MSc Finance / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course description

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Student Insights: Parth Kirti, India, MSc Finance

Investing in an MSc Finance adds up to a great career and you gain valuable quantitative skills that are in high demand by employers.  A dissertation, focusing on empirical research, allows you to explore your chosen area of interest in detail, and you are supported throughout by our high-calibre staff. 

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

CFA training

We have teamed up with Kaplan Schweser to facilitate student preparation for the CFA exams.

  • MSc Accounting , MSc Accounting and Finance , MSc Finance and MSc Quantitative Finance course students 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.
  • Gain student support from Kaplan with access to tuition material, online question banks and progress tests, and mock exam runs. Plus tutor support and 1-2-1 sessions.
  • The CFA Program builds a strong foundation of advanced investment analysis and real-world portfolio management skills.
  • Take the first step to earning the Chartered Financial Analyst ® (CFA) credential to prepare for the Level I exam
  • The CFA is the most respected and recognised investment designation in the world.

Trading BootCamp Week

Together with Amplify Trading , a global financial trading and training firm, we offer a week long Trading BootCamp for MSc Accounting, MSc Accounting and Finance, MSc Finance and MSc Quantitative Finance course students.

  • experience a live trading floor provided by two experienced traders with specialist software
  • engage with contemporary financial markets and apply your classroom theory in practice
  • watch live breaking news, economic data and geo-political events, and use your knowledge and skills in trading different asset classes
  • a fantastic opportunity to prepare you for successful careers after graduation.

The Finance Zone   

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). 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

Coursework and assessment

Assessment is by a combination of group assessment and presentations, course work, assignments and examinations.

Course unit details

During the course you will be taking 180 credits in all. The eight taught units during semester one and two total 120 credits and consists 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)

Course unit list

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Cross Sectional Econometrics BMAN70211 15 Mandatory
Asset Pricing BMAN71111 15 Mandatory
Time Series Econometrics BMAN71122 15 Mandatory
Corporate Finance BMAN71152 15 Mandatory
Derivative Securities BMAN70141 15 Optional
Current Issues in Empirical Finance BMAN70162 15 Optional
Mergers & Acquisitions: Economic & Financial BMAN70432 15 Optional
Financial Statement Analysis BMAN71132 15 Optional
Portfolio Investment BMAN71171 15 Optional
Behavioural Finance BMAN74112 15 Optional
Sustainable Finance and Accounting BMAN74551 15 Optional
Displaying 10 of 11 course units

Scholarships and bursaries

Masters scholarships for Accounting and Finance programmes for UK/EU students

We are delighted to be able to offer five scholarships available across the four Accounting and Finance programmes with a value of £10,000 towards the cost of the tuition fee. The scholarships will be awarded in line with our scholarship deadlines so early application is advisable. Read more >>

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: dass@manchester.ac.uk