MSc Finance

A 2.1 Honours degree from a recognised UK university in Economics or Finance with a significant Economics component; or a 2.1 joint Honours in Economics and another subject that includes substantial training in microeconomics, macroeconometrics and econometrics. We will also consider applications from students without any training in Economics but who have a degree in a highly quantitative subject such as Mathematics, Physics and Statistics.

For fees and funding options, please visit website to find out more

Alumni from the Finance programme, and more generally from other Masters programmes in the Business School, have secured employment in the fields of:

management consultancy
accountancy
investment analysis
investment banking
commercial banking
trading and asset management
other aspects of the financial services industry

Compulsory

You must take four compulsory modules for the MSc.

• Applied Financial Econometrics: develops students' ability to undertake quantitative research by equipping them with econometric tools and techniques to analyse and interpret financial data. 
• Investment Management: provides an understanding of the fundamental principles of financial markets, financial instruments, and modern security valuation techniques.
• Advanced Corporate Finance: focuses on empirical and theoretical issues that arise in modern corporate finance.
• Portfolio Management: covers concepts such as valuation, efficient diversification, and predictability of asset returns, providing a balance between theoretical models and their practical applications.
• Financial Data Analysis with Bloomberg: is designed to empower students to navigate the dynamic landscape of finance using Bloomberg as a powerful analytical tool and will balance key finance concepts with practical application.

Optional

Here is a sample of optional modules that may be offered:

• Behavioural Finance: introduces students to key concepts in behavioural finance and distinguishes between conventional financial theory and behavioural approaches, focusing on deviations from rational models and illuminating resulting biases that impact financial markets, their institutions, and other participants.
• Corporate Governance: explores how major corporate control events, such as mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, asset sales, spinoffs, financial distress, and bankruptcy, (re)shape firms and affect stakeholders.
• Risk Management: provides insight into managing exposure to risk and how to apply relevant theories to realistic financial decision problems.
• Financial Technology (FinTech): equips students with knowledge of the technology underpinning FinTech by introducing advancements in blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence; provides an overview of key trends; and considers the impact of FinTech on key aspects of Financial Services.
• Financial Systems: outlines the fundamentals of financial systems, focusing on the influence of technology and innovation along with the challenges these pose to regulators.
• International Financial Management: covers the foreign exchange market, international monetary systems, exchange rate determination, currency risk management, and international investment and diversification.

The topics, and therefore module titles, vary year on year as they reflect staff research interests. Optional modules require a minimum number of participants to be offered; some may only allow limited numbers of students (see the University’s position on curriculum development).

Dissertation

Students attend lectures throughout Semesters 1 and 2 to prepare them for conducting the research portion of the dissertation. The dissertation is normally on a specific area of finance, however, you will have the freedom to develop a topic of your own which is of interest to you and will contribute towards career development or further study goals. 

Students are assigned a supervisor based on a research proposal submitted in the second semester. They will then research and write a 15,000-word dissertation over the summer to be submitted on a date specified in August. 

If students choose not to complete the dissertation requirement for their Masters degree (MSc), there are exit awards available that allow suitably qualified candidates to receive a postgraduate piploma (PGDip). By choosing an exit award, you will finish your degree at the end of the second semester of study and receive a PGDip instead of a MSc.