Finance, Technology and Policy

Entry requirements

A UK first-class or 2:1 honours degree in one of the subjects below, or an equivalent overseas qualification.

• An undergraduate honours degree in finance, economics, engineering or informatics is normally required.
• You will need to have taken and passed at least one course with significant statistical analysis and/or programming as part of your undergraduate degree or be able to demonstrate that you have relevant work experience in the use of statistical and/or programming software packages.
• Candidates with a first class or 2:1 honours degree in other disciplines will be considered on an individual basis if some level of finance/economics/informatics content formed part of the degree and you can demonstrate a high level of quantitative ability through your degree results.
• Candidates with a first class or 2:1 honours degree in an unrelated subject area but have relevant work experience will be considered on an individual basis.
• Candidates with a first class or 2:1 honours degree in an unrelated subject area but who have relevant professional qualifications will be given due consideration on an individual basis.
• If you are a mature candidate with significant finance and tech industry experience or with relevant professional qualifications, you will be given due consideration on an individual basis.

Months of entry

September

Course content

How well financial markets work is critical to the lives of everyone in a modern economy. The functions markets perform are vital for the development of transparent, informationally efficient and fair financial systems. Market functions, such as liquidity and price discovery, hold significant societal impacts. Technology has fuelled the rise of ultra-fast high-tech, opaque trading venues and expanded access to financial services across the globe. While there are positive aspects to these changes, the emergence of new technology-driven paradigms has also increased concerns about the integrity and fairness of financial systems. Concurrently, the pace of technological transformation in financial services and markets has led to the emergence of a knowledge gap in the fast-growing intersection between finance and technology.

Our MSc in Finance, Technology and Policy is developed as an interdisciplinary response to this knowledge gap and as a platform to evaluate and debate the impact of technology on the financial services industry and financial markets. The programme offers a unique degree sitting at the intersection of the three most important drivers of a modern economy – financial services/markets, technology and policy.

On this programme you will gain an understanding of broader links between finance services and technology on the one hand, and policy and the technological transformation of the financial markets and services on the other*.

The programme design ensures that courses complement one another. Courses are designed to provide you with a detailed analysis of modern (financial) markets and the transformation of the financial services industry against the backdrop of technological and policy innovations. While our MSc offers you an unvarnished view of the functioning of existing financial market and financial services structures, it also advances criticisms of the current set up and offers the basis for the development of alternative markets and financial services products.

The programme applies principles of financial economics, sociology/philosophy, and practical programming/machine learning and big data analysis to help you focus on solving real problems and developing the skillsets that are relevant for employers now and in the future. You will also have the opportunity to tailor your degree to include other relevant aspects of operating within the financial technology space. Courses specifically designed for the programme further examine design, entrepreneurship and innovation, legal and the human-computer interface issues. You will work with industry partners to develop cutting edge solutions to live challenges as part of student consultancy projects sponsored by financial institutions.