Finance and Economics (MSc) 2025 entry

For more details, including weekly contact hours, teaching methods and assessment, please see the module catalogue. The modules are examples from previous academic years and may be subject to change before you start your course.

• Semester 1 - Compulsory

  You must take three compulsory modules in Semester 1.

  These are: 

  • Investment Management: fundamental principles of financial markets, financial instruments and modern security valuation techniques.

  and one of:

  • Econometric Methods and Applications: advanced level training in econometric methods.
  • Applied Financial Econometrics: training in econometrics with a focus on finance and time series methods.

  and one of: 

  • Macroeconomics: advanced treatment of the core models and concepts used in modern macroeconomics. 
  • Microeconomics: advanced treatment of the core models and concepts used in modern microeconomics. 

• Semester 2 - Compulsory

  In Semester 2, students must choose at least of one of:

  • Advanced Corporate Finance: investigates the relationship between corporate liabilities and corporate actions. 
  • Portfolio Management: studies key issues in asset allocation, and portfolio composition and management at an advanced level.

  Both modules can be selected.

• Optional

  In your second semester, you will have the opportunity to choose modules from a selection of topics. In total, you will study four modules.

  Examples of optional modules that may be offered include: 

  • Behavioural Finance: examines the effects of behavioural biases in financial markets.
  • Financial Technology: studies FinTech, including blockchain, machine learning and AI technologies. 
  • Causal Inference in Econometrics: teaches cutting-edge econometric methods used in many empirical economics fields to establish plausibly causal estimates of phenomena like the minimum wage or the impact of immigration.
  • Corporate Governance: covers three key components: corporate governance, risk management, and financial management. 
  • Econometric Time Series Analysis: provides an advanced treatment of the core theory and practice of time series econometrics. 
  • Game Theory: provides a thorough advanced treatment of the core models and concepts used in modern game theory. 
  • Industrial Economics: focuses on the structure and mechanisms governing markets and on the way firms compete against each other in the pursuit of profit maximisation. 
  • Monetary Policy: studies key issues in monetary policy.
  • Risk Management: teaches standard techniques in risk and insurance problems. 

  MSc Finance and  Economics students may take up to one advanced undergraduate optional module from the following in the second semester: 

  • Behavioural Economics: Individual Decisions and Welfare 
  • Development Economics
  • Econometrics of Impact Evaluation

  The topics, and therefore module titles, vary year on year as they reflect the research interests of staff. Optional modules require a minimum number of participants to be offered; some may only allow limited numbers of students (see the University’s position on curriculum development). 

• Dissertation

  The final element of the MSc is a 15,000-word dissertation. The dissertation should be on an area of either finance or economics that you are interested in, chosen in discussion with your supervisor who will support you through the process.  

  You will receive training in Semester 1 in framing a hypothesis, conducting bibliographic research, writing a literature survey, and structuring a dissertation.