Queen Mary, University of London
MSc Investment and Finance

Welcome

Dear Applicant,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Queen
Mary, University of London, and in particular to the
MSc in Investment and Finance. The Master’s degree was founded five years ago with the intention of equipping students with the necessary skills to meet a constantly changing financial environment. Our graduates have entered the job market as successful assets managers, risk managers, traders, analysts and financial advisors in various parts of the world.

The degree programme is built around the principles of academic rigor and market practice. Students gain practical exposure through case studies and empirical training using market data. There is a large amount of practitioner content, without compromise to academic standards, and we constantly update the teaching to reflect recent market activity. This means you will acquire modern investment techniques based on sound theoretical knowledge.

The School welcomes several visiting professors, who are also practitioners, and therefore well-placed to lecture on how to trade using live data. Thanks to our close proximity to the City of London, we have well- developed links with many financial institutions, and students pay them regular visits, helping to further bond the link between theory and practice.
We maintain an active alumni group and we organise regular meetings with former students, often at their work place. We have an active economics student society and many guest speakers enjoy coming to Queen Mary to talk on current market events.

As the program director, I have overall responsibility for the academic content, and the co-ordination of teaching, so you can be sure of receiving the necessary tuition. I am supported by an enthusiastic administrative team of postgraduate manager Mrs Sandra Adams, and student support manager Mrs Sarah Riley, who manage the day to day operations.

As a team of academic and administrative staff we strive to make your year with us the most productive and` best of experiences.

Dr Ronald Giles
Director of MSc Investment and Finance

Contents

The programme

The modules

Staff

The people

Careers

Graduate employment

Alternative MSc programmes

Accommodation and application procedure

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The information given in this brochure is correct at the time of going to press.
The College reserves the right to modify or cancel any statement in it and accepts no responsibility for the consequences of any such changes. Queen Mary, University of London 01

The programme

Programme description
The MSc in Investment and Finance is a specialist degree that provides practical and theoretical training in areas of major financial interest, in particular investment management and corporate finance. Examples of topics covered include: optimal capital structure, mergers and acquisitions, portfolio management, risk management, derivatives and finance microstructure. The School of Economics and Finance performed exceptionally well in the 2008
Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), ranked in the top 10 economics departments in the UK.
See: www.econ.qmul.ac.uk/news/rae2008/

Many members of our School have recently received academic grants, and provided consultancy and advisory services to primary financial institutions such as the UK and Italian
Treasury, the ONS, the Bank of England and

many others.
Designed for students and professionals who aim

to pursue a career in finance and other, related areas, this programme provides a unique set of perspectives on how financial markets operate, grounded in economic and financial theory and practice. You will follow a programme of four modules per semester, followed by a 10,000 word dissertation.
There are also pre-sessional modules in maths and statistics, providing a good opportunity for students to refresh their knowledge of these areas. More detailed module information follows in this brochure.

Research strength
The School of Economics and Finance is committed to excellence in research and teaching.
Our expertise covers three key areas: economic theory, econometrics and finance, and applied economics. We regularly publish the results of our research in leading economic journals.

We combine an excellent international reputation with a friendly and informal atmosphere.

02 MSc Investment and Finance

Applied learning
The School has developed and nurtured collaborations with a number of public and private institutions. This provides plenty of opportunity for student placements and research co-operation. We also organise a number of additional, optional modules, the topics of which vary from year to year.
These modules are taught by City professionals, who are well-placed to give an insider’s view on issues of interest to the financial community.

Postgraduate resources
You will have access to excellent computing facilities, offering an ideal environment in which to practice applied analysis. Standard software packages for data analysis, simulation, and word processing are available, including GAUSS,
Eviews, PCgive, RATS, Microfit, and Stata.

We also provide full subscription access to
Datastream.

Teaching style
Modules are taught in a three hour block format.
The first two hours deliver the core theoretical and technical concepts; these are then applied in the remaining hour. You will be assigned a personal tutor who will support you throughout your studies.

Dissertation
Over the summer term, you will write a 10,000 word dissertation. Under supervision, you will learn how to undertake applied analysis, run estimations and formulate and test hypotheses.

Pre-semester modules
These pre-semester modules in maths and statistics take place over two weeks in
September. They are especially designed for students who want to review concepts such as statistical distributions and matrix algebra. You will sit exams at the end of modules.

Duration
You will be studying over a 12 month period, beginning in September with the maths and statistics pre-semester modules. You can also study part-time over a 24 month period.

Examples of student dissertations include:
Testing the Purchasing Power Parity between
China and US; Financial Market Imperfections and the Degree of Financing Constraints in
Transitional Economy: Evidence from Pakistan
Market; Financial Conservatism in the UK
Financial Market; Exchange Rates Movements and Corporate Investment.

Assessment
The grade for each module is assessed through coursework, which counts for 25 per cent of the final marks, along with a written exam in May.
The 10,000 word dissertation written over the summer counts for four modules.

Queen Mary, University of London 03

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