Program Overview

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Accounting and Finance MSc

Overview

Our Accounting and Finance MSc course is designed to equip you with the skills, knowledge, and expertise necessary for a career in chartered accountancy (ACCA, CIMA) or empower you to launch your own sustainable business. Dive into a dynamic curriculum that combines essential accounting and finance skills with innovative insights from cutting-edge modules like Ethics and Sustainability and The Entrepreneur Accountant.

Course Structure

This course provides a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of key areas of accounting and finance, together with a broad commercial understanding of decision making within a cost context. Content is benchmarked against the professional body curriculums and regularly updated.

Current study themes include financial and management accounting, taxation, and financial management. Through optional modules, you can choose to specialise either in accounting or finance, or choose an equally balanced programme across the two areas. You may also choose any Level 7 electives that may be of interest to you.

Semester 1

The first semester is designed to build a strong foundation of knowledge of accounting in the management of organisations. We’ll look at managerial accounting concepts and techniques, exploring of a range of contemporary issues in financial accounting and reporting, such as fair value accounting, creative accounting and ethics of profession, or environmental and social reporting.

Receiving training in Bloomberg and Excel for accounting, you'll learn to use mathematical and statistical analytical methods. Essential topics covered in the first semester include: budgetary planning and control; costing and decision-making; managerial accounting; and research methods that provide you with the necessary guidance to choose a research topic and complete a literature review for your final year project.

Semester 2

The second semester builds on financial management and corporate valuation and taxation principles and practice. Optional modules enable you to choose areas of personal or professional interest, whether it is accounting or finance such as auditing and professional ethics, financial derivatives, modern portfolio management and financial information systems.

Your studies culminate with the final Project under the guidance of a designated supervisor, an intensive piece of research – an 8,000 to 10,000-word dissertation. As a guide, previous students have considered topics as diverse as dividend policy, gender diversification on boards, stock market volatility, emerging markets finance and earnings management, among others.

Core Modules

• Capstone Project
• Corporate Financial Management
• Contemporary Issues in Accounting
• Ethics and Corporate Governance
• Financial Reporting
• Management Accounting

Option Modules

• Auditing and Professional Ethics
• Behavioural Finance
• Sustainability in Finance with ESG
• Taxation
• The Entrepreneurial Accountant

Professional Accreditation

The MSc Accounting and Finance Programme has applied for accreditation from both the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). Pending accreditation, graduates of the MSc Accounting and Finance course may qualify for ACCA examinations. They may also go through CIMA’s Gateway Route.

Entry Requirements

• A minimum of a lower second class honours degree (2:2). Relevant degree disciplines include business studies, economics, geography, management, and operations research. However, students with qualifications in other disciplines such as engineering, environmental sciences, the humanities and languages are also encouraged to apply. Alternative professional qualifications, with at least three years' relevant professional experience, will also be considered.
• If your first language is not English you should have an IELTS 6.5 overall with 6.0 in each component.

Tuition Fees

• UK tuition fee: £14,700 (Price per academic year)
• International tuition fee: £19,500 (Price per academic year)

Careers

You’ll be able to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of core accounting and finance principles, developing the advanced numerical and analytical skills to succeed in this rapidly changing and complex environment. Your exposure and manipulation of real financial data in the Financial Markets Suite provides excellent preparation for professional practice. You'll also graduate with a range of interpersonal, leadership, digital and critical thinking skills that employers want.

On graduation, you can expect to pursue a range of career opportunities in financial accounting, management accounting, finance, and public administration and other roles in finance and accounting. Past graduates of this course have gone on to work as accountants, management consultants, audit managers, business analysts, senior financial analysts and in asset-based finance, among other professions.

Teaching and Assessment

Your learning experience is designed to provide both a practical and theoretical understanding of the structure, function and management of international finance.

To assist the learning experience, we provide reading lists, lecture and seminar materials in advance via Blackboard, our virtual learning environment. Lectures are recorded using specialist software and similar tools, so you can refer back to topics of interest at your leisure.

Facilities

Our purpose-built Financial Markets Suite uses the Bloomberg platform to provide a state-of-the-art teaching and research resource.

You'll get firsthand exposure to the technology used by leading investment banks across the world – from the City of London to New York's Wall Street and Tokyo's Citibanks.