loans for consumers.

FinTech refers to financial sector innovations involving technology-enabled business models that can facilitate disintermediation, revolutionize how existing firms create and deliver products and services, address privacy, regulatory and law-enforcement challenges, provide new gateways for entrepreneurship, and seed opportunities for inclusive growth. The course gives a broad understanding on the applications of fintech on insurance and real estate markets and provides students with exposure to new Fintech services within a critical context and framework analyzing traditional money, banking and financial markets combined with interdisciplinary content from Computer Science and Entrepreneurship. The course also analyzes the key components of traditional machine learning and deep machine learning. The course shows the effects of big data and artificial intelligence in different markets.

Topics in Finance

Advanced Topics in Finance

Implications of Current Financial Crisis

Internship in Visual Communications

Senior Visual Communication Project

This course covers the basic concepts of networked computers including the basics of file management on local and remote computers, electronic mail, internet browsers, and web page development. Students are also exposed to applications used in business for solving problems, communicating, and making informed decisions, including word processors, presentation software, and electronic spreadsheets. Students will also develop business applications using a popular programming language or database management tool. Credit cannot be granted for both CSC 101 and MIS 118 for Computer Science students.

This course provides the foundation necessary for understanding management information systems. It discusses the importance of information systems in digital age. It is concerned with how information systems are essential in business and how companies use information system (and e-business) as competitive advantages. The course also discusses the information technology (IT) infrastructure in terms of hardware and software, databases, information management, telecommunications, the Internet, wireless technology, and security of information systems. The course also discusses some issues related to decision making using information systems as well as ethical and social issues in information systems. Students will explore several MIS software relevant to the business environment.

An introductory course in object oriented programming. The fundamental concepts of programming, structured program design and object oriented programming are studied using modern programming language.

Examines the fundamental principles of developing mobile business applications for portable platforms such as iPhone or Android. It introduces the concept of mobile business and discusses the increasing power, functionality and proliferation of mobile computing devices and the associated opportunities available for business through mobile applications. Additionally, the course introduces design patterns related to the development of mobile applications, and it discusses mobile portals and m-commerce systems. Students will create their own iPhone/Android applications.

The course introduces advanced programming skills and focuses on the core concepts of object-oriented programming and design using a modern language. The course focuses on the understanding and practical mastery of object-oriented concepts such as classes, objects, data abstraction, methods overloading, inheritance and polymorphism. Moreover, the course illustrates how to handle exceptions and connections to external data sources.

System analysis and design is the art of problem solving. Systems analysis is the study of current business system and its problems, the determination and definition of business needs and information requirements, and the evaluation of alternative solutions. Techniques and philosophies of systems analysis are addressed in this course. Included are traditional versus structured design methods, computer-based tools for systems analysis, workbenches, design and analysis of database systems, maintenance of existing information systems, human/machine interfaces and security & control.

Recent advances in the production, use, and management of information present many new opportunities, but also raise ethical challenges that information professionals must confront. A study of ethics and moral philosophy as a means for providing a framework for ethically grounded decision making in the information age. Issues will be considered from the point of view of multiple ethical theories, giving students the opportunity to think critically about the issues and draw their own conclusions. In other words, this course is designed to teach you several ways of analyzing a situation so that you can identify and resolve ethical issues related to information technology using logic instead of emotion.

This course is concerned with information and communication. The effect of the Internet on communication and how the introduction of the Internet has reshaped the field of communications; This course focuses on the type of business information systems and the need for distributed data processing at the application layer. The course also extends to cover the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and the Open Systems Interconnection Protocol (OSI). The course further discusses Client/Server and Intranet Computing; Internet based applications, Ethernet and Wireless Area Networks (LAN) architecture and protocols. Wide Area Networks (WAN) such as frame relay and ATM as well as switching techniques are also discussed. The course is also concerned with computer and networks management and security as well as network planning and design. The course also touches on Internet2 (I2) as the next generation of Internet services. It is imperative that anyone dealing with business administration should have a solid understanding of the principles of data communications in order to become aware of how it can be used to gain (or not) a competitive advantage.

This course provides an introduction to the design and use of databases in meeting business information needs. Topics include database planning, conceptual design, and data administration. The concepts are studied with projects involving the use of a current database management system.

This course focuses on web page planning, design, layout and construction. Topics covered include: setting up and maintaining a web site; understanding site structure, presentation, navigation and content management. HTML/XML, CSS, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop, data access, scripting languages, and various other technologies and tools will be discussed.

This course focuses on how knowledge is created, captured, shared, stored and reused so as to fully leverage the intellectual assets of a firm. The tools and techniques for knowledge acquisition, assessment, evaluation, management, organization and dissemination are applied to business situations. Topics include knowledge generation, knowledge coordination and codification, knowledge transfer and reuse, technologies and knowledge management strategies. The goal is to enable you to learn about this practice in the context of managing the design, development and operation of information technologies that can facilitate KM.

This course aims to provide an extensive overview of the technology of cloud computing and its practical applications. It covers several topics, including an introduction to cloud concepts, virtualization technologies, architectures, networking, cloud resource management, programming models in clouds, cloud storage systems, and security issues. The course also focuses on various cloud services, such as Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), and emphasizes the development of hands-on-skills in cloud computing technologies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

This course will equip you with a strong foundation in the principles and practices of data mining, allowing you to apply these techniques in a variety of real-world settings. Student will gain a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles, uses, and technical details of data mining techniques. You will also have ample opportunities for hands-on experience, allowing you to apply the concepts you learn to real-world applications. The course will cover a range of topics related to data mining, with a particular focus on decision trees, classification, clustering, and regression.

This course offers a comprehensive exploration into the foundational aspects of big data and data warehousing. It is designed to provide students with a deep understanding of the key concepts, technologies, and theoretical underpinnings of big data and how data warehouses are conceptualized, designed, and utilized in modern business environments. The course covers a broad spectrum of topics, including the characteristics of big data, various types of data storage systems, data processing concepts, and an overview of data analysis techniques.

Business Intelligence is an umbrella term that combines architectures, tools, databases, analytical tools, applications and methodologies. Business Intelligence's major objective is to enable easy access to data (and model) to provide business managers with the ability to conduct analysis. Therefore, it helps to transform data into information (and knowledge), to decisions and finally to actions.

This course provides an understanding of strategies, managerial issues, and technologies pertaining to electronic commerce in organizations. Topics covered include: history, business models, the virtual value chain, electronic markets, impact on organizational strategy and industry structure, analysis of successful strategies, and other emerging issues (legal, ethical, regulatory) related to managing electronic commerce, and the technical infrastructure enabling electronic commerce.

This course is designed to familiarize students with the concepts of cybersecurity. The course will provide the students with the fundamental knowledge and skills of cybersecurity. The course is designed to provide a basic introduction to all aspects of cyber-security which include: business, policy, procedures, communication, security, information secuirty planning, and staffing functions. In addition, the course emphasizes understanding the key issues associated with protecting information assets, network security, security management, legal issues, political issues and technical issues. Students will be immersed in the cybersecurity discipline through a combination of open-ended and real-world problems and hands-on experiments.

System design, implementation, and methods of systems installation and operation are presented. A system development project is required. This course builds on the skills learned in MIS 310 and has at its core the design and development of an information system.

cybersecurity concepts and their application in a corporate setting. It covers topics such as corporate cybersecurity, digital forensics, and ethical hacking. The course will combine theoretical knowledge with practical applications using industry standard tools and methodologies to equip students with the skills needed to address cybersecurity challenges in modern businesses environments.

This course covers recent trends and pressing MIS issues and topics that reflect areas of expertise of the faculty and their research interests that are suitable for exposure in the MIS major. This course may be taken more than once as an MIS elective.

This capstone course offers you the opportunity to apply your academic experience to conduct an experiential learning project in a designated field and apply your education in a practical manner. Students will work in teams on a single project for one partner organization. This experience will help students enhance their skills in oral and written communication, apply the knowledge acquired during the program to solve business problems involving actual data and information systems in a realistic setting, manage team dynamics, and develop a fundamental understanding of all practical aspects of MIS program of study. This course is suitable for senior students only. The course content is updated regularly to take into account the latest software and MIS practices.

MIS Internship

This course is a graduate-level course in Management of Information Systems (MIS). It is offered through GUST’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. The course covers several aspects of MIS and is intended for management-level professionals. The course discusses the importance of MIS in today’s competitive business environments highlighting how managers can use MIS to enhance their decision-making process and to better compete with IT in today’s market. The course also discusses the difference between information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) addressing the different avenues of information systems such as database management systems, telecommunications and networking, information systems security, e-business, ethical and legal aspects of information systems, strategic information systems, and the effect of the Internet on information systems (online information systems). The course is also concerned with the information system life cycle including systems analysis, design, and implementation.