Finance

The MSc in Finance provides a thorough grounding in the theory and analytical techniques required by finance professionals. It offers students a global perspective on the process of financial decision-making and practical knowledge of the workings of financial markets and the price-setting process. Students will also learn to critically evaluate research and advanced scholarship in finance.

Programme Objectives

The programme provides essential understanding of the theory of finance and of the skills required in practice. You learn about corporate finance, techniques of quantitative analysis, global financial markets, analysis of financial statements, derivatives, portfolio management, investment analysis, risk management and behavioural finance. You will learn spreadsheet skills and econometric techniques for analysing corporate performance and identifying trends in financial markets and have access to financial databases, including DataStream. The dissertation, completed in the summer, enables development of your individual interests.

Entrance Requirements

A good Honours degree in any discipline or equivalent professional qualifications or significant and relevant work experience. Although an accounting or finance-related degree is not required for admission, students should be reasonably numerate.

English Language Requirements

If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence of your proficiency such as a minimum IELTS score of 6 (minimum 5.5 in each skill), or TOEFL: Listening 21, Reading 22, Speaking 23, Writing 21.

Funding

Two Divisional Scholarships are usually available each year.

Postgraduate Student’s Allowance Scheme (PSAS) awards are available on a competitive basis to Home/EU fee-paying applicants.

information on possible sources of funding

Mode of Study

Full-time: one year

Programme Start Date

September

Structure and Content

This one-year, full-time programme has an initial taught component of two 15-week semesters, involving lectures, practical case study work and workshops, followed by a supervised dissertation. In the autumn semester you will take the following modules:

• Financial Reporting: Provides an appreciation of the underlying assumptions and limitations of accounting information. Measurement and reporting problems involved in financial accounting ‘solutions’ adopted by regulators are discussed. Methods for interpretation of reported accounting information are explored and applied to ‘live’ data
  
• Corporate Finance: Provides an understanding of how corporations raise finance (debt and equity) and invest money (capital budgeting). Also examines other major decision areas of corporate finance and how these affect the value of the firm
  
• Quantitative Methods in Finance: Provides the statistical and computing skills to fully understand modern banking and finance operations. Spreadsheets are used to manipulate statistical models and estimate linear models
  
• International Finance: Covers the workings of the foreign exchange market, factors that determine exchange rates, and how corporations may manage their foreign exchange and interest rate risks using a variety of derivative products
  

In the spring semester you will take at least one of the following core modules depending on the type of dissertation that you plan to undertake:

• Research Methods: Introduces students to generic and subject-specific research training. Also prepares for the dissertation module as well as laying the foundations for more advanced postgraduate research
  
• Financial Statement Analysis: Develops skills in the interpretation and use of financial statements, focusing on company valuation and identification of companies that may become insolvent. It includes a project where a group of students work together to write and present an investment analysis report on a UK Quoted Company
  

You will then select two or three from the following modules:

• Derivatives: Focuses on the uses and the pricing of the key derivative instruments: options, futures, forwards and swaps
• Investments and Portfolio Management: Provides an understanding of security valuation and portfolio management. Focuses on the valuation of both equities and fixed-interest securities and the management of equity and fixed-interest portfolios
  
• Mergers and Acquisitions: Provides an understanding of the motivation for and consequences of mergers and acquisitions against the background of corporate finance theory and practice. Focuses on the financial and economic aspects of M and A activity and other forms of corporate restructuring, such as spin-offs, carve-outs, and sell-offs
  

Delivery and Assessment

Successful completion of the taught modules leads to the award of a Postgraduate Diploma. The Master’s degree is awarded on, in addition, satisfactory completion of a dissertation. 

Timetable

Please contact Lauren Hosey, Programme Secretary, for information on your timetable and reading lists.

Learning activities to prepare you for study in the UK

Prepare for Success is an interactive web learning tool for international students who are getting ready to come to the UK for study in further or higher education.

RAE Rating

In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), Accounting and Finance was ranked 1st (equal) in Scotland and 5th in the UK, with virtually all (90 percent) research activity considered to be of international standing.

Career Opportunities

Our programme also caters for students who wish to pursue an academic career. Completing the MSc in Finance provides the research skills to equip you to proceed to a PhD and thereafter a career in academia.