MSc Finance and Analytics

You will be introduced to the technologies reshaping the financial sector, focusing on how emerging tools (including AI) and data infrastructures are driving change, competition, and innovation. You wil look at the rise of open and distributed, decentralised systems that challenge traditional financial intermediaries and create opportunities for new market entrants.

The module provides the necessary foundation for the study of finance, comprising three areas of knowledge and understanding:

• Foundational concepts, theories and instruments in finance
• Financial statements and their interpretation
• Mathematical and statistical tools.

This is required knowledge for other finance modules in the programme, for understanding the academic literature in finance, and for careers in finance. The development of Excel and Bloomberg skills are integrated into the module.

This module details the various asset classes that investors might consider in forming portfolios. You'll gain hands-on experience of building a diversified portfolio, hedging using derivatives, and analysing its performance and risk using the Bloomberg terminal.

The fundamentals you'll learn in this module will be particularly beneficial for a career in asset management, investment banking, and wealth management. Your primary focus will be on building an equity and bond portfolio, although other asset classes will also be introduced to you.

You’ll gain an understanding of how to examine data and use statistics to produce information that’ll help businesses to formulate strategies and make decisions. Statistics underlies business analytics and intelligence, making it a powerful tool for decision making. Essential concepts in business analytics and intelligence will be introduced, as well as statistical and econometrics concepts that are central to areas such as business analytics, data mining, data analytics, big data and artificial intelligence. You’ll also be encouraged to work with diverse datasets, as you’ll learn how to prepare these and test basic models of analytics.

Business analytics focuses on the data and technology that enables fact-based decision-making. This module will guide you on how to use data extensively and how to perform statistical and quantitative analysis in order to drive business decisions and actions. You’ll learn how to conduct data preparation (cleaning and integration), pre-processing (standardisation and transformation), reduction (data selection), visualisation and modelling (choosing the right model and when to deploy it) before interpreting it to gain further insights from the data. The module will also demonstrate the use of several analytical tools and software. In addition, this module emphasises the importance of ethics and ethical practices when collecting and leveraging data in the business decision-making process.

This module is designed to develop your self-awareness as a leader and team player, helping you understand your strengths and weaknesses. You'll gain and improve essential management and leadership skills, while also cultivating reflexivity and an enterprising mindset to better handle uncertainty. The module aims to boost your confidence and ability to effectively articulate your skills for career development and employment, and to enhance your interpersonal communication. We'll explore diverse leadership perspectives on key topics like ethics, EDI, sustainability, technology, and change, equipping you to manage issues of corporate social responsibility and societal wellbeing. Finally, you'll learn to analyse and respond to the impact of environmental forces and social issues on organisations.

Your learning is supported through a structured programme of face-to-face workshops and/or support sessions, which may include one-to-one consultations, group discussions, and other interactive learning activities.

These workshops and support sessions provide structured guidance on the planning, design, and execution of an independent applied research project that seeks to address real-world organisational challenges. The guidance focuses on core research processes, methodological decision-making, ethical considerations, and effective communication of findings, and is designed to be applicable to you all on the module. Project ideas are informed by real-world organisations, and you're given the opportunity to explore a topic that reflects your individual interests, professional experience, and/or career aspirations.

If you decide to take the sandwich mode your year of full-time taught study will be followed by one year of full-time, supervised work experience. The time on supervised work experience is paid and spent with a suitable international hospitality and tourism employer. You carry out an assessed project for the company as part of your academic studies on the placement. You'll expand your enterprise skills in the context of the workplace. The focus will be on building your intrapreneurial mindsets during your placement, helping you to develop the curiosity, creativity, vision and resilience to be successful in a variety of organisations. The placement will enable you to drive innovation in one or more of the following areas: ethical business behaviour, inclusivity, responsible management, sustainability, digitalisation and internationalisation. Drawing on your research skills you'll propose evidence based innovative solutions to your placement organisations’ challenges.

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to technologies, applications, and practices for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of business information. The purpose of business intelligence is to support better business decision making. In this module, you’ll gain an understanding of the technology of BI and its application to an organisation’s strategies and goals. By using theory and knowledge, you’ll be equipped to extensively apply data and perform statistical and qualitative analyses that help drive business decisions and actions. You’ll also learn the business intelligence techniques and skills to understand, evaluate, and interpret business and performance metrics and tools. All of this will enable you to improve individual and organisational performance, which can be used to update organisational policies and procedures.

This module provides an introduction to the principles and practice of corporate financial management. You will learn how organisations manage their finances, how they decide what investments to undertake and what dividends to pay. You will be expected to learn the core techniques used to measure the creation of value and, at the same time, develop a critical perspective in evaluating corporate finance theory.

This non-credit-bearing module focuses on developing the academic writing and reading skills required when undertaking postgraduate level study.

It will help you develop your understanding of key features of successful academic writing, including how to integrate sources to support arguments, how to demonstrate critical thinking and how to address assessment tasks effectively. Critical reading and research skills are also developed as well as Critical AI Literacy. It is particularly suitable for postgraduate students who have had little or no previous Academic English training or study experience in a UK university.

This elective study trip will give you a hands-on, intensive experience with the ideas and practices of global business. You’ll meet with leaders of global firms, receive presentations from global academic experts, and tour company facilities. You’ll also have direct interaction with management executives and practices through site visits to major corporations and agencies.

All costs associated with the trip will need to be funded by you. It is not linked to university assessments in any way. If you successfully complete this module you will have it recorded on your transcript. As the destination and therefore precise costs vary from year to year, the programme fee of the study trip will be communicated to students before the application deadline.