University of Manchester - MSc Finance / MSc Finance & Economics

The programme provides you with the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue a professional career in the financial services, corporate finance, treasury and banking sectors, or an academic career via a PhD. It is also suitable for mature students who have experience in the financial services sector, but who have had no formal training in finance. Such students will benefit from a more scientific approach to financial issues, which will help you make more sense of your day-to-day working experiences.

Course Structure:

All taught course units are 15 credits.

Semester one

• Introductory research methods for accounting and finance
The course begins by explaining the methodology of positive economics and the associated concepts of research design. It then provides a foundation in statistics, computing techniques and databases, which are beneficial for successful completion of other postgraduate courses in Accounting and Finance.

• Essentials of finance
This course provides the basic theoretical foundations of theories of asset pricing. The course focuses on the structure of the main theories of asset pricing that are most used in empirical and applied finance, such as Portfolio Theory, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Arbitrage Pricing Theory, as well as providing an understanding of the formal construction of asset-pricing models.

• Derivative securities
This course covers the valuation and application of financial derivatives instruments, and the use of no-arbitrage arguments and risk neutral valuation for the relative pricing of financial derivatives.

Plus, one unit from –
• Foundations of finance theory
This course provides a foundation in the most important models in finance: general no-arbitrage relationships (forward parity, put-call parity, MM theorem, the law of one price), stock valuation models (APT, CAPM, TSP) and option pricing models.

• Financial statement analysis
This course provides an understanding of the role of financial statement information in the decisions taken by current and prospective stakeholders in a company.

• International macroeconomics and global capital markets
This course examines major issues in the macroeconomic relations between countries. These include: evidence of globalisation in capital markets from parity conditions; the inter-temporal approach to current account dynamics; the fundamental determinants of the real exchange rate; the sustainability of current account deficits, with special reference to the US experience; capital account liberalisation; alternative measures of international capital mobility, and the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle; economic growth, theory and policy.

Semester two

• Financial econometrics
This course covers OLS, ML and GMM estimation methods, univariate time series analysis and various topical issues such as ARCH, Vector Autoregressive Models, unit roots, error correction, co-integration and non-linear time series models.

• Research methods and methodology in finance
This course introduces you to basic research techniques in finance covering both theory and practice.

• Corporate finance
This course covers theoretical and empirical aspects of corporate financing, capital structure and dividend policy, and more advanced topics in agency theory, signalling, incomplete contracting, incomplete information games, corporate control and governance, and executive compensation.

Plus, one unit from –
• Investment analysis and portfolio management
This course provides an advanced coverage of the main principles of investment analysis and portfolio management; it examines the steps involved in constructing an investor’s optimal portfolio, how to revise this portfolio to ensure it remains optimal, and how to measure the performance of this portfolio.

• International finance
This course covers the developments in international financial markets and theories of exchange rate determination. In particular it focuses on the theoretical and applied aspects of the causes of financial/exchange rate crises, the relationship between international capital flows investor behaviour (including sentiment) and international asset pricing, and the potential for international financial market contagion of financial crises.

• Real options in corporate finance
This course evaluates strategy and management value in property, power, resources, R&D, football, dot.coms, telcos, banking and consulting; the course surveys the real options that practitioners have identified in these industries.

• International mergers and acquisitions: economic & financial aspects
This course provides students with a conceptual framework for the understanding of mergers and acquisitions. Using both economic and financial analysis, the course investigates how the basic principles arising from an extensive theoretical tradition can give meaning to a raft of empirical findings about the phenomenon.

Summer research period (60 credits)

The MSc dissertation normally consists of a literature survey in an applied/empirical area of accounting and finance followed by a piece of empirical work, involving either qualitative research methods or traditional statistical methods.

Typical topic areas include -
• Corporate financial strategy
• The investment performance of firms
• Mergers
• Initial public offerings
• Market efficiency
• The role and valuation of derivative securities

Global Derivatives View:

Key Stats:

Acceptance Rate: 10% (Finance), 2% (Finance & Economics)
Annual Intake: 81 (Finance), 6 (Finance & Economics)
Application Deadline: Rolling Admissions
Average Age at Entry: 21-31
Average Years of Work Experience of Class:
Dissertation/Thesis:
Duration of Program: 12 Months (Full Time)
Entry Requirements:
--- An upper second class honours degree (or the overseas equivalent) is normally required in finance, economics or a related discipline (see below for more details
GMAT:
Language Taught: English
Male-Female: 46/54 (Finance), 67/33 (Finance & Economics)
Placement Rate:
Ratio of International-Domestic Students:
Required Courses for Completion: 180 credits
Student-Teacher Ratio:
Tuition (2009-10): Finance & Economics: £9,470 per annum for Home/EU students and £16,400 for International students. Finance: £15,400 per annum for Home/EU students and £17,800 for International students

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