Find out more about studying Accounting and Finance, MSc at University of Aberdeen? We've gathered all the key details, entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
MSc - Master of Science
Main Site
Full Time
Sep 2026
1 Year
The Accounting and Finance MSc sets you on a path for a rewarding career in this highly skilled profession, whether you’ve recently graduated or are already working. With this specialised one-year conversion programme you don’t need previous experience in this area to gain the skills to advance a career in the financial and accounting sector. A career in accounting and finance requires an in-depth understanding of both the theory and practical knowledge of accounting and finance. With this industry-focused programme, you’ll master a wide range of financial tools and acquire a solid foundation of key accounting and finance topics, while developing the necessary skills for management roles. The programme will thoroughly prepare you for a successful career across a variety of potential and financial roles and industries. Led by renowned academics and top industry practitioners, you’ll gain access to the latest accounting and finance research, software and techniques. The Business School’s strong links with financial institutions, recruiters and practitioners ensures a focus on tangible, marketable employability skills, relevant to the real accounting and financial world. You’ll have the opportunity to engage with industry throughout the programme, including working on live projects with prestigious companies. We also run workshops with visiting industry specialists from companies such as Deloitte, KMPG, PwC and EY. Experience three Professional Development Weeks annually, providing you with valuable opportunities to enhance your skills and career prospects. Additionally, participate in our Careers Fair, where you can interact with potential employers, explore diverse career paths, and make connections that can shape your professional journey. The University of Aberdeen is a leader in teaching and research in the field of accounting and finance and this programme builds on our considerable strengths in these areas. The Business School is home to The Centre for Governance, Accountability, and Sustainability. The group produces world-class contemporary and historical research that are of importance to the accounting profession, policy makers, regulators, business etc. and those who have a desire to address deep social, economic and sustainability issues facing the world.
Students will gain an understanding of what financial information is for and how it is controlled by government, the stock exchanges and other institutions. Students will explore financial accounting assumptions and conventions. They will develop their technical knowledge and skills to enable them to record business transactions and prepare financial statements. Finally, students will be introduced to financial statement analysis and the calculation of key metrics. This will allow them to explore how accounting information is used by stock market participants and the impact on users of current developments and issues in accounting practice, governance and standards.
The course will cover the main elements of Microeconomic Theory together with how this underpins the macro economy, covering consumer theory, how consumers choose under constraint of a budget, to generate demands. How this theory can be used to consider the welfare effects of price changes will be considered. The problem of production will be examined to understand the supply, and the demand and supply side will be drawn together to consider market structure. How the theory can be used to identify market supplies and demands from empirical data will be examined.
Like football, this course is a game of two halves. The first half is financial analysis and builds your ability to analyse companies and think about the implications of financial performance for investors. We will be using DataStream and the Thomson Reuters Eikon system. In the second half we will think about the setting of international accounting standards ? the system and the principles behind the IFRS?s.
This course introduces students to basic financial concepts before moving on to introduce students to a number of areas of corporate finance including investment appraisal decisions, examining capital structure theory, the financing decisions of the firm, and corporate restructuring. The main aim of the course is to equip students with good analytical skills in order to understand the implications of corporate financing decisions by understanding why companies behave the way they do with respect to financing choices and how this interacts with the real world financial markets, and to enable students to understand the theoretical underpinnings of corporate finance theory.
This course introduces management accounting and the difference between this strand of accounting and that studied in the BU5031 module. It develops in students the ability to apply complex problem-solving techniques in the planning, control and decision-making process. It shows how quantitative methods and analytical techniques can be applied in management accounting solutions to management problems. The course seeks to develop in students an understanding the organisational context as well as the nature of management accounting information. The focus is to enhance students? problem-solving and communication skills, and develop their ability to select and apply appropriate techniques in specific contexts.
The capstone of your programme. A significant individual piece of work showing your ability to think, research, organise and analyse. You will work with a member of faculty to develop a proposal that you will then turn into 10,000 words of reality!
This course examines theories and issues relevant to portfolio analysis. Themes include: risk and return; investment motives; the application of modern portfolio theory (including the Capital Asset Pricing Model); information and market efficiency; portfolio analysis and asset pricing; bonds and equities; real estate and derivative markets.
This course develops a mathematical and statistical ?toolbox? for PGT students in the Business School. These tools will useful in understanding and implementing research in business- and economics-related fields both during a students academic career as well as after graduation. The first part of the course covers basic mathematical models common across these fields. The second part of the course develops standard data analysis methods, including multivariate regression. The final part of the course examines shortcomings in the standard model and describes ways of overcoming those shortcomings.
