Advanced Financial Analysis

Entry requirements

2:1 Hons degree (UK or equivalent) in Finance or Accounting with a significant number of Finance and/or Quantitative modules studied.

Graduates from other areas (e.g. Economics, Business Studies, Mathematics or another quantitative subject) who have passed the CFA Level 1 exam are also encouraged to apply.

Months of entry

October

Course content

The investment management and financial analysis sectors require industry professionals with advanced technical knowledge, plus practical experience with databases and programming languages. This one-year MSc is designed to equip you with these skills, as well as helping you acquire your Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level II professional qualification.

You will be part of a select cohort of students with strong finance backgrounds. This means you are able to study more technical and practice-oriented modules than those offered by many other UK Masters programmes in finance. Our Accounting and Finance specialists also combine with expert tutors from leading global financial services training provider Fitch Learning to prepare you to complete CFA Level II.

Our core modules embed training in financial programming languages including VBA, R and Matlab and provide hands-on experience with the Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters EIKON platforms. Meanwhile, our career skills module will help you improve your financial writing, presentation and oral communication skills. You will also receive specialist finance careers support from Opening City Doors .

In autumn, you will prepare for the December CFA Level I exam or, if you already have CFA Level I, you will have the option to take the Financial Risk Manager Level 1 exam. In summer you will prepare for the June CFA Level II exam. Your CFA exam results do not contribute to your Masters degree result, but your marks on your CFA training modules do contribute to your final Masters grade.

Since the proramme’s launch, graduates have gone on to work for leading City institutions including Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, China Foreign Exchange Trade System, Vietnam Investments Group and Marcum Bernstein and Pinchuk LLP. Generous scholarships covering CFA exam fees are also available.

Information for international students

Details of entry requirements for international students can be found here: Grade Equivalencies

Proof of english language is required from non-native english speakers. We require IELTS with an overall score of 7.0, with no less than 6.0 in any element, or an approved equivalent.

If your score is below our requirements, we may consider you for one of our pre-sessional english language programmes.

Fees and funding

www.lancaster.ac.uk/pgfunding