Teaching & assessment

Teaching l Workload l Assessment

The Masters in Finance incorporates a variety of teaching methods, to ensure both an intensive and stimulating learning environment. Structured lectures form the bulk of the teaching, and are, often backed up by additional classes. The lecturing style tends to be participative, and lectures focus on practical applications through case studies, discussions and leading industry practitioners as visiting speakers.

There are also group work sessions and opportunities for simulation exercises, project work, field investigations, and individual research.

Does the teaching have a practical orientation?
Our Masters in Finance is vocational and career-oriented and is designed for finance professionals. This is reflected by the programmes recognition as an official CFA Program Partner. London Business School's finance teaching is renowned for its dual emphasis on rigorous scholarship and real-world relevance. In addition to this, programme participants who wish to be awarded a concentration will take a mandatory practical module taught by a leading industry practitioner.

As well as pursuing research in their own fields of interest, members of faculty also act as consultants and advisers to industry, government departments and committees, and hold directorships in a range of organisations. These activities help to maintain the practical relevance of the School's teaching and research, and assist faculty in staying attuned to ongoing developments in the business world. Much of the School's research work in the finance and accounting area is supported by a group of donor organisations with whom the School maintains especially close relationships.

Who will be teaching on the programme?
The programme will be taught by members of the London Business School Finance Group (with some inputs from the accounting, economics, entrepreneurship and management science and operations faculty). The Finance Group has an international reputation and orientation, and is one of the largest concentrations of finance faculty worldwide. Both its research and teaching receives the UK Higher Education Funding Council's highest ratings, indicating standards of national and international excellence.

The work and reputation of faculty such as Dick Brealey, Stephen Schaefer, Julian Franks, Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh, Ian Cooper, and Chris Higson has made the School an internationally recognised centre of excellence in financial research and education. The group maintains close links with other academics, and regularly attracts distinguished visiting faculty from other top international schools with strengths in the finance field.  More about the Finance Group.

Will I be working mainly on my own or in study groups?
Due to the extremely high calibre of all our Masters in Finance participants, much can be gained from working alongside members of a study group. You will be asked to complete a number of assignments and other activities in the study groups to which you will be allocated. You will learn a great deal from fellow participants, because of their varied professional experiences and educational, and cultural backgrounds of the other participants.Group work tends to assume rather less importance on the part-time programme and for the elective courses, largely for practical reasons.

What are the course attendance requirements and workload?
You are expected to attend all of the lectures and classes which are scheduled for each of the core and elective courses. This is not a programme where people can opt in and out of sessions. The pace is rapid, and sessions follow a building-block approach, with each lecture building on material covered earlier. Irregular attendance would make it virtually impossible to complete the programme successfully.

How many hours will I need to work each week?
Usually full-time participants will be taking three courses per term. A typical week in the full-time participant first term will consist of about 12 contact teaching hours. In addition, you will need to spend at least 30 hours per week studying on your own or in your study groups, and most people choose to put in even more time than this. The required contact hours will be marginally lower in your second and third terms to allow you time to work on your individual project. The speed at which individuals work will obviously vary, but as a rough rule of thumb, you will need to put in two to three hours outside of the classroom for every hour actually spent in the formal sessions.

Part-time participants spend about six hours per week in lectures and classes and should also allow at least twice as much time for private study as the time they spend at the School (ie a minimum of about 12 hours per week should be set aside for private study).

How do the elective courses fit in?
The elective courses are usually taught in three hour periods (with a short break), once a week in the morning, afternoon or evening during the term. Subject to the necessary prerequisites, most electives are open to full- and part-time MiFs and MBAs, International Exchange Programme, and Sloan Masters Programme participants, thereby generating economies of scale which enable us to offer a wide range of elective courses.

What happens between the terms?
The formal teaching is divided into three terms (from September to December; January to March; and April to June).There are periods at Christmas (late December/early January) and Easter (typically in late March/early April) when no formal teaching is scheduled, but you should in practice view the programme as a continuous period of education, since the breaks between terms will be largely taken up with essential consolidation and work on the team project.

How is the programme assessed?
Each course will be assessed on the basis of course work and (virtually always) an end of course examination.  For the core courses, there will always be an end-of-course examination and this will account for at least 50% of the course grade.  Some elective course teachers also grade class participation and oral report presentations.

To qualify for the Masters degree participants must successfully complete ten courses, including all the core courses and the team project. Candidates may re-sit a core course once only, on the first occasion on which the course recurs. 

Any participant who fails an elective will be permitted to resit the course once with the permission of the faculty member teaching the course. If this permission is not granted, the individual will be allowed to take an alternative elective in lieu.

What is the pass rate?
The pass rate is normally between 95 and 100%.  This is because our admissions criteria are very strict, and there is strong support from faculty throughout the programme to ensure that participants complete the Programme satisfactorily.  Occasionally individuals do fail the programme however, and each year it is often necessary for a few to exercise their one re-sit option having failed a core course, an elective course or the team project at the first attempt.  In addition, some participants do not complete the programme for work reasons (eg, relocation outside the UK) or for personal reasons.