Why you should study this course
This course is designed to prepare graduates for exciting potential future careers, in sectors such as investment banking, financial services, and financial technology.
It aims to provide a solid grounding in key areas of financial theory, such as derivatives, corporate finance and quantitative methods, before focusing more directly on financial technology. The course aims to provide an overview to the rapidly growing FinTech sector, as well as how to manage risk within it, and how it can be applied in a practical sense to financial firms and their activities.
What you'll study
Alongside an understanding of key financial theories, and how technology can disrupt and improve them, you will have the chance to learn the key skills needed for a future career in a fast-moving, innovative sector, in an internationally diverse environment.
The course also offers you the opportunity to undertake a practical module on data analytics, which is designed to prepare you for the increasing importance of these skills in the modern financial world.
Modules
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Corporate Finance – 15 credits
The aim of the module is to examine and critique key corporate finance issues, including financial management, risk and return, corporate financing and asset pricing, capital structure and payout policy. The module will take an international perspective and explore both theoretical models and empirical evidence.
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Quantitative Methods – 15 credits
This module will cover some of the quantitative techniques commonly used by financial analysts, economists, accountants as well as individual investors. The aim is to give students the basic grounding in econometric methods used in the analysis of quantitative data.
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Derivatives – 15 credits
This module focuses on the major classes of derivatives and on the uses of these instruments in hedging, regulatory arbitrage, price discovery, arbitrage and speculation. You will be exposed to both introductory and advanced aspects of the theory and applications of all major classes of derivative products.
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Governance, Accountability and Ethics – 15 credits
The aim of this module is to provide you with a framework to examine the key issues in corporate governance. These include underlying corporate governance theory and associated reporting and regulation, the role of monitors and issues of independence and ethics. It will also develop your ability to critically appraise relevant academic literature and current issues, then integrate and synthesise topics in order to participate in current debates and suggest potential insights for development.
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Introduction to FinTech – 15 credits
This module aims to examine the development of FinTech and its relationship with financial institutions and the transformation of global financial systems. The module also provides an introduction to various FinTech applications (e.g. cryptocurrencies, payment systems and trading platforms) and evaluates their impact on companies and economies.
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Risk Management and FinTech – 15 credits
The aim of the module is to examine and analyse how risk management is connected and applied to FinTech. The module also examines fundamental risk management concepts, definitions of risk and types of risk, governance, standards and regulations, and the impact of risk to enterprises and financial institutions. Alternative risk responses and risk management strategies in FinTech will also be created and evaluated.
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Applied FinTech – 15 credits
The aim of the module is to equip you with the skills to critically analyse and evaluate FinTech applications. The module begins with an overview of the architecture of FinTech systems and applications, then goes on to analyse the entrepreneurial and development processes of FinTech applications.
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Data Analytics using Python/R – 15 credits
The module aims to provide you with the essential skills in data analytics and data mining. The module covers data classification, clustering, and data mining algorithms that can be applied to financial data. With the use of Python/R, you will also explore ways of training computers to investigate and analyse patterns, trends and rules within financial data sets.
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Dissertation/Consultancy Project – 50 credits
In this module, you will carry out a substantive piece of individual research into a business or financial management issue.
You will be expected to draw upon the knowledge acquired, and the intellectual, technical and analytical skills developed during the course.
You will be given the opportunity2 to either research a theoretical research question of their choice (research based dissertation) or to address a real question from a host organisation (management consultancy project).
How you'll learn
Teaching methods include:
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Lectures
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Seminars
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Presentations
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Group projects
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Workshops
This course can be offered on a part-time basis. Whilst we would like to give you all the information about our part-time offering here, it is tailored for each course each year depending on the number of part-time applicants. Therefore, the part-time teaching arrangements vary.
