Corporate Finance MSc

The course

Studying a MSc Corporate Finance will give you the skills required to start a career in corporate finance, in the banking sectors or investment industry. During your studies you will be provided with intensive training in the analysis of issues in corporate finance and policy while improving your analytical skills.

This degree provides you with a critical understanding of corporate finance and entrepreneurship finance, as well as innovation research and the processes and practices of new venture finance. A particular focus will be on understanding the different roles and financial functions in venture capitalist and private equity firms, in entrepreneurship, consultancy and mergers and acquisitions.

Studying in the Department of Economics within the School of Law and Social Sciences at Royal Holloway means that you will learn from internationally renowned experts at one of the UK’s top ten teaching and research economics departments. Our balanced approach to research and teaching guarantees high quality teaching from subject leaders, cutting edge materials and intellectually challenging debates. You will have close contact with the academic staff teaching on the course and you will receive individual support from the course director. You will be taught by a mixture of academics, some of whom have been veteran financial practitioners and have close links with the financial industry in the City of London and will hear from guest speakers.

During your time here you will study core modules essential to a MSc Corporate Finance degree and with our optional modules such as Investment and Portfolio Management, Fixed Income and Derivatives, and Private Equity you will be able to tailor your degree to your interests.

Our facilities include access to Bloomberg terminals, which are used by investment banks globally. We are also equipped with state-of-the-art software packages such as Stata, Matlab and Python. Matlab is the language of choice for the MSc Corporate Finance.

On graduation, there are excellent career prospects with our students having an impressive employment record and starting salaries amongst the highest in the country.

Our programme has been designed to help you prepare for the competitive Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam.

A two-week pre-sessional and a term long mathematical methods course are offered to bring you up to speed on your quantitative skills.

• Graduate with excellent career prospects, with economics graduates having an impressive employment record and starting salaries amongst the highest in the country
• After successfully having completed the degree, you will have already prepared for large sections of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) level 1 exam.

Teaching & assessment
Assessment is carried out by a variety of methods including coursework, examinations and a dissertation.

Your future career

A Corporate Finance master’s degree at Royal Holloway will equip you with an excellent range of transferable skills and can lead into a variety of career paths as well as the knowledge and a solid foundation for continued PhD studies.

We will help students to recognise their strengths, skills and abilities so that they can make robust applications for their chosen job or further study. We also provide careers support including application and interview coaching, career strategy discussions and the opportunity to network with major employers.

Our graduates are highly employable and, in recent years, have entered many different areas, including careers as consultants, financial analysts, accountants, bankers, journalists and business analysts.

Students need to have High 2:2 in Economics, Business, Finance, Management or any degree with evidence of some quantitative background. Candidates with professional qualifications in an associated area and/or relevant industry experience may be considered. Normally, we require a UK 2:2 (Honours) or equivalent in Economics, Management, Mathematics, or other maths-based disciplines. Candidates with professional qualifications or relevant professional experience in an associated area will also be considered. Applicants with a degree in Management will need to have studied sufficient maths modules as part of their degree.