MSc Finance (2 year course)

Our MSc Finance course is ideal if you would like a career in the financial sector. Through your studies you will gain a strong grounding in core areas of finance and have the flexibility to specialise in areas such as fixed income securities and derivatives, investment and portfolio management, private equity and entrepreneurship finance, all skills that are essential for a career in finance. We will provide you with intensive training in the analysis of issues in finance and corporate policy while improving your analytical and technical expertise.

This two-year course is designed for students who would like to study finance but earned their first degree in a different subject than economics. The first year consists of undergraduate-level modules which provide the foundations of microeconomics, macroeconomics and quantitative methods, as well as some optional modules. The second year consists of the regular MSc Economics modules, subject to progression.

Studying in the Department of Economics within the School of Law and Social Sciences at Royal Holloway means that you will learn from internationally renowned experts at one of the UK’s top ten teaching and research Economics departments. Our balanced approach to research and teaching guarantees high quality teaching from subject leaders, cutting edge materials and intellectually challenging debates. You will have close contact with the academic staff teaching on the course and you will receive individual support from the course director. You will be taught by a mixture of academics, some of whom have been veteran financial practitioners and have close links with the financial industry in the City of London and will hear from guest speakers. Please read more here.

During your time here you will study core modules essential to a MSc Finance and with our optional modules you will be able to tailor your degree to your interests.

Our facilities include access to Bloomberg terminals, which are used by financial traders and investment banks globally. These give you access to live financial and economic data, portfolio construction and optimisation tools, information and analytics to support your studies. We are also equipped with state-of-the-art software packages such R and Python.

On graduation you will be skilled in financial analysis techniques, understand mathematical statistics and theories and have the tools to analyse how financial markets function. Consequently, you will be in a strong position to forge a career in the financial services, business and banking sectors.

A two-week pre-sessional and a term long mathematical methods course are offered to bring you up to speed on your quantitative skills.