MSc Finance with Placement Year

This module provides students with fundamental knowledge of the important components and structures of financial statements. It aims to provide a grounding in analytical and numerical skills, professional ethics in the real world, share valuations, and assessments of the quality of corporate financial reports.

This module provides students with fundamental knowledge in principles of international corporate finance and asset pricing to understand and analyse the major issues affecting the financial policies of corporation in capital markets. This course is concerned with the decisions that firms make about financing their investment in a global economic environment. You will study the principles underlying such decision-making, their application and debates over them in relation to the modern literature to develop analytical skills in a challenging global environment, and other complex specialised contexts.

This module provides students with fundamental knowledge about how to use financial tools to manage risk. The risk tools of management covered by the module include portfolio analysis; bonds and the yield curve; financial derivatives (including forwards and futures); options (and how to use them to hedge) and Value at Risk (VaR).

This course provides an introduction to the applications of econometric methods in finance. It examines how one can formulate the relationships suggested by financial and economic theory in mathematical and statistical format, how to estimate these models using sample data, and how to make relevant statements based on the parameters of the estimated models. The course examines the assumptions that are necessary for the estimators to have desirable properties and the assumptions necessary to make statistical inferences. In addition, the course explores what happens when these assumptions are not satisfied, and what one can do in these circumstances. The course concludes with an examination of how to select an appropriate model for applications in finance.

The module provides a foundation for students to understand financial markets and financial instruments. The module compares the different models of financial systems observed globally. It covers the types and functions of financial markets; participants in financial markets (including financial institutions and government); and common financial instruments. It introduces the main elements of financial markets, including the money market, bond market, stock market, and derivatives market. It analyses the features of financial instruments, which correspond to each element of financial markets (bond, equity, futures and options), through real life cases in the financial markets.

The module covers concepts and techniques for analysing time-series data and designing dynamic models, e.g. stationarity versus nonstationarity, cointegration, exogeneity and simultaneity, model encompassing. It is applied-modelling oriented and mathematical proofs and derivations are kept to a minimum. This module provides students with practical experience in modelling economic relationships, and enhances their competence in critically evaluating research results, and carrying out good quality empirical work. The final coursework is an embodiment of these training goals.

The module introduces students to the topic of green finance and its potential contribution to a sustainable economy in the context of climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy. Specifically, the module supports students in understanding how climate and other environmental risks create potential financial risks in banking and capital markets and analyses the role of financial actors in driving and potentially mitigating these risks.

The aim of this module is to introduce the philosophical, theoretical and practical bases of conducting academic research.

The advances in digital technologies resulted in various opportunities and threats to existing economic and societal systems. More specifically, digitalisation restructures policymaking processes, regulatory governance, and poses significant structural challenges to public administration. Besides, the rise of blockchain technology and distributed electronic ledgers add another dimension with the emergence of cryptocurrency and cryptoassets and their regulation. In this context, this module examines the key concepts and theoretical frameworks at the intersection of digital government and regulation. The module begins with presenting the key implications of digitalisation and the rise of disruptive technologies for public administration and public policy. Next, the module studies blockchain infrastructure, regulation of disruptive technologies, fintech and regtech, and finally cryptoassets and central bank digital currencies

This module provides students with a basic conceptual framework and practical knowledge regarding finance and investments in emerging markets. This module is concerned with the differences in financial systems between emerging markets and mature market economies; and how these differences explain the observed discrepancies in corporate financing behaviour between firms in emerging markets and those in mature market economies.

Fiscal governance consists of the systems, processes and tools that ensure the prudent management of financial resources in the public sector. Fiscal governance is crucial to the long-term prosperity of countries as it relates to fundamental policy choices that are made about taxation, public spending and public debt. In today’s sophisticated economic and institutional conditions, fiscal policies are made through complex interactions between central governments, central banks, sub-national governments, supernational organisations, the financial sector. At the same time, inclusiveness in budgeting processes (e.g., citizen participation, gender equality in budgeting) and crisis preparedness (e.g., climate change, man-made disasters) have also become crucial. In this context, this module examines the key concepts, tools and theoretical frameworks of public financial management. The course begins with presenting what public financial management, main theoretical frameworks and the tools of public financial management. The course then proceeds with the political and administrative dimensions of public financial management. Empirically, the course will look at various current debates on fiscal governance, from the choice about what to tax and how much, to the relationship between public debt and economic growth, to the advantages of accrual accounting in the public sector. In classes, students will be required to analyse and present assigned case studies. Students will be expected to participate actively, where they will develop skills and capabilities about applying theories and methods to tackling fiscal governance issues.

The business world has traditionally relied on accounting and finance practitioners to provide a summary of business performance in form of financial statements at regular intervals. Also, quantitative business intelligence has traditional being an important field in accounting and finance.

While these two roles continue to be important, there is marked change in their nature, frequency, and potentials given the exponential growth in unstructured data. Consistent with Moore's Law, there's also an exponential increase in computing power. The current business environment, therefore, requires managers to know data analysis and programming to make sense of the huge volume of data. The module, therefore, complements other modules on the programme, such as financial accounting and financial statement analysis, management accounting, and applied econometrics.

This postgraduate module on Project Management provides students with an in-depth understanding of essential techniques and methodologies utilized in modern project management settings. Students will explore the five key phases of project management: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure.

This module introduces students to the analysis of innovation within the context of systems of innovation. It complements the course Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship, which is focused on the firm and entrepreneurial activity and characteristics, by considering the wider innovation system in which firms operate. Key actors in the system include, firms, government agencies and organisations that comprise the science base e.g. universities, research institutes and technology transfer organisations.

The PG Placement module provides students with an opportunity to apply the academic knowledge they have gained in the first taught portion of the degree programme in a practical, professional setting. The yearlong placement will enable students to develop their own work practice, teamwork and collaboration skills, critical analysis, problem solving, autonomy, and specific skills relevant to the host organisation.

Following the taught element of the PG Programme, students will undertake a 10-12 month placement in an organisation. Upon completion of the placement, students will work on the dissertation or final project, applying the practical skills they have developed during the placement.

The Practical Industry Project has an embedded Practera Virtual Industry Experience component that sits at its centre, offering studens the opportunity to get valuable real-world industry experience through working in a team on a real-world client brief and then developing this further through an individual assessment component. The Practera experience which sits at the centre of this module involves students working in groups of 5-6 students on.a specific client brief. The managing of this portion of the module is entirely handled by Practera using their own management platform where students will be supervised and group meetings as well as client meetings take place. Students work on the group project will be monitored by Practera, working closely with the module convenor.

This module is a final culminating piece of work for MSc programmes. It is an extended work of 5,000 words (excluding the Bibliography and other items listed in the Word Count and Marking of Overlength Coursework Policy as falling outside the word count), based on an original piece of research undertaken by the student on a topic relevant to the aims and objectives of the MSc programme. The module brings together theory, method, collection and analysis of empirical evidence in a small-scale research project, the findings of which are analysed and critically discussed.  The project typically involves addressing an issue of both theoretical and practical relevance. It will entail the collection of primary and/or secondary data (of quantitative and/or qualitative sorts) through various means (such as, for example, interviews, focus groups, surveys, datasets, and simulations) and their analysis, as agreed with the supervisor.

The dissertation project is based on original research in a small-scale research project. The project typically involves a literature review, data collection (including primary/secondary data and case studies), and the development and evaluation of an appropriate research design to address research questions.Students are allocated a dissertation supervisor in Term 2.