Course summary

This academic course is carefully designed for students to explore how an accounting and reporting education, as well as advanced study of accounting, will equip you for exciting careers in the business and finance sectors.  

Practical in focus, fully accredited and professionally oriented, our MSc in Finance and Accounting will equip you with the high-level skills, knowledge and expertise to advance your career as a qualified chartered accountant or as a specialist in a corporate services role.  

Study with us and, on successful completion, you may be exempt from nine papers of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) exams and 11 of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) via the Masters Gateway, an accelerated entry route to the CIMA Professional Qualification and the globally recognised CGMA designation.

Course content has been designed to equip you with the technical, professional, analytical and ethical skills required for a successful global accounting career. Using Bloomberg data available in our state-of-the-art Financial Markets Suite (FMS), you’ll evaluate real-world scenarios, enhance your critical thinking, learn to explain the impacts of financial transactions and how to make the most appropriate accounting decisions. In doing so, you’ll gain a detailed knowledge of analytical techniques associated with accounting research, together with the key principles and practices in taxation, financial management and corporate valuation, managerial accounting and financial accounting.

Case studies, research and finance skills workshops, projects and guest lectures, from current practitioners and CEOs from multinationals, will help you appreciate how these principles are applied by professionals working in accountancy, analytical or research environments, better preparing you for the business and finance world that awaits. We’ll consider contemporary issues in financial reporting, management accounting, auditing and governance, such as fair value accounting, auditors’ independence, corporate valuation and risk management.

For those with no prior accounting knowledge, this master’s level education will develop your knowledge and skills in this specialist subject area. Alternatively, if you’re a graduate member of a UK accountancy body, or an overseas equivalent, you may claim up to three module exemptions by applying for Accreditation of Prior Certificated Learning.

Our graduates have gone on to work for leading accounting firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young, as well as multinationals such as Kimberly-Clark and other financial institutions, such as London Stock Exchange, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Allifunds Bank S.A.

In December 2021, the University of Westminster received the CIMA Prize-Winner Excellence Award 2021. The Prize-Winner Award recognises university partners with top-performing CIMA students in Case Study exams. The CIMA Excellence Awards celebrate outstanding academic partners, education providers and students who have made significant contributions to the accounting profession and the Institute over the past year.