Speaker
Date
Do Dividends Matter? An Exploration of Relevance
Should companies focus on paying dividends to shareholders or reinvest every spare pound to drive future growth? Join our online taster session to explore how dividend decisions really affect value.
In this online session, Professor Alan Parkinson, Deputy Director of Education and Professor of Financial Education at the UCL School of Management, will examine whether dividend policy should be a central concern for management teams or viewed mainly as a consequence of investment and financing decisions.
You will explore dividends as income and as a signal, the debate between dividend relevance and irrelevance, and real-world examples of different payout strategies.
The content is drawn from the Online MSc Strategic Accounting and Finance and illustrates how the programme connects accounting and finance concepts to real business questions.
What you will learn
- Understand the main arguments for and against actively managing dividend policy.
- See how dividend choices interact with capital allocation, financing, share buybacks and ESG commitments.
- Learn how dividend announcements can be interpreted alongside other information about a company’s performance and plans.
- Experience the analytical, applied teaching approach used in the Online MSc Strategic Accounting and Finance.
Who should attend
- Prospective applicants to the Online MSc Strategic Accounting and Finance.
- Students and early‑career professionals interested in accounting, finance, investing or business management.
- People from any discipline who want to understand how financial decisions support strategy in organisations.
Speaker
Professor Alan Parkinson, Deputy Director of Education and Professor of Financial Education at UCL School of Management, is a qualified accountant and an award‑winning educator with extensive experience designing and delivering accounting and finance programmes in both face‑to‑face and online settings, and his scholarship focuses on accounting education, curriculum design, and technology in learning.
Event details
Date: Wednesday, 12 March 2026
Time: 12:00–13:00 (GMT)
Format: Zoom
If you have any questions about the session or are having trouble registering, please contact the Student Recruitment Marketing team at mgmt.comms@ucl.ac.uk.
About the Online MSc Strategic Accounting and Finance
A key department of a globally top-9-ranked university (QS World Rankings, 2026), the UCL School of Management focuses its research and teaching on key areas of Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Analytics, preparing students to make an immediate impact in the business world.
The Online MSc Strategic Accounting and Finance at the UCL School of Management is designed for recent graduates and working professionals from a wide range of backgrounds who want to apply accounting and finance expertise to real management decisions. Delivered fully online and available full‑time or part‑time, the programme blends financial theory and concepts with practical applications, equipping you to support and lead strategic decision-making across sectors.
