BSc (Hons) Finance, Investment and Risk

In your first year, you’ll study six core modules that build your foundation in finance. You’ll learn how markets and financial institutions work, how businesses use financial information, and how to analyse data and investment decisions, while developing the communication and career skills expected in financial services.

Core modules

• Economic Forces Shaping Financial Markets
  Explore the economic forces that move financial markets. You’ll look at supply and demand, inflation, interest rates, economic growth and government policy, and learn how these factors affect markets and investment decisions.

• Financial Reporting & Business Decisions
  Learn the foundations of financial accounting and how to interpret financial statements, from profit and financial position to cash flow. You’ll also explore working capital management and how investors, lenders and managers use company accounts to make decisions.

• Data Analysis for Finance
  Learn how finance professionals turn data into useful information. You’ll use spreadsheets to organise and analyse financial data, explore probability and statistics, and use simple regression to support financial decisions.

• Financial Systems, Regulation & Ethics
  Understand how the financial system fits together, from central banks and investment banks to asset managers, insurers and regulators. You’ll explore financial risk, regulation, ethics and governance, and why they matter.

• Finance, Valuation & Investment Decisions
  Build your foundations in corporate finance, investment appraisal and asset pricing. You’ll learn how businesses raise money, calculate the cost of finance and use techniques including NPV, IRR and the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to assess investment decisions.

• Careers, Communication & Professional Practice in Finance
  Build the academic and professional skills you’ll need for a finance career. You’ll explore career planning, practise CVs, applications and interviews, and develop your teamwork, presentation and professional communication skills.

There are no optional modules in Year 1. 

In your second year, you’ll move into more specialist investment and financial risk management topics. You’ll study five core modules, building your knowledge of how companies are valued, how currency and derivatives markets work, how portfolios are built and assessed, and how to analyse financial data, plus one optional module from a choice of three.

Core modules

• Corporate Finance, Valuation & Deal Analysis
  Learn how companies raise money, make financing decisions and work out what a business is worth. You’ll apply valuation methods to real deals, including mergers, acquisitions, IPOs and corporate restructuring.

• Derivatives & Risk Analytics
  Explore financial instruments such as forwards, futures, swaps and options, and why investors use them. You’ll learn how they can manage market risk and apply techniques such as Value at Risk and scenario analysis to assess financial exposure.

• Applied Financial Data Analytics with Python
  Learn how to use Python and quantitative methods to work with financial data. You’ll apply financial modelling to analyse risk and return, optimise portfolios and measure market risk, using your results to support investment analysis and financial decision making.

• Global Currency Markets
  Understand how global currency markets work and what makes exchange rates move. You’ll explore foreign exchange, currency volatility and forecasting, and learn how exchange rates create opportunities and risks for investors and businesses.

• Portfolio Management & Investment Analytics
  Learn how investment portfolios are built, managed and assessed. You’ll explore risk and return, diversification, asset pricing and active and passive investment strategies, then use financial data to evaluate investment performance.

Optional modules

You’ll choose one optional module from three, giving you the chance to explore an area of finance, investment and risk that interests you most.

• FinTech, AI & Digital Finance
  Explore how AI, blockchain, digital assets and new financial technologies are changing financial services. You’ll consider where these technologies are used, the opportunities they create, and the risks, ethical questions and regulation around them.

• Financial Reporting & Analysis
  Take your thorough understanding of company accounts further through financial statement analysis, using ratios and other techniques to assess financial performance. You’ll also explore international reporting standards and investigate real cases of accounting manipulation and fraud.

• Emerging Markets, Sustainability & Geopolitics
  Explore how investment decisions are shaped by emerging economies, sustainability and global politics. You’ll examine capital markets, currency systems, financial crises, ESG issues, sanctions and trade tensions, and what they mean for investors.

In your final year, you’ll bring together everything you’ve learned to tackle more advanced areas of investment and finance. Across six core modules, including your Applied Finance Project, and one optional module, you’ll study topics covering equity research and fixed income to capital markets and global risk. 

Core modules

• Capital Markets & Advisory
  Explore equity markets and how companies raise debt and other forms of finance, and how advisers support major deals such as mergers, acquisitions and buyouts. You’ll analyse transactions and turn valuation and market evidence into professional pitch materials.

• Global Finance, Geopolitics & Country Risk
  Explore international finance and multinational financial management in a world shaped by country risk and geopolitics. You’ll examine country and political risk, sanctions, supply-chain disruption and financial fragmentation, and assess what these forces mean for financial decisions and strategy.

• Equity Research & Valuation
  Learn how analysts research listed companies and assess their shares. You’ll analyse financial statements, forecast earnings and cash flows, value shares using different methods, and build and defend your own investment recommendation.

• Fixed Income, Credit & Structured Products
  Explore fixed income securities, credit markets and structured products, and learn how fixed income investors assess value and risk. You’ll examine interest-rate and credit risk, fixed income portfolio strategies and approaches to valuation.

• Applied Finance Project
  Bring your degree together through an independent research project in finance. You’ll choose a question, evaluate academic and industry evidence, collect and analyse data, and present your findings, conclusions and recommendations in a professional report.

Optional modules

You'll choose one optional module to explore another area that interests you.

• Alternatives, Real Assets & Commodities
  Explore investments beyond traditional shares and bonds, including real assets, commodities and hedge funds. You’ll compare different investment strategies, their risk, performance and liquidity, and assess how they can be used to diversify an investment portfolio.

• Corporate Strategy & Transformation
  Understand how organisations choose their direction and respond to change. You’ll assess competitive position and strategic decisions, then explore transformation through areas including digital technology, AI, operating models and ESG.

• Private Capital & Venture Growth
  Explore how private equity and venture capital investors find, assess and manage opportunities. You’ll examine venture capital, growth equity and buyouts, then analyse deals, value creation, exit decisions and investment fund management.

Across your degree, you’ll complete a mix of written, practical and timed assessments designed to test your knowledge and build skills you can use in finance and investment. You’ll work with financial information, data and real-world scenarios, as well as developing your ability to explain ideas, make recommendations and present your thinking clearly. 

Here’s a snapshot of the main types of assessments you’ll complete across your modules.

• Reports and case studies: investigate real financial organisations, markets or problems and use what you’ve learned to analyse what’s happening, weigh up different options and make recommendations.

• Data analysis and financial modelling: work with financial datasets using tools including spreadsheets and Python. You’ll apply quantitative methods and financial modelling, analyse and visualise data, interpret results and use them to support financial decisions.

• Exams and multiple-choice assessments: show your comprehensive understanding of key financial concepts and demonstrate that you can apply them to problems and questions under timed conditions.

• Presentations and group work: communicate your ideas clearly, explain and defend your thinking, and build the teamwork and presentation skills used in professional settings.

• Professional and scenario-based assessments: complete tasks based on the kinds of work used in financial services – from preparing professional career materials to analysing financial decisions and producing recommendations.

• Applied Finance Project: in your final year, you’ll choose a finance question to investigate in depth. You’ll develop a project proposal, review academic and industry evidence, choose appropriate research and data-analysis methods, then bring your findings, conclusions and recommendations together in a professional report.