Programme details
For the Masters in Finance degree, you'll complete a minimum of ten course units: three core courses, a team project and six to eight elective courses. You can do the programme over ten months with the full-time format, or over 22 months with the weekend format.
Core courses
These compulsory courses will provide you with the in-depth knowledge of key concepts and topics that every finance professional should be familiar with. They cover:
Investments
- present value
- valuation of fixed income securities
- basic statistics with a focus on stock returns
- portfolio theory
- state-price approach to valuation
- the Capital Asset Pricing Model and regressions to estimate betas
- the valuation of stocks
- hedging and multi-factor models
- efficient markets, rational expectations, anomalies and behavioural finance
- active portfolio management
- performance evaluation
- forwards, futures and options
- derivatives usage and risk management.
Corporate finance
- overview of corporate finance
- performance measurement and financial forecasting
- sustainable growth
- capital structure
- financial distress
- pecking order and market timing
- dividends
- net present value
- company valuation
- valuation methods (multiples, FCF, WACC, APV, comparables).
Financial Accounting and Analysis
- introduction to financial analysis
- pro forma financial statements
- financial ratios
- capital structure and asset structure ratios
- common size statements
- the analysis of cash flow
- revenue and expense recognition
- earnings management
- accounting fraud
- accounting and economic income
- implications for GAAP
- recognition and valuation of tangible assets
- recognition and valuation of intangible assets
- asset impairments
- accounting for inventory
- accounting return on capital, economic return and IRR
- cash flow and financial modelling
- EVA and economic profit
- EP versus DCF valuation
- accounting for bonds
- leases and off-balance sheet accounting
- pensions and post-retirement benefits
- taxation of corporate income, and deferred taxes
- accounting for shareholders' equity
- accounting for employee stock options
- investments in marketable securities, fair valuation
- consolidation and equity accounting.
Personal assessment and development programme
Successful career trajectories entail high degrees of both personal growth and professional advancement. Career progression is not about wasting our energy trying to make ourselves more effective by changing our characters. Instead, it is more effective to find new and better ways of 'being ourselves' through enhanced insight and skill. By the end of the course, you will have a more thorough awareness of your personal characteristics and current skill set and you will have the opportunity to develop a plan to work on selected areas of development.
Objectives of the programme :
- Develop an awareness of the knowledge, skills, and attributes that underlie personal growth and career effectiveness
- Obtain individual-level feedback utilizing the best existing assessment instruments: 360 degree-feedback and the NEO Personality Inventory
- Share feedback on your interpersonal skills
- Develop a personal action plan.
If you have a limited background in accounting, you'll also be required to take our Preparatory Accounting Module. People with limited knowledge of statistics will need to take our Preparatory Statistics and Regression Module.
Electives
You choose between six and eight electives from a profile of around 30 courses. These build on the foundations established by the core courses. You can choose from across this broad range, or, you can focus on areas of particular interest and relevance to your future career.
Electives are scheduled in a variety of formats including weekend, daytime, evening and block week classes. One of the benefits of our elective portfolio is that classes are shared by all our degree programme students. Studying alongside students from other London Business School programmes both broadens your learning environment and allows you to build networks across the School.
Find out more about the range of electives and the different concentrations.
Projects
Participants complete a substantial team project in pairs (part-time MiF also have the option to complete theirs individually) - which counts as one course unit. Projects typically involve the analysis of an event, transaction or situation and give an opportunity for participants to show how they can produce an analysis that puts into practice what they have learned on the programme. Project titles from 2008 included:
- What comes next for private equity? How the credit crunch impacts the industry
- Investment Strategies for the Current Sub-Prime Crisis
- Air New Zealand business turn-around
- Financing a start-up business
Faculty
The Finance Group at London Business School is renowned for teaching that emphasises both rigorous scholarship and practical relevance. In tandem with their research activities, faculty members act as consultants to financial institutions, industry and government, and hold directorships in a range of organisations, keeping our teaching grounded in the real world.
Teaching and assessment
The Masters in Finance uses a variety of teaching methods, to create an intensive and stimulating learning environment. The lecturing style tends to be participative, and lectures focus on practical applications through case studies, discussions and leading industry practitioners as visiting speakers.
Read Masters in Finance: teaching and assessment FAQs
Next steps
Information events
Discover more about London Business School's Masters in Finance programme.
Watch the Masters in Finance video
The learning experience
Learn more about the format of the Masters in Finance and the electives and concentrations covered in the programme. Students talk about the cutting-edge teaching, quality of the faculty and the balance between theory and practice in the programme.
