Program Overview

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Charity Accounting and Financial Management MSc | PGDip

Key information

• Duration: 12 - 24 months
• Attendance mode: Part-time
• Location: Bayes Business School
• Start of programme: October 2025
• Application deadline: Applications are now open for 2025/26
• Entry year: Showing course information for 2025

Overview

Charity Accounting and Financial Management MSc | PGDip Who is it for?

You may already be working in charity finance, as a manager or consultant, or aiming to move into this demanding role in the sector. Either way, this academically rigorous course will match your needs. It will also equip you for a role as an advisor, auditor or independent examiner to a charity.

You will gain a well-rounded understanding of the role and the knowledge and skills to develop and apply your financial expertise in the sector.

Accreditation

Students completing this course gain eligibility for the professional DChA (Diploma in Charity Accounting) award through the ICAEW.

Accredited by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC).

Why choose this course?

Technical & practical

Blend of practical knowledge from those working in the sector and relevant, current theory.

Start in April or October

We offer a 12 month PgDip/two year MSc course (April & October); study alongside your job.

Course objectives

Under scrutiny from regulators, trustees and supporters, charities must exercise the highest level of financial governance. This course equips you for that unique challenge. Combining the academic rigour of an internationally respected business school with a highly practical and applied approach, it is tailored precisely to the issues facing senior managers in the third sector.

You will be taught by an academic team who understand first-hand the tools and techniques for effective financial management of charity income and assets. Guest lecturers will present their thoughts on the real-world challenges placed on charity finance managers. Your course includes a fieldwork exercise. This will give you a deep insight into the practical realities of charity financial management in another organisation.

Teaching staff

Professor Paul Palmer

Professor of Voluntary Sector Management, Associate Dean and Director of Centre for Charity Effectiveness

Other teaching staff include:

• Mark Salway has worked to form financial strategy and growth plans for CARE International, Depaul, Tomorrow's People, Edexcel, The Children Society and Cats Protection.
• Karen Thompson has worked in the not for profit sector for over 15 years, as a Finance Director, Chief Operating Officer and also as an Assurance & Advisory partner in some of the top 20 firms.
• Alex Skailes is a Director at Bayes and leads Bayes' Centre for Charity Effectiveness. She is an experienced strategy and finance director with a successful track record of advising and leading clients in the nonprofit and private sectors.

Accreditation details

The programme is accredited by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW). Students will be eligible for the Institute's Diploma in Charity Accounting (DChA) upon completion of the Bayes Postgraduate Diploma.

The Charities Master's courses were accredited by the; Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC) in January 2019 as the only programme in Europe to be included in the first group reviewed. NACC Accreditation fosters third sector academic programmes worldwide.

Course content

The MSc course is taught on a part-time basis over a period of two years (20 months for those eligible to enrol on the April Intake). Students initially enrol on the Postgraduate Diploma with the specialist area of their choice, and confirm their intention to complete the MSc at the end of the first year.

• Develop your understanding of the strategic issues and organisational challenges facing charity organisations and their managers within the finance function
• Build relevant management and leadership skills, and analytical capabilities
• Acquire insights into the different strategies and approaches commonly adopted by charities
• Deepen your appreciation of the issues of managing change in the finance function
• Gain access to a strong network and connections within the charity sector
• Build your confidence as you pursue your career in the sector.

Course structure

Programme content is subject to change. We regularly review our module offering and amend to keep up to date and relevant.

Induction weeks

The Charities programme courses starting in October will have a final session for the in-person registration followed by an Induction Programme.

Modules

• Learning and Understanding the Voluntary Sector

This module represents the starting point for you and the opportunity to learn about the process of learning and establishing plans for learning on the programme. It also offers a perspective on leading public/voluntary sector debates within an historical context, alongside a more enduring understanding of scholarly approaches to the understanding of developments and changes in the relationship between government and the voluntary sector.

• People Management in the Voluntary Sector

This module provides an appreciation of key aspects of voluntary sector human resource issues, including the critical issue of volunteer management.

• Marketing and Fundraising

This module aims to provide you with the concepts, underpinning knowledge, skills and techniques to plan and develop marketing and operations systems and enable students to analyse marketing needs, evaluate marketing plans, in the context of applying marketing concepts to their own organisation.

• Charity Accounting and Finance

This module aims to provide you with an understanding of the specialist charity accounting framework grounded in trust law and fund accounting principles and issues of financial management.

• Strategy, Diversity and Governance

This module aims to enable you to develop a broad knowledge and conceptual base in the field of strategy development, diversity and governance.

• Fieldwork Exercise

In this module you will undertake a 'tailored' learning experience centred on a 5 day consulting assignment on a financial project within a charity.

• Advanced Charity Accounting, Audit and Taxation

This module aims to provide you with advanced knowledge of charity accounting, audit and taxation principles and practice requirements.

• Voluntary Sector Financial Management

This module aims to provide you with an in-depth grounding of the principles of financial management applied to the charity sector.

MSc conversion

Upon successful completion of the diploma, you will be given the option to continue to the MSc. This requires completion of the Research Methods for Managers module. This can be followed by a further six months of personal, supervised research and the presentation of a dissertation.

Alternatively, you can opt to take a taught Masters which allows you to choose specialist modules from one of the other Charities programmes.

Assessment methods

The Postgraduate Diploma consists of five compulsory modules that all students take which are common to all the five charity postgraduate courses. These provide the essential underpinning of management skills for the compulsory specialist modules. Upon successful completion of the diploma you can continue to the MSc Programme.

The MSc requires completion of the Research Methods for Managers module. This is followed by either: a further six months of personal, supervised research and the presentation of a research-based dissertation. Or alternatively, you can opt to take a taught Masters which allows you to choose specialist modules from one of the other charities programmes.

Assessment methods

• Course work
• Examinations

Term dates

October 2025 intake - standard route

Schedule| Date
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Induction| 02 October 2025Learning and Understanding the Voluntary Sector| 03 - 04 October 2025 (on campus teaching); 10 October 2025 (online teaching)
People Management in the Voluntary Sector| 01 - 02 November 2025 (release of online material); 14 - 15 November 2025 (on campus teaching); 21 November 2025 (online teaching)
Marketing and Fundraising| 06 - 07 December 2025 (release of online material); 12 - 13 December 2025 (on campus teaching); 09 January 2026 (online teaching)
Charity Accounting and Finance| 06 - 07 February 2026; 06 March 2026Strategy, Diversity and Governance| 07 March 2026; 27 - 28 March 2026Advanced Charity Accounting, Audit and Taxation| 22 - 23 May 2026; 19 June 2026
Exam| 10 July 2026Voluntary Sector Financial Management| 20 June 2026; 17 - 18 July 2026Fieldwork Exercise **| Process to be completed by early August 2026Course Review Day**| 04 September 2026

*All other modules are assessed by coursework.

Term dates For students progressing from the Postgraduate Diploma Intake in 2024

Schedule| Date
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Research Methods for Managers| 17 - 18 January 2026 (release of online material); 23 - 24 January 2026 (on campus teaching); 06 February 2026 (online teaching)
Dissertation or Taught Masters Option| Completion by mid-September 2026

Careers

Students are selected on their professional experience, and generally continue working in their full-time role whilst undertaking this course.

Past students have come from a variety of organisations, including business and the public sector.

"Those leading the course are some of the most insightful and experienced practitioners in the charity industry."
- Darren Wall

"I wanted to experience a professional course at one of the world's leading Business Schools that delivered both technical specialism and more generalist leadership and management training across all the areas relevant to running a professional not-for-profit organisation. The course offered both extremely relevant and current theory, but also very practical knowledge from those working in, or running such organisations."
- Tom Bilton, Global Finance and Operations Manager, PEAS

"I came to the Charity Finance MSc as a mature student, wanting to move from being a commercial Finance Director into a portfolio career, and since graduating, have achieved that. As well as working in a consulting capacity, I have recently become a Trustee and Treasurer of a high profile charity, which I would never have been able to do without the MSc behind me. And the breadth of modules on offer meant that I ended up with a taught Masters rather than writing a dissertation, which had been my original intention."
- Nicola Silverleaf, Treasurer, CLiNKS

" I recently made the transition from the public sector to being a Finance Director in the Charity Sector. In advance of this, I completed the PgDip in Charity Accounting and Financial Management. I think I gained both from learning about the overall framework for charities in the UK and the current issues facing the sector, and from learning the specifics about the accounting rules and disclosure requirements for charities. Having this knowledge gave me the confidence when trying to find a job and, I believe, helped convince the trustees of my charity to appoint me. The knowledge gained on the course has also helped me settle into my new role fairly quickly."

- Elizabeth Dymond, Director of Finance and Corporate Services, The Charity for Civil Servants

Fees & funding

UK/Home/International fee

October 2025 entry

£7,620

PgDip

• £4,410

An additional fee to convert to the Master’s degree*

Tuition fees are subject to annual change.

The fee for the Postgraduate Diploma is £7,620 for the 2025/26 academic year of entry. A deposit of £400 is payable on acceptance of a place. For self-paying students, the balance is payable in two instalments, the first during the registration process September and the second at the end of January.

*The fee for those converting the Diploma to MSc is a further £4,410 in 2025/26 and is payable in one instalment at the beginning of the second year. The conversion fee for the following year of entry will be subject to an annual inflationary increase.’ (there will be a line break once live, just not in the examples below.

Tuition fee increases

Where applicable, tuition fees for Bayes' programmes will be subject to inflationary increases in each year of study. Our policy for these increases is set out in our terms and conditions of study.

Scholarships & bursaries

Students sponsored by their employer will need to complete a form. We also recommend looking at the government PG loan for funding.

Scholarships

Eastside Primetimers Foundation Scholarships

We are delighted that the 50% funding of the course fees over the two-year part-time Master’s for two applicants for either the Charity Accounting and Finance, Charity Marketing and Fundraising, NGO Management and Voluntary Sector Management courses in the Charities programme is continuing.

Applicants need to have accepted an offer of a place on the course and will be considered on the basis of the scholarship application form.

Selection will be on the basis of academic/financial reasons, career plans/capacity-building in the UK sector and focussed on underrepresented groups.

• The deadline: 24 July 2025 , with confirmation of funding by early August.

Aziz Foundation scholarships

We are delighted that this opportunity is being made available for British Muslim students with an offer of a place on any of the five courses in the Charities Masters (again).

Direct applications to the Aziz Foundation for full fee funding for the two-year part-time Master’s.

Please see the Aziz Foundation applications page for further details.

• The applications for the Aziz Foundation scholarship for students starting in October 2025 will open in January 2025.

Other funding opportunities

You may wish to look at the PG Loan option for funding.

View other funding options

Sponsorship

Students on the course who are sponsored by their employer will need to complete a sponsorship form as part of the application process. This can be completed for the Postgraduate Diploma or the MSc. An invoice for the full fees for the academic year will be sent to the employer in October for the Postgraduate Diploma. If the employer is a charity, they can request payment in two instalments by contacting the person named on the invoice. This arrangement allows the charity to spread the fees across two financial years.

View our sponsorship guidance

Entry requirements

All students will be highly motivated graduate-level people who bring a wide range of professional competencies, skills and experience from a wide range of backgrounds.

In general we ask for a good first degree, normally an upper second-class honours degree from a British University or a relevant professional qualification: e.g: ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW; ICAS and three or more year’s relevant experience at a senior level. In exceptional cases we will also accept those without a degree but with significant work experience. Provided you have more than three years relevant experience, two professional references are acceptable.

English language requirements

In order to participate fully in the collaborative learning process all students who have not previously studied in English must sit an academic IELTS or TOEFL iBT exam.

The minimum required academic IELTS level is an average of 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in writing and no less than 6.0 in any other section.

We require a well-balanced overall score of at least 100 and no less than 25 in the Writing section in the TOEFL iBT test or the TOEFL iBT Home Edition test.

If you are not a native English speaker but have been working in the UK for the last three years it is unlikely you will need to take the test.

Apply

The PgDip/MSc Charity Accounting and Financial Management course has two separate entry points each year.

The intake for the Postgraduate Diploma in April each year for applicants who have gained a CA qualification through one of the five CCABs.

The intake for the Postgraduate Diploma in October each year is relevant for all other applicants.

Students are able to continue to the Masters from either start date.

Apply for October 2025 Entry

Apply - October

Terms and conditions

Students applying to study at Bayes Business School are subject to City, University of London's terms and conditions.

Student life

We are located right in the heart of London. Being a student at City allows you to take advantage of all that London has to offer.

London is continually ranked as one of the 'Best Student Cities' in the world to study within (QS, 2025).

• Student support

Contact us

Speak to one of our staff from Master's programmes teams.

• Charities contacts
• Charity Events

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