MSc in Finance

CFA training

We're pleased to announce that we have teamed up with Kaplan Schweser to facilitate student preparation for the CFA exams. Students attending our finance-related Masters - MSc Accounting, MSc Accounting and Finance, MSc Finance and MSc Quantitative Finance - who perform well in Semester one and show a strong interest in CFA, will get free access to Kaplan's online training materials for CFA Part One.

Kaplan is a global firm offering professional training and helping individuals and organisations obtain financial certifications and designations. They will support our students by giving them access to tuition material, online question banks and progress tests, as well as mock exam runs. They will also offer tutor support and 1-2-1 sessions.

Students enrol in the CFA Program to build a strong foundation of advanced investment analysis and real-world portfolio management skills. Preparing for the Level I exam is the first step toward earning the Chartered Financial Analyst ® (CFA) credential, the most respected and recognised investment designation in the world.

Trading BootCamp Week

Each year, Alliance MBS runs a five-day Trading BootCamp for all current students studying MSc Accounting, MSc Accounting and Finance, MSc Finance and MSc Quantitative Finance. These trading simulations provide students with the experience of real-world trading and the opportunity to engage with contemporary financial markets, enabling them to apply their classroom theory in practice.

To deliver the Trading BootCamp, the School has teamed up with Amplify Trading to provide those looking to enter the financial industry with a crucial skill-set. Amplify Tradings are a global financial trading and training firm, which offers training to some of the world's largest financial institutions, such as HSBC, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. They have developed special software that enables students to experience a live trading floor and two experienced traders will deliver the week-long training.

Each day there will be four hours of classes in the morning followed by four hours of trading practice in the afternoon. Engaging in live breaking news, economic data and geopolitical events, students will be able to apply their understanding, technical expertise and risk management practises in trading different asset classes.

This is a fantastic opportunity for accounting and finance students at Alliance MBS and is another way in which we prepare students for successful careers after graduation.

Special features

Worshipful Company of International Bankers Affiliation

Our accounting and finance division courses are now affiliated with the Worshipful Company of International Bankers (WCIB). This means that every year the best dissertation out of the following four courses will receive the WCIB prize worth £300.

• MSc Accounting
• MSc Accounting and Finance
• MSc Finance
• MSc Quantitative Finance

The winner will also enter the competition for the prestigious WCIB Lombard Prize.

Course units details

During the course, you will be taking 180 credits in all. The eight taught units during semesters one and two total 120 credits and consist of both compulsory and optional taught units which can be viewed in the list below.

Over the summer period, you will carry out your Research Dissertation, worth 60 credits. Examples of recent Finance dissertation project topics include:

• Financial reporting regulation
• The role of institutional investors in corporate governance
• Managerial compensation and corporate governance
• Momentum investing
• Capital structure and cash holding decisions
• Dual-class firms and corporate takeover
• Debt IPOs, adviser switching, contracting, governance, performance and venture capital backing
• Can exchange rates forecast macroeconomic fundamentals?
• Over-allocation and stabilisation of initial public offerings (IPOs)

Coursework and assessment

Assessment is by a combination of group assessment and presentations, course work, assignments and examinations. A dissertation of around 8,000 words is normally undertaken.

Recent graduates have accepted positions in the City, with the `Big 4' global financial services firms, major world banks and financial institutions.

Finance Zone

The Finance Zone in Alliance Manchester Business School gives you access to one of the UK's most comprehensive collections of specialist financial and business databases that are used by top researchers around the world. These include Bloomberg, Datastream, Thomson ONE, Compustat, WRDS, Capital IQ and many more.