BSc Finance (Sustainable Finance)

Program Overview

The BSc Finance (Sustainable Finance) program at ICMA Centre equips students with a comprehensive understanding of sustainable finance, including responsible investments, corporate social responsibility, and environmental economics. Graduates develop strong analytical and problem-solving skills through coursework in financial modeling, risk management, and quantitative techniques. The program offers optional modules and a final year specialization in finance, preparing students for careers in investment analysis, portfolio management, and risk management with a focus on sustainability.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

• Program overview:
This pathway enables you to make financial decisions with sustainability in mind by developing your knowledge of responsible investments, corporate social responsibility, and environmental economics.
• Program objectives:
Graduates will possess a firm grasp of Sustainable Finance, beneficial when entering financial institutions and the corporate world.

Program Outline:

#Year 1 (all modules compulsory):

• Introduces students to key financial markets & sustainable finance.
• Simulations in securities dealing using Bloomberg/Refinitiv software.
• Introduces financial system basics, trading instruments & strategies.
• Covers time value of money, securities, risks/returns relationship etc.
• Quantitative Techniques & Econ introduction for business & finance.
• Examines ethical dilemmas for investment professionals & relevant regulations.
• Accounting fundamentals with a management-specific focus.
• #Year 2 (50% compulsory, 50% optional/pathway-specific):

Compulsory modules

• Focuses on corporate value creation via strategies, finances & governance.
• Portfolio selection, construction & management for competitive returns.
• Covers Sustainable Finance basics, applications for financing/investments.
• Financial Modelling techniques to solve practical finance-related problems using MS Excel & VBA.
• Assesses climate change's social/economic impacts & the financial sector's role.

Possible optional modules (20 credits, student selection):

• Advanced econometric techniques for empirical finance research.
• Historical financial trends, bubbles & crises & future finance developments.
• Python-based object-oriented programming for data processing & financial applications (event-based trading strategies, backtesting/optimization with historical data etc.
), data processing from files, reading/modifying/writing external file data, reading/writing Excel & CSV, connecting to databases, obtaining & processing web data & Python for Finance/Econometrics (including developing event-based trading strategies & backtesting & optimising using historical data).
• Social Responsibility in Action: Working on projects for local orgs/businesses to build business solutions aligned with their Sustainable Development Goals/corporate social responsibility objectives (real-world application of previously taught material)
• #Year 3 (33.3% compulsory, 66.6% optional/pathway-specific) & Work Placement/Study Abroad options:

Optional Work Placement/Year Abroad

Between second and final years (potential career benefits).

Final year

Compulsory modules

• Management of Risk: Current risk measurement/management techniques in financial institutions (includes value-at-risk, expected shortfall analysis, backtesting etc)
• Other compulsory:
(depending on specialization):

Optional examples

#BSc Project & Career Options

Here it is extracted in detail:

Careers:

Upon program completion, a strong understanding of sustainability is gained, leading to various career possibilities: - Careers examples given: Investment analysts & advisors (with focus on ESG factors & responsible investments), portfolio and fund specialists, risk analysts/managers in banking or asset management companies. This is considered extra, beyond your original requirements:

• Financial sector's future direction is impacted by climate change.
• Government targets in sustainability are incorporated into regulatory frameworks (investors demand green options).
• University offers CFA-related scholarships & program affiliation (signalling practical relevance for CFA program exams to potential employers, students & the market, facilitating professional practice preparedness)

UK/Home student fees and funding

UK/Home students (2024/25): £9,250 UK students can get government loans to help towards their living costs, known as ‘maintenance loans’. If you choose to take out both a fees loan and a maintenance loan, these will be rolled together and repaid only after graduation through the tax system, as a proportion of your income. PLEASE NOTE: All fees are set for one year only. UK/Republic of Ireland fee changes UK/Republic of Ireland undergraduate tuition fees are regulated by the UK government. These fees are subject to parliamentary approval and any decision on raising the tuition fees cap for new UK students would require the formal approval of both Houses of Parliament before it becomes law. EU student fees With effect from 1 August 2021, new EU students will pay international tuition fees.

EU) student fees and funding

International Students (2024/25): £27,650 Band 2 courses are programmes that have a significant laboratory or ‘workshop’ content. These fees cover tuition, matriculation, examination, graduation and membership of the Students’ Union.