This multidisciplinary programme will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the interrelationships between areas of finance and the global economy as they play out in a rapidly evolving international environment.
This programme examines key issues from both a business and economic perspective, including how multinational corporations leverage financial markets when seeking to exploit international business opportunities, the management challenges presented, and the relevance of these to financial and capital markets.
Students will gain an understanding of the international business environment and its competitive and investment climate. Using frameworks and methodologies, students will also investigate the interaction between firm strategies, economic policies and the changing international environment.
Module descriptions are correct for modules taught in the academic year 2017/18. Optional module listings are indicative, and may be subject to change.
Compulsory Modules
Optional Modules
In addition students must choose optional modules up to the value of 60 credits. Students must choose at least 20 credits from section B and section C from the lists below and a further 20 credits from either section B or C.
Section B:
Section C:
Exams, applied project and individual and group assignments
Graduates of the MSc International Business and Finance follow a variety of career paths upon graduation. These include roles in finance or general management, working for a range of employers such as large corporations or multinational enterprises, financial institutions, banks, securities companies or government agencies.
Our graduates tell us that the programme gives them the key skills and knowledge required to build a career in finance in multinational enterprises, financial institutions or government agencies.
Africa is ripe for growth – but there is a shortage of good people who have the right financial skills to to help the market grow and improve the overall investment climate. The Master of Commerce Degree (MCom) in Development Finance will give you the expertise to turn ideas into financially sound, long-term development solutions that improve lives, uplift communities and place Africa on the global stage. This is your opportunity to build an exciting career in the cutting-edge discipline of development finance.
The Masters of Commerce Degree in Development Finance is designed to develop people and institutions that can help provide optimum financial outcomes that enhance the design and implementation of reforms and capacity-building programmes adopted by development finance institutions, governments, the private sector, NGOs and the wider emerging markets.
While Development Finance is typically known for its use by people working in development finance and other related institutions, it is also widely used by people in other banking and financial services institutions. It provides the expertise to start initial investments that act as the right catalyst, and demonstrate that enterprises can thrive in economically challenging markets. It is also used to ensure that funds channelled through development projects provide sustainable outcomes that can sustain the development agendas of developing countries.
Why this Degree?
As a professional discipline, Development Finance is widely practised today by all central governments; major development finance institutions including the World Bank, the IMF, the UN; as well as public and private sector organisations, international foundations and NGOs.
However there is a shortage of Development Finance experts in Africa, where the expertise is needed most. It's for this reason the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), has partnered with Africagrowth Institute (AGI), to create the Master of Commerce Degree in Development Finance.
The MCom (Development Finance) programme aims to ensure that Africa produces enough development finance experts to meet the growing needs of the growing continent.
Who Should Apply?
Development finance is for people and institutions that can influence development trends in an emerging context and make large-scale changes that can impact positively on the quality of life of people around the world. The GSB MCom in Development Finance brings with it a wide range of benefits including the following:
Actuaries evaluate and manage financial risk. They apply advanced mathematical and statistical techniques to solve financial problems, assess the likelihood of a particular event and the possible financial costs. The role of the actuary is increasingly important in the current economic climate, where volatile markets are contributing to financial uncertainty.
Our MSc Actuarial Finance will introduce you to essential business topics and enable you to apply your quantitative skills to solve complex business problems, such as risk management, insurance and derivatives. You’ll gain comprehensive knowledge in business areas such as accountancy, corporate finance and economics, as well as key analytical techniques, processes and models that have significant applications in actuarial finance.
The Business School has strong links with the actuarial profession and the insurance and pensions industry, giving you the opportunity to interact with practising actuaries and industry experts.
Academic excellence
This course is delivered in partnership with the University’s School of Mathematics. You’ll learn from leading academics based in both schools, giving you access to world-class expertise in both areas.
As a student, you will be able to access the knowledge of our advanced specialist research units, which also have strong links with leading institutions in the US, Europe and Asia. These include the Centre for Advanced Study in Finance (CASIF), the Institute of Banking and Investment (IBI) and the Credit Management Research Centre (CMRC).
You will also benefit from our strong relationships with the actuarial profession. This provides a connection to the latest developments in the industry and gives you a masters degree that is relevant to the contemporary environment.
You’ll take compulsory modules in corporate finance and economics allowing you to put your work into context and understand the importance of the role played by actuaries. At the same time, you’ll build your mathematical skills with classes in applied statistics and probability, as well as discrete time finance.
Building on this, you’ll study continuous time finance and gain an understanding of how different stochastic processes and survival models are applied to actuarial science. This will compliment your studies in topics such as accounting, professionalism and ethics, international investment and portfolio risk management.
Throughout the year you’ll build your professional skills with a core module focussing on critical practical skills that will prepare you for the workplace. At the end of the course, you’ll bring together your business, mathematical and professional knowledge to complete an independent project on a topic of your choice, which will demonstrate your ability to apply the skills you’ve gained.
Compulsory modules
For more information on typical modules, read Actuarial Finance MSc in the course catalogue
Our tutors come from highly respected professional and academic backgrounds. We use a range of teaching methods so you can benefit from their expertise including lectures, workshops, seminars, computer simulations and tutorials.
In addition to the assessed modules and research dissertation, you benefit from professional training activities and employability workshops.
Independent study is also an important part of the course, allowing you to prepare for taught classes and sharpen your own research and critical thinking skills.
Assessment methods emphasise not just knowledge, but essential skills development too. They include formal exams, group projects, reports, computer simulation exercises, essays and written assignments, presentations and reflective logs. This diversity enables you to develop a broad range of skills as preparation for professional life.
As a graduate of this course you will be able to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of core actuarial principles, and the numerical and analytical skills to succeed in this rapidly changing complex environment.
Graduates have entered successful careers in insurance, pensions, accountancy, risk management and consultancy. Job prospects are wide ranging and include careers as accountants, consultants, scheme and insurance actuaries, and employment in investment banking and risk management.
As a result of the high level of quantitative skills developed, you also gain an excellent grounding for PhD study in accounting, finance and economics.
We help you to achieve your career ambitions by providing professional development support and training as part of the Masters programme. You benefit from the support of a Professional Development Tutor, who will work with you to develop the important professional skills that employers value.
We’re committed to offering a wide range of development and training opportunities. Recent activities have included CV building and interview sessions, professional risk management workshops and commercial awareness networking events.
Read more about our careers and professional development support.
The University of Leeds Careers Centre also provides a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate.
Combining up-to-the-minute theory with practical application, our MSc in Finance will prepare you for a great number of career options. This new masters programme has been devised for 2017 by combining key elements from our current Finance programmes, including our Finance & Investment masters that was ranked 38th by the Financial Times in 2016, in order to give you the opportunity to tailor your learnings to your career aspirations. The second Semester of our masters programme is flexible allowing you to select courses which either combine different areas of finance or which allow you to specialise in one of the three following areas:
This MSc will be the one that is put forward for the FT MSc in Finance rankings in the future.
The School's location in the UK's second largest financial centre allows us to attract visiting speakers including a range of analysts from the key financial institutions and fund management houses. Students are able to interact with leading figures from many major companies; this is particularly evident in the dissertation, which offers an invaluable opportunity to collaborate on a topic that has real, of-the-minute industry relevance.
The practical, theoretical and numerical skills learnt through the programme, as well as the global perspective that will be gained through classroom learning and discussions, will leave you well qualified for a range of finance related professions. We expect graduates to take up positions with companies like the Big 4, with investment and commercial banks; market and consumer research centres; fund management firms; energy utilities and consultancies, as well as with public sector departments responsible for the finance sector, energy and climate-change policy. Potential roles are varied and include for example: equity analyst, portfolio manager, financial statement analyst, product manager, commodity/specialist fund manager, business analyst, strategy consultant.
The School is a recognised partner institution by the Chartered Financial Analysis (CFA) Institute. Equally the School is recognised as a Centre of Excellence in the provision of postgraduate education in finance and investment by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).
Learning will primarily be through lectures, set reading, class discussions, exercises, group-work assignments, problem solving in tutorials and case studies. Assessment methods include examinations, assignments, presentations or continuous assessment.
