Hello, I'm Mohamed Ghaly. I'm an associate professor of finance at Lancaster University.
The Accounting and Finance department offers five different MSc programmes. And the nice thing about this video is that I can tell you a little bit about how these programmes differ from each other in terms of required background, in terms of your career aspirations, and which programme should be more suitable for you.
So in terms of the MSc programme suite that we offer. We have first the MSc Financial Management programme. We also have the MSc Finance programme, the MSc Accounting and Finance programme, the MSc Investment Management and Financial Analysis, and our newest programme, the MSc in Fintech and AI.
So let me first start with the MSc Financial Management programme. So the FM programme is catering for applicants who do not necessarily have a background in accounting or finance, so that acts like more of a conversion programme for you. So that introduces you to theories and applications of both accounting and finance, and prepares you for switching into a career in finance, or even if you're not interested in a career in finance, but you want to learn a little bit about finance that helps you where you work in a company, in a different department, and you need to know a little bit about finance to help you with your role. So it introduces you to the different quantitative concepts in finance or accounting, without assuming that you already have any of that background. And this would prepare you for careers as a financial consultant, financial advisor, client-facing financial roles, or even in financial roles in corporate management. Or as I said, also, if you work in a different department and knowing a bit of finance would help you with your role, or even if you're thinking about starting your own business.
Moving on to the accounting and finance programme. So the MSc Accounting and Finance would be the programme for you if you're passionate about accounting, if you want to have a career in accountancy, work in one of the Big 4 companies. Also, if you're interested in a programme that is accredited by the ACCA or CIMA, or if you're interested in professional qualifications in addition to getting your master's degree.
So the MSc Finance programme is our most flexible programme. It caters for applicants who have some background in economics or finance and some quantitative background, but who are not necessarily settled on which career pathway within the finance industry they want to have. So if you want to have a finance career, but you're not sure about whether you want to work in corporate finance and investment banking, in fund management as a financial analyst, or as a central banker. So that would be the programme for you. So the programme offers you all the core skills that you need in the first part of the programme. But then in the second part of the programme, you'd be able to choose your electives.
And that's actually the programme that offers the most electives and the most flexibility. So where you're going to be able to choose the modules or courses that match with your career aspirations and the pathway that you want to have.
Moving on to our fourth programme, the MSc Investment Management and Financial Analysis, the IMFA programme. That would be more suitable for applicants who already know that they want to pursue a financial career
So if you want to work in investment banking as a financial analyst, as a fund manager, so that would be the programme for you because it focuses throughout the whole programme on that particular investment management area.
This programme also would be very attractive to applicants who want, in addition to getting the master's degree, to have to pass the CFA level one and the CFA level two as well, because that programme integrates training for CFA level one and level two while studying on the programme. So by the end of the programme, on your graduation, you would have your master's degree in addition to having passed both level one and level two.
Moving on to our newest programme, the MSc in Fintech and AI. So that's the most quantitatively demanding programme. So think of it as a modernised MSc in quantitative finance. So this programme would be suitable for applicants who have a very strong quantitative background. Who do not necessarily come from a finance or economics background, who may be coming from STEM backgrounds, where they had a very proper quantitative training in the past, and they want to move into the finance industry, maybe to work as algorithmic traders, as cryptocurrency analysts, as AI risk managers. So that would be the programme for them.
Also, one useful thing to mention is that across all five programmes we focus on two important themes.
The first one is AI. The second is sustainability. So you'll find that irrespective of which programme you're on, those two themes will be covered in great detail and at the appropriate level suitable for the programme.
So, for example, if you talk about AI; AI could be covered at different levels. So one of them would be to be focused on how AI is affecting managerial decisions at the corporate level. And that's what you will be looking at if you are on the MSc Financial Management programme, where you have a course on AI in cyber security, whereas if you are on the more technical programmes, the more quantitatively demanding programmes like the MSc Finance or the MSc Fintech and AI, then you're going to be exposed to AI at a more technical level where you will learn about machine learning, large language models, how machine learning is used in coding, in analysing financial data, and all those sorts of things.
Also, the second theme, sustainability, is covered across all programmes, so it's covered again at the MSc Financial Management programme where you have a course on climate finance and sustainability. Then if you are on the MSc Accounting and Finance, then there is a lot of focus on sustainability reporting.
So one of the courses is about advanced financial reporting and sustainability reporting as well. Whereas if you are on the MSc Finance or the Investment Management programme, there is a course on climate finance and investing and sustainability, sustainable investing and that's also offered on the MSc Fintech programme.
One last thing to mention as well, whichever programme you're on, we have module that runs across the whole year, which is called the Career Accelerator Module. And that module offers students both training and technical skills and preparing them for the job market as well.
So in this module, you will learn about coding. Depending on which programme you're on, you'll be learning about different programming languages like Python, R, MATLAB. You'll also be learning the required background in maths and statistics. That would help you with the rest of the modules on the programme.
You'll also be learning about financial databases, about accounting software, and also you will have sessions that train you on how to prepare your CVs, your cover letters, make you more competitive in the job market by our coaches, which do not just provide general advice, but we have a financial careers coach and an accountancy coach that offers advice that is tailored particularly to the finance or the accountancy industryto make you more competitive than the job market. So this runs across the whole year and offers both the technical and soft skills that you need to make you more competitive in the job market.
.jpg)
