Mrs Margaret Milner
- Lecturer (Accounting and Finance)
telephone: 01413305668
email: Margaret.Milner@glasgow.ac.uk
Research interests
Financial reporting; annual reports; graphical analysis; graphical displays; statistical reasoning & skills development
Biography
Margaret joined Accounting & Finance at Glasgow in 1987 after working as a research assistant at the Universities of Strathclyde and the West of Scotland and as a tutor at the University of Stirling. She obtained her MAcc degree from the University of Glasgow in 1991 after obtaining a BA degree in Economics in the USA.
Her general research interests are in financial reporting, with a focus on the production of annual reports. Her research is examining the preparation and authorship of annual reports, as well as the use of presentation formats in annual reports. The research places a focus not only on the writing of annual reports but also highlights the managerial structures and processes within firms that produce annual reports. As well as financial reporting, Margaret has also examined the placement of skills in accounting education and how statistical reasoning can be developed in undergraduate degree programmes and how to embed employability skills in accounting degree programmes.
Margaret has received research funding from the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Research Foundation to complete a pilot study examining the production of annual reports, as well as funding from the John Robertson Memorial Fund. Margaret received £8000 in 2004 (with Greg Stoner) from the University of Glasgow’s Learning and Teaching Centre to examine the development of employability skills in first year accountancy courses. She has also received £4000 (with Wan Ying Hill) from BEST (Business Education Support Team) and £1200 (with Wan Ying Hill) from HEA (Higher Education Academy) to examine the placement of skills provision in UK accounting degree programmes.
Margaret has published in accounting education journals and was awarded an EMERALD award for a paper on graphical skills. She has presented papers at the Financial Reporting and Business Communication Conference, where she has both chaired sessions and acted as a discussant. She has reviewed papers for Accounting Education: An International Journal and Corporate Governance: An International Journal. She has presented papers at the BAA Annual conference and the BAA– Special Interest Group Education Conference.
Margaret is currently a member of Senate. She is also a student recruitment officer and quality assurance officer for Accounting & Finance.
Research Student Supervision
I am interested in hearing from students who are keen to examine the financial reporting and voluntary disclosure found in annual reports, including the managerial processes involved in the production of annual reports.
Current PhD students
PhD topic: A critique of accounting education and its links to the profession and economic development in Sierra Leone
Co-supervisor - Professor Catriona Paisey
Undergraduate: Business Statistics
Postgraduate: Statistics for Business Research; International Financial Management
Research projects and work in progress
Margaret Milner - Examining the authorship of annual reports: issues for corporate governance
Wan Ying Hill and Margaret Milner - The placing of skills in Accounting degree programmes in higher education: some contrasting approaches in the UK - This study was supported by a Teaching Research and Development Grant from The Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Business Management Accountancy and Finance.
Margaret Milner and Wan Ying Hill (2008) Setting the skills agenda: the views of UK accounting academics
Maciver, G, Milner, M & Stoner, G. Evaluating and Embedding Skills in Undergraduate Degree Courses: Methodological Considerations
Milner, M & Stoner, G - Embedding skills in undergraduate degree courses
A number of my working papers are available from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN)