Investment Analysis

The MSc in Investment Analysis is the UK’s longest-established postgraduate-level programme in the field of investment management education. It is one of the very few Master’s degrees in the UK to have CFA® Institute Program Partner status and one of a select group of partner institutions worldwide. At least 70 percent of levels I, II and III of the CFA® syllabus are covered during the programme.

Programme Objectives

As a CFA® Institute ‘Program Partner’, the majority of the learning outcomes of all three levels of the CFA® Programme are covered and so the programme is ideally suited to those who wish to become qualified as a CFA® Charter-Holder. The syllabus has a distinctly international orientation that reflects the increasingly globalised nature of financial markets and the investment management profession.

Such is the international reputation of the programme that students come from a wide variety of educational and professional backgrounds and cultures, providing a unique opportunity for the development of worldwide contacts. The Stirling Investment Analysis team won the prestigious CFA® Institute Global Investment Research Challenge UK Final in 2010 and the programme is unique among UK ‘Program Partners’ in having had a team competing in the UK final in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

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 to this programme, 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

At least two prestigious Karen Napier scholarships are usually available each year, meeting programme fees and including a maintenance award.

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

information on possible sources of funding

Modes of Study

Full-time: one year

September

Structure and Content

The Master’s programme is a one-year, full-time programme. Your programme begins with an initial taught component of two 15-week semesters, involving lectures, practical case study work and workshops, with a supervised dissertation in the final period.

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
  
• Corporate Finance: Provides an understanding of how corporations raise finance (debt and equity) and how they invest money (capital budgeting). Also examines other major decision areas of corporate finance and how these affect the value of the firm
  
• Economics for Business and Finance: Introduces students to economics as a discipline, assuming no prior knowledge of economics, and focuses on aspects most relevant to a career in finance
• Quantitative Methods in Finance: Provides the statistical and computing skills necessary to fully understand modern banking and finance operations. Spreadsheets are used to manipulate statistical models and to estimate linear models

In the spring semester you will take the following modules:

• 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. Includes a group project where students collaborate to write and present an investment analysis report on a UK quoted company
• Derivatives: Focuses on the uses and the pricing of the key derivative instruments: options, futures, forwards and swaps
  
• Investments and Portfolio Management: Focuses on the valuation of both equities and fixed-interest securities and the management of equity and fixed-interest portfolios
  
• Law of Investment Regulation: Introduces investment regulation and the development of markets with focus on the international, US and EU context. Considers UK insider dealing and the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct of the CFA® Institute is also covered
  

Delivery and Assessment

Successful completion of the taught modules leads to the award of a Postgraduate Diploma. The Master’s degree is awarded on satisfactory completion of a dissertation, following the Diploma examinations. Dissertation topics range over all areas of relevance to investment analysis and allow completion of a case study or research topic 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 at Stirling 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

Graduates have gone on to work across the world in both the buy side (fund management) and the sell side (stock brokering) of the industry. You are assisted in your job search by the University’s Career Development Centre. Walter Scott Global Investment Management, the employer of a number of the programme’s graduates, sponsor a prize of £1,000 for the student with the best overall academic performance.