The course

Our MSc Finance degree course is ideal if you would like a career in the financial sector. Through your studies you will gain a strong grounding in core areas of finance and have the flexibility to specialise in areas such as fixed income securities and derivatives, investment and portfolio management, private equity and entrepreneurship finance, all skills that are essential for a career in finance. We will provide you with intensive training in the analysis of issues in finance and corporate policy while improving your analytical and technical expertise.

This two-year degree is ideal if you have graduated from disciplines other than Economics, Finance or other quantitative disciplines but wish to work in a finance-related area. During the first year you will study advanced undergraduate-level modules and the second year consists of the MSc Finance modules, subject to progression.

Studying in the Department of Economics within the School of Law and Social Sciences at Royal Holloway means that you will learn from internationally renowned experts at one of the UK’s top ten teaching and research Economics departments. Our balanced approach to research and teaching guarantees high quality teaching from subject leaders, cutting edge materials and intellectually challenging debates. You will have close contact with the academic staff teaching on the course and you will receive individual support from the course director. You will be taught by a mixture of academics, some of whom have been veteran financial practitioners and have close links with the financial industry in the City of London and will hear from guest speakers.

During your time here you will study core modules essential to a MSc Finance and with our optional modules you will be able to tailor your degree to your interests.

Our facilities include access to Bloomberg terminals, which are used by financial traders and investment banks globally. These give you access to live financial and economic data, portfolio construction and optimisation tools, information and analytics to support your studies. We are also equipped with state-of-the-art software packages such Stata, Matlab and Python. Matlab is the language of choice for the MSc Finance.

On graduation you will be skilled in financial analysis techniques, understand mathematical statistics and theories and have the tools to analyse how financial markets function. Consequently, you will be in a strong position to forge a career in the financial services, business and banking sectors.

A two-week pre-sessional and a term long mathematical methods course are offered to bring you up to speed on your quantitative skills.

• Graduate with excellent career prospects, with economics graduates having an impressive employment record and starting salaries amongst the highest in the country.
• After successfully having completed the degree, you will have already prepared for large sections of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) level 1 exam.

Teaching & assessment

Assessment is carried out by a variety of methods including coursework, examinations and a dissertation.

Your future career

A Finance masters degree at Royal Holloway will equip you with an enviable range of transferable skills and can lead into a variety of career paths as well as the knowledge and a solid foundation for continued PhD studies. Employers recognise and reward the real knowledge and skills developed in an Economics degree.