MSc in Finance and Management

The modules published below are examples of what has been taught in previous academic years and may be subject to change before you start your program.

Typically, each module consists of three to five contact hours per week including lectures, seminars, and tutorials. Assessment is either entirely by coursework or through a combination of class tests, coursework, and an end-of-semester examination.

Compulsory

• Corporate Financial Management: provides an introduction to modern theories of financial management and shows how to apply the theory to realistic financial decision problems
• Applied Financial Econometrics: Develop students' ability to undertake quantitative research by equipping them with econometric tools and techniques to analyze and interpret financial data
• Advanced Corporate Finance: focuses on empirical and theoretical issues that arise in modern corporate finance
• Investments and Portfolio Management: covers concepts such as valuation, efficient diversification, and predictability of asset returns. The module contains a balance between theoretical models and their practical applications

Exciting new developments to this program are under consideration. This page will be updated as soon as the approvals are in place.

Optional

Students choose two optional modules, taking one each semester.

Here is a sample of optional modules that may be offered.

• Behavioural Finance
• Entrepreneurship and Business Development
• Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity
• International Financial Management
• International Marketing
• Leadership in Organisations
• Managing People in Global Markets
• Marketing and Society
• Managing Non-governmental Organisations
• Risk Management
• Scenario Thinking and Strategy
• Financial Systems (required for the accelerated route to Chartered Banker Status).

Dissertation

Students attend lectures throughout Semesters 1 and 2 to prepare them for conducting the research portion of the dissertation. The dissertation is normally on a specific area of finance and management; however, you will have the freedom to develop a topic of your own, which is of interest to you and will contribute towards career development or further study goals.

Students are assigned a supervisor based on a research proposal submitted in the second semester. They will then research and write a 15,000-word dissertation over the summer to be submitted on a date specified in August.

If students choose not to complete the dissertation requirement for their master's degree (MSc), there are exit awards available that allow suitably qualified candidates to receive a Postgraduate Diploma. By choosing an exit award, you will finish your degree at the end of the second semester of study and receive a PGDip instead of an MSc.

Teaching

Teaching format

The taught elements of the program are delivered using a range of methods including lectures, small group tutorials, workshops, and seminars.

The average lecture size is 50 students; however, in some cases, there will be seminars of 15 to 18 students or larger lectures with up to 100 students, which would normally be augmented by small-group tutorials.

From June to August, students undertake a research project culminating in a written dissertation of 15,000 words.

You will attend a weekly series of lectures and workshops focusing on research methods and other topics to provide support and help prepare you for the dissertation.

Assessment

Assessment comprises a combination of coursework and examinations.

Alumni from the Finance and Management programme and more generally from other Masters programmes in the School of Management have secured employment in the fields of management consultancy, accountancy, investment analysis, investment banking, commercial banking, fund administration and other aspects of the financial services industry.

Graduates from the Masters in Finance and Management have taken up roles in a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors including:

• Bain and Company
• Barclay's Capital
• Blackrock Global Investment Management
• Bloomberg
• Credit Suisse Group
• HSBC
• IBM
• Morgan Stanley
• Nomura Bank
• Procter and Gamble.

Further study

Many Management graduates continue their education by enrolling in PhD programmes at St Andrews or elsewhere.