Finance MSc

Overview

Are you interested in a career in a finance profession? By studying our MSc Finance you should be able to gain the skills and knowledge needed, with pathways that allow you to focus on a particular area of interest.

By design, the MSc Finance is a specialist course that seeks to educate and prepare you for a range of careers within the finance professions, upon successful completion. This course aims to provide you with specialist financial skills and knowledge – everything from derivatives, portfolio theory and risk management, to financial modelling, governance and ethical finance. This specialist knowledge is supported by recognitions or accreditations from some of the UK’s leading professional financial organisations including the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Society of the UK and the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). Please see the Accreditation and Professional Recognition section for further information.

An attractive feature of the MSc Finance is its flexibility, with three pathway options available in your second semester. These pathways are designed to allow you to focus on an area of most interest to you, whether that be investment management, banking, or a more general finance pathway. These pathway options should allow you to tailor this degree to an area of finance that most interests you.

Regardless of the pathway studied, this course seeks to develop enterprising and globally-orientated postgraduates, upon successful completion, who are equipped to cope in a financial world of constant transformation and increasing complexity. Offering the chance to gain an international student experience, a range of internship opportunities (subject to availability, competitive application, meeting any applicable visa requirements and additional fees may apply) and the opportunity for practical integration between theory and practice, the course aims to help you to develop the skills most valued by employers.

Course information

The emphasis of this career-focused and topical degree-level course is on interpreting, evaluating and communicating financial information for strategic, managerial and investment purposes. Content is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect new developments and the requirements of the profession, needs of industry and government policy.

We will aim to help you develop a critical awareness and understanding of contemporary financial issues and theories relating to corporate finance, financial strategy, emerging markets and behavioural finance. For example, we’ll explore the use of derivatives as hedging/speculative tools and the problems they can cause for companies.

If you choose to take the Banking or Investment Management pathways, you will be exposed to sector specific knowledge, which should enhance your expertise in your respective chosen specialism. On our Investment Management pathway, you will have the opportunity to get hands on exposure to leading investment databases, while on our Banking pathway, you can look in depth at the regulation of the banking sector, and how it operates internationally.

With the courses aim to enhance your technical, analytical and mathematical skills, you’ll be exposed to the real financial practices and techniques you may encounter working in the finance industry – through investment software and databases like Bloomberg and Datastream. You should learn to value financial assets such as shares, bonds and derivatives and should develop econometric skills to analyse cross-sectional and time series data.

Career prospects

This master’s level course can help lead to careers in financial services, corporate finance, fund management, treasury or banking and insurance sectors, upon successful completion.