The course builds a strong foundation in the theory and practice of making financial decisions in an international environment, so it's ideal for students aiming to work at the senior levels in banking, financial services, and corporate finance. The GEM MSc Finance has a total of 4 stages – each reinforcing the previous stage, helping to refine and focus your learning. All 4 stages are covered during the first 12 months, including the Capstone Course, encompassing everything studied and preparing students to apply their learning in the Final Management Project.

• UNDERSTAND THE STRATEGIC IMPACTS OF FINANCIAL DECISIONS

The mission of the MSc in Finance program is to provide graduates with advanced knowledge of finance and to prepare them, through an understanding of the strategic impacts of financial decisions, for careers in banking, financial services or corporate finance with international companies at a managerial level. The program covers the fundamentals of finance, as well as advanced topics in corporate finance, financial management, and financial markets.

• DEVELOP FINANCIAL ANALYSIS SKILLS

Its aim is to provide students with strong technical and analytical skills in the principles and application of finance, as well as solid industry knowledge and multicultural exposure.

• PREPARE FOR A CAREER IN THE FINANCE SECTOR

The MSc Finance prepares students for careers in the financial sector such as investment and commercial banking, asset management, financial services and consulting, or for corporate finance positions within international companies at a managerial level. The program provides excellent preparation for the Chartered Financial Analysts® (CFA) exams, as it is based on the CFA Candidate Body of Knowledge (CBOK) and is part of the CFA University Recognition program. It also covers related fields such as management control systems, economics, corporate governance, and private equity investment.

Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis
This module is designed to be a more in-depth introduction to accounting and financial reporting in a multinational environment. Accounting information, in the form of financial statements, is used for planning, control and decision making. This module looks at the analysis of accounts and financial information from the point of view of the users (manager and investor) rather than the preparer (accountant) of information and emphasizes the international dimension of financial reporting. It will mostly focus on financial analysis of companies' financial statements.

Asset Management
This module is intended to expose students to the main principles of the analysis of equity investments and asset management.

Corporate Finance and Investment Decisions
This module gives a general overview of what finance for corporations is and how financial decisions are made, as well as understanding and tools on:

• How assets are valued and how capital budgeting (or investment) decisions are made: time value of money and NPV rule, preparation of cash flow projections
• How corporations are financed: characteristics and cost of the financial resources used by corporations (equity and debt)
• Estimating the weighted cost of capital (WACC) in order to create value
• Dividend policy
• The impact of financial structure on firm value and bankruptcy risk

Derivatives
This course presents the basic principles and techniques used to analyze derivative products.

This course will cover on:

• Derivatives markets and instruments
• Forward markets and instruments
• Futures
• Options

Digital Finance
Innovation and more specifically digitalization are impacting the ways in which financial services (Payments, Markets, Investment Management, Deposits & Lending, Insurance, Capital Raising) are structured and managed. To this end, multi-disciplinary skills are becoming more in-demand.

This module enables students to learn about the evolution of the financial services industry and skills required. It offers students the opportunity to acquire knowledge and understanding of major trends by exploring concepts such as Blockchain, Crypto-assets, Fintech, and ICO.

Economics for Finance
This course focuses on those concepts and theories from both micro and macroeconomics which are of most relevance to an understanding of finance, financial markets, and financial decision making

Ethics, Professional Standards, and Corporate Governance
This course covers two areas:

• Ethics and Professional Standards
• Corporate Governance

This Course will cover on :

• Ethics and Professional Standards:
  • Professional Standards and ethical obligations:
    CFA Code of Ethics, Standards of Professional Conduct, Soft Dollar Standards, and Research Objectivity Standards. Examine available guidance on implementing the various requirements, plus consider how these standards are set within the context of legal and regulatory frameworks, as well as more general ethical obligations. This will include considering responsibilities owed to colleagues, employers, clients, counterparties, and the general public

• The Corporate Governance part covers the design and evaluation of firm oversight:
  • Governance theory: definitions, approaches to governance design
  • Governance and regulation: the examples of the United Kingdom and the   United States
  • Governance in practice: a typology of decisions, board composition, and independence, board working procedures, committees, responsibilities, corporate ethics codes, governance policies.

International Financial Management
This course is intended to expose students to the concepts, techniques, and instruments of international financial management. At the end of this module, students should be able to solve simple situations of hedging and Financing in international situations.

Management Control systems
The course presents a theoretical and practical approach of management control systems: the objectives, the tools, the roles of a controller. This module covers the main concepts, tools, and techniques of managerial accounting and controlling. Managerial accounting information is dedicated to internal decision-makers who need to plan, control, co-ordinate and analyze where and how revenues, costs, and profits are created in the company (or in part of it), and who need to compare profits according to different scenarios.

Fundamentals of Excel and Statistics
This online module is an introduction to excel and statistics. It is a pre-requisite to join the Quantitative methods for Finance Module

Main Topics Covered are :

• Presentation and practice of Excel functions and methods for Business Statistics
• Basic Descriptive Statistics with Excel
• Basic Probabilities distributions with Excel

Fundamentals of Accounting and Finance
This online module is an introduction to accounting and finance. It is a pre-requisite to join the Accounting and Financial Statements Analysis module and the Corporate Finance and Investment Decisions Module

Mergers and Acquisitions and Company Valuations
The worldwide market for corporate control is a key component of our economies. Companies and divisions are sold, merged. The course aims at presenting the strategic and financial logic of these transactions as well as the main engineering techniques employed especially for firm valuation

Specialization – Private Equity, LBO, Venture Capital, and Financial Restructuring
This advanced corporate finance module deals with the major financial restructuring techniques involving private and public companies along the life cycle, including leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and venture capital. It offers a presentation of the objectives, management and investment techniques of private equity funds, who are key players in the financing of young innovative companies and in the financial restructuring of mature firms. The module is mostly based on real-world examples and cases and involves financial modeling. It offers a solid background to students considering a job in corporate finance, either in a firm or a bank, in private equity and in venture capital.

Specialization – Financial Strategy and Advanced Valuation
The module is divided into two parts: the first part, which is “Financial Strategy”, is aimed to present an overview of the equity raising decision. This latter could be processed by issuing and selling stocks on the financial markets for the first time (IPO, or Initial Public Offering). It is called seasoned equity offering (SEO) when firms return back (after an IPO) to the markets in order to finance investment opportunities through the selling of new shares. This part will also cover the financial restructuring strategy used in distressed firms. Financial restructuring consists of changing the financial structure of a corporation by issuing or repurchasing equity or debt.

The second part of this module” Advanced Valuation” covers the advanced topics in firm valuation such as minority interest (active and passive) and future claims. It also covers the challenging task of evaluating specific firms like financial services firms, holdings, and distressed firms and finally presents an overview of additional valuation tools/methods (EVA, APV among others).  

Specialization - Project Finance
Project Finance is typically used to fund large greenfield projects such as building infrastructure in sectors including transport, energy, oil & gas, mining, telecommunications, and public utilities. Unlike classic corporate lending where the ultimate credit rationale resides on the creditworthiness of the borrower, under Project Finance structures lenders have recourse primarily to the revenue stream of the project or asset they are financing, rather than to the balance sheet of the sponsor.

Specialization - Algorithmics for Financial Modelling
This module is designed to equip students with knowledge and mastery of programming (in languages such as VBA, Python or others) for financial modeling. Students will engage in small exercises and progressive and tutored construction of various financial tools in class.

Fixed Income Investments:
This course presents the basic principles and techniques used to analyze fixed-income investments.

Main Topics covered are :

• Debt securities, global bond sectors, the risk associated with investing in bonds
• Valuation of debt securities
• Yield spreads, yield measures, spot rates, and forward rates
• Measurement of interest rate risk
• Term structure and volatility of interest rates
• Basic modeling of the term structure of interest rates
• Debt portfolio management strategies

Integrative Case study
This module consists of a case study (Integrative Financial Analysis) to be realized in small groups under a time constraint. As it comes at the end of the program, the competencies acquired during all the modules of the MSc in Finance may be used. The students will have to submit a written report and present it with a video. Groups will be composed of students from different counties and campuses.

Project Proposal
The Proposal is the key roadmap to guide and direct the main Final Management Project, either as an Academic product or research and analysis linked directly to an internship or employment and is completed by the student with the guidance of an appointed or selected tutor.

Final Management Project
The project gives the student the opportunity to develop a major piece of detailed research (min-max of 10000-15000 words) on a business-related topic. Being a topic of the student’s own choice, or linked to an internship or employment, it offers an opportunity to focus on an area of particular interest and utility to the student. A detailed account of what is expected is contained in the Financial Management Project Handbook.

On-Line Research Methodology and Project Workshop
This course aims at preparing students for their Management project. Students will learn how to articulate a research question, design their own research project in finance, and prepare and submit their project proposal to the GEM tutor.

In each module, students will be assessed in accordance with the evaluation procedures defined in the syllabus. All work will be assessed according to the GEM marking scheme.

To be eligible for assessment, students must 1) be up-to-date with the payment of fees, 2) have complied with attendance rules (see clause 3, above).

Assignments must be submitted no later than the deadline set by the teacher of the module. When a student submits late without prior written authorization from the teacher, their work will be subject to the penalty in terms of marks obtainable. The penalty will reflect the length and nature of the work submitted late; but in general, any piece of coursework (other than the Final Management Project) which is submitted 14 or more days late without prior authorization from the teacher and in consideration with the Program Director, will be recorded as having a mark of 0/20.

Students who fail to submit assignments completely or fail to comply with authorized extended deadlines will receive a mark of 0/20 for the whole module and will not be authorized to submit extra work to receive grades and validate the module. In these circumstances, students may be required to retake the module completely, at their own expense, with the next intake of the program. Grades for these retaken modules will be capped on 10/20.

Students are responsible for keeping a copy both in electronic and in paper format of any written work which is handed in for correction until after they graduate. All students must complete the “Comment Form for Assessed Work” and hand it in together with the work to be assessed.

All pieces of assessed coursework will be put through anti-plagiarism software in a manner consistent with academic custom and practice in the assessment and evaluation process.

Any Final Management Project which purports to be confidential will require a letter from the company or companies stipulating that the information is confidential.

Any absence in any assessment of a module (including quizzes, presentations, mid-term tests, assignments, etc.) must be justified to the program administration in writing.