Our MSc Financial Management equips you with the core skills needed to pursue a highly successful career with top employers in the financial management industry, as well as finance-oriented roles across various sectors. Potential career paths include Financial Manager, Financial Consultant, Loan Officer, and Personal Financial Advisor.
The programme provides an in-depth understanding of core financial management knowledge and skills, alongside opportunities to apply this expertise through business simulations and targeted job market training.
Stay ahead with innovative topics
You will have the chance to study a wide range of innovative topics that provide a competitive edge in the job market, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, sustainability, and climate finance. Knowledge of these cutting-edge topics ensures you are well-prepared to excel in an evolving global financial landscape.
Strong foundation and real-world simulations
You will develop a strong foundation in core areas such as data analytics, financial management, accounting and finance. The programme reflects the latest industry developments and academic research and is delivered by leading experts. You will have the opportunity to apply your newly acquired knowledge in business simulations that resemble real situations where financial managers and traders make decisions.
Career coaching
To further enhance your learning experience and success in the job market, you will also have access to our sector-leading finance career coaching team, which will help you develop the soft skills needed to excel in any career path.
Enhance your professional toolkit
The core module, ‘Career Accelerator: Technical Toolkit and Professional Development', will help you develop soft skills (such as communication), database management skills (such as SQL, Bloomberg, LSEG Workspace and Datastream), coding skills (such as VBA, Stata, Python and R), and practical skills in using industry-standard accounting software (such as Xero).
The programme culminates in a rigorous research project, which will teach you how to evaluate a company from finance and accounting perspectives, as well as from perspectives you select, such as cyber security, ESG, or machine learning.
Features of the FInancial Management MSc programme you should know about:
Learn from the best
You will learn from world-leading academics who work on major research projects in areas that include investing, financial reporting, AI and cyber security, sustainability, and climate finance.
Applied learning
You will apply your newly acquired skills in business simulations.
Connections with the financial industry
Our in-house Industry Engagement and Knowledge Transfer Series has regular talks and events featuring guest speakers from leading global financial institutions, top asset management companies, financial regulators, and economists worldwide.
An outstanding student society
As a student at Lancaster, you can join the Lancaster University Economics and Finance Society. Our student-led societies have a track record for giving students experiences that help them land roles in top firms.
Careers
MSc Financial Management develops you into a future financial manager with strong accountancy understanding.
MSc Financial Management presents a wide variety of career possibilities such as roles in financial management, accounting, corporate finance, financial advisory, and consultancy. Graduates of this programme would appeal to hiring managers in large accountancy firms who are seeking commercially focused talent to join their training schemes across all service lines, including advisory and business services.
Your professional development is supported by Lancaster’s unique career coaching model. You will benefit from one-to-one support from our specialist accounting and finance career coaches, many of whom have worked in industry and understand the demands of the job market first-hand. They will guide you in writing impactful CVs and cover letters, preparing for interviews and assessment centres, and navigating opportunities across global employers such as Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, and more.
Also, Lancaster University Management School’s Careers team puts on over 100 careers events each year for you to network with top graduate employers in the UK and overseas.
Entry requirements
Academic requirements
2:2 (UK Hons) degree or equivalent in Finance, Accounting, Economics or other business-related subject. We are looking for marks consistently at 2:2 level throughout your undergraduate studies.
We may also consider non-standard applicants, please contact us for information.
If you have studied outside of the UK, we would advise you to check our list of international qualifications before submitting your application.
English language requirements
We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously.
We normally require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 6.5, and a minimum of 6.0 in each element of the test. We also consider other English language qualifications.
Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored pre-master’s pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University master’s degrees. Visit INTO Lancaster University for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.
Course structure
You will study a range of modules as part of your course, some examples of which are listed below.
Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.
Core
core modules accordion
The module aims to provide you with an understanding of crucial advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), its application in corporate settings, and a comprehensive overview of cyber security within a digitised business landscape. It provides an overview of AI and discusses its current trends and future implications. Several case studies of the application of AI in finance, marketing, and customer service link the learning to real-world experiences.
The module further discusses the ethical considerations of using AI for business, including privacy concerns, copyright issues, and potential biases. It then builds a strong foundation in understanding the basics of cyber security, including types of cyber threats and the importance of cyber hygiene. It discusses strategies for safeguarding businesses and their digital assets, including encryption, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems. It introduces best practices for developing resilient cyber security systems, as well as familiarises students with risk management principles and compliance with regulatory requirements related to data protection and privacy.
The aim of this module is to equip you with the necessary skills to understand and apply the relevant financial practices in a real world setting to make efficient business decisions.
The syllabus will address the practical application of business functions related to holistic financial management. The workshops will cover topics such as:
Accounting software training
Simulated trading training
Excel
Research for business consultations
Communication skills fo accounting and finance professionals
Business simulation
The aim of this module is to equip you with an understanding of key aspects of a firm’s financial strategy, such as ways of raising capital, valuing financial and real assets, trade-offs associated with capital structure choices, managerial incentives, risk management and corporate restructuring.
Building on the insights that you will have gained during the programme, you will complete an Individual reflection and business analysis report which will form the basis of the dissertation. As such the dissertation is designed both to enable you to integrate knowledge and skills acquired across the degree programme and to assess your ability to analyse a complex issue or problem within a management context.
The aim of this module is to provide you with an introduction to the concepts used in financial markets, including definitions of key assets and market types as well as recognising the economics of financial markets with a focus on their functions, participants and organisational forms.
This module will also provide you with an appreciation of fundamental theories and techniques in finance that are of concern to all financial market participants, such as bond markets and term structure of interest rates, economics of derivatives markets, forward and future contracts, and swap agreements.
The aim of this module is to equip you with tools to understand and interpret financial statements at a fundamental level. To that end, you will gain a basic understanding of the purposes of financial reporting and the context within which financial reporting occurs, as well as of financial accounting concepts and main components of financial statements. Much of the module focuses on analysing and interpreting financial statements, including what can be learned from the financial statements about the underlying business operations and strategy, given the quality of reporting data and management incentives to convey a certain narrative about company performance.
This module aims to equip you with the basic building blocks of finance that are of primary concern to corporate managers when making financial decisions. The emphasis is on the three key financial decisions of firms: investment, financing and payout decisions.
This module presents the basic insights in corporate finance theory and links them to real business decisions. This course covers the time-value of money, emphasising present and future value calculations, their role in capital budgeting, and their applications in valuing financial securities. You will also learn to measure and analyse risk and return and apply these concepts to capital budgeting to evaluate investment opportunities for firms.
Financing decisions are explored through discussions on debt and equity financing, cost of capital, and capital structure theories such as Modigliani-Miller, trade-off, and pecking order theories. Payout policies, including dividends and share repurchases, are examined, with an emphasis on the factors influencing these decisions and relevant theoretical frameworks. Practical applications of these concepts are demonstrated through real-world case studies, allowing you to bridge theory and practice. By the end of the module, you will be proficient in applying financial theories to practical scenarios, preparing you for advanced studies and careers in financial management.
This module will provide insights into both planning and decision-making and performance evaluation and management control. You will develop an appreciation of the main approaches to measuring, analysing and reporting information to support management decisions. We will examine the major aspects of management accounting and facilitate the development of skills for and knowledge of management accounting in the organisation.
Skills that will help you navigate the job market via dedicated career and professional training, including CVs and cover letters, commercial awareness, assessment centres and an alumni insight panel.
The aim of this module is to equip you with the key skills to carry out empirical financial data analysis and provide you with the knowledge you need to become a stronger analyst for future managerial positions. You will be introduced to various statistical methods, ranging from estimation to statistical inference. More specifically, you will learn to collect, organise and interpret data to build confidence intervals, test hypotheses, analyse variance, run linear regression analyses and interpret the results for decision-making and making informed business decisions.
The aim of this module is to equip you with key concepts in sustainability accounting, including environmental, social, and governance considerations for corporations, as well as an overview of the latest challenges in climate finance.
Investors, business executives, regulators, and accountancy and finance professionals have increasingly recognised that ongoing societal and environmental degradation poses significant risks to the financial resilience of businesses while tackling their causes provides many novel business opportunities. They also regard accountancy and finance as having a significant role to play in the effective management of these risks and opportunities required to build resilient businesses. This is an exciting area of growth for the accountancy and finance profession, requiring innovative solutions and thinking.
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
College fees
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small College Membership Fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.
For students starting in 2025, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses.
Computer equipment and internet access
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
For most taught postgraduate applications there is a non-refundable application fee of £40. We cannot consider applications until this fee has been paid, as advised on our online secure payment system. There is no application fee for postgraduate research applications.
For some of our courses you will need to pay a deposit to accept your offer and secure your place. We will let you know in your offer letter if a deposit is required and you will be given a deadline date when this is due to be paid.
The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.
If you are studying on a programme of more than one year’s duration, tuition fees are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about fees in subsequent years.
Scholarships and bursaries
You may be eligible for the following funding opportunities, depending on your fee status and course. You will be automatically considered for our main scholarships and bursaries when you apply, so there's nothing extra that you need to do.
Unfortunately no scholarships and bursaries match your selection, but there are more listed on scholarships and bursaries page.
Lancaster is ranked 14th in the UK and joint 90th in the world for Accounting and Finance according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025, one of nine subjects at Lancaster to be featured in the top 100 in these prestigious listings.
The information on this site relates primarily to 2025/2026 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
Our Students’ Charter
We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. Find out more about our Charter and student policies.
