Finance and Management

Overview

The MSc Finance and Management programme at Heriot-Watt University gives you the opportunity to develop specialist expertise across the discipline to enable you to proceed to professional and managerial careers in finance and business, both in the private and public sectors. The programme has been developed in response to industry demands, making you highly sought-after upon graduation, and giving you access to employment and further education and research opportunities. Your knowledge and skills will enable you to combine expertise in financial management with the ability to implement effective business management strategies across organisations of any size.

During the master’s programme, you’ll develop a systematic understanding and knowledge in finance, business and management and gain a critical awareness of current issues within the academic discipline and professional practice. You’ll learn to understand and evaluate a comprehensive range of research techniques used in the area of finance, business and management and how these are put into practice, in order to create and interpret knowledge. Throughout the programme, you’ll develop critical thinking and analyses, as you evaluate relevant academic research, professional research and pronouncements and financial and business media articles.

You’ll learn from a bespoke range of courses which will equip you with highly employable expertise across crucial areas of financial management and business management. You’ll have the opportunity to choose two optional courses to customise your learning and develop your specific finance and management subject interest. Your finance and management dissertation will allow you to build upon your subject interest, by carrying out an original research project at the forefront of knowledge.

The programme is designed to provide the knowledge base and the analytical and research skills necessary for doctoral study or employment in a range of roles, including financial analyst, investment banker, financial consultant and corporate finance specialist in highly lucrative areas such as asset management, corporate finance and banking. You’ll develop key transferable skills, including teamwork, communication, organisational and presentation skills to prepare you for lifelong learning and personal development in the financial services sector. Group work and tutorial discussions will provide you insight into the working practices and perspectives of different cultures, and prepare you for a global career, working with colleagues from all over the world.

As Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University is situated on the edge of Edinburgh, you’ll have excellent links to the financial sector of Scotland’s capital city, and the UK’s second-biggest financial and economic hub. Edinburgh is a major centre for fund management and is home to two of the world’s largest banks. You’ll also benefit from our close ties to the London Stock Exchange and Bloomberg, which can provide you with excellent industry-focused learning opportunities.

Our Expertise

Your learning will be informed by the expertise of our research-active academics whose work covers four key areas:

Your learning environment

The MSc Finance and Management programme is taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials and group work allowing you to get to know and build relationships with your peers, the teaching staff and academics. You will be assessed by coursework, exams, and your dissertation, and will receive support and feedback throughout the programme.

During your studies, you’ll benefit from and have access to our state-of-the-art facilities, including our professional-standard Bloomberg Trading Room with 12 Bloomberg Terminals to enhance your employability with data skills. These Terminals are equipped with industry-standard software that provides live financial data and trading tools to the world’s leading banks and corporations.

Outside of the classroom, you can join Heriot-Watt’s Business Society which holds regular social events and provides networking opportunities and insights into career prospects in Economics, Business, Finance, and other relevant industries.

Customise your learning

You’ll learn from the core six courses on the syllabus, with the choice of two optional courses to focus on the area of finance and management that interests you the most. This gives you the opportunity to customise your degree to match your specific interests or career pathway by selecting a specialist course option.

In semester three, you’ll explore in-depth your chosen area of Finance and Management through your dissertation. You will be required to demonstrate your mastery of the subject area by developing new insight from the analysis of valuable primary research.

You can choose whether to study the programme full-time, part-time, or by course. This flexibility allows you to fit your postgraduate studies around your lifestyle. You can begin the programme either in January or September, based on your availability, and the full-time course will last 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time. If you decide to study part-time, you register for two courses per semester and progress to the dissertation at the end of your second year.

You may have the opportunity to Go Global on our Inter-Campus Transfer. Opportunities for postgraduate study abroad are assessed on a case-by-case basis and if you are interested in studying at our Dubai campus or Malaysia campus for a semester or longer, you should contact the Go Global Team.

Industry

We work closely with the industry to ensure our course content is up-to-date and reflects the current and emerging needs of the industry and employers. You’ll gain the right blend of knowledge, practical skills, and soft skills to set you up for life after graduation.

Heriot-Watt University is a named Bloomberg Experiential Learning Partner (ELP), a programme designed by Bloomberg to recognise universities that are leaders in experiential learning. 

Our partnership with Bloomberg, and the achievement of ELP status, is a mark of our innovative approach to connecting our teaching experience with real-life practical applications. Being a Bloomberg experiential learning partner allows Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Business School to better integrate industry-leading data, research, news and analytics into our curricula.

The Bloomberg Trading Room at Heriot Watt University is unique in Scotland and enables students from different disciplines of business to better understand different aspects of markets, business behaviours and economic trends. It enables: