Banking and Finance MSc

Employability

Professional Placement

A 12-15 week placement in firms within sectors such as corporate finance, asset management, insurance, trade associations and financial media can significantly improve your job prospects upon graduating. Not only will this give you the opportunity to apply what you learn in lectures, you'll gain insight into current matters in the sector. You'll also develop your professional skills, like teamwork, communication and problem-solving, which will make you a more rounded, employable candidate when it comes to securing a job.

The Department of Economics and Finance is proud to be celebrating 20 years of taught postgraduate education in finance. Former students from our MSc programmes are now themselves teaching in the Australian Business School, EdHec Business School, Nice, Glasgow University and Oslo Business School. Other MSc students hold senior positions in financial institutions including the Bank of Cyprus, HSBC in Istanbul, Standard Life in the UK and TD Bank Financial Group in Canada.

Many of our Banking and Finance MSc graduates also hold positions as government economists including the Bank of England and HM Treasury. The MSc in Banking and Finance is designed to expand our portfolio and address newly emerging demands in the following areas:

• Deregulation and the increased investment demand for safe as well as risky assets has increased competition between financial institutions and also transformed the role of traditional banking. There is a demand for postgraduates who are familiar with the new environment.
• Aligning incentives, reducing risk and ensuring consistency across hugely diverse locations and operations requires appropriate regulation and control. There is a demand for graduates who can analyse such trends at a bank level.
• Banking regulatory bodies in the UK and abroad are trying to establish a reliable and up-to-date system which will promote transparency and equality among the participants of financial markets and ensure stability of the financial system. There is increasing demand for graduates with knowledge on the latest regulatory debates.
• The master's programme aims to introduce the students not only to the economics of banking and finance but more importantly to establish the links between the changing nature of financial markets, institutions and investors’ decisions. Our graduates are thus highly employable in the non-banking sector.

Graduate School workshops

In addition to the department’s events and training sessions, you will have the opportunity to undertake workshops and skills training provided by the university’s Graduate School, for example:

• CV Writing for Master's Students
• CV Writing Drop-in Clinic for Master's Students
• How to Succeed in Assessment Centres (Master's Students)
• Interview Techniques for Master's Students
• Transferrable Skills for Master's Students

For further information visit the Graduate School.

Careers

This course offers students advanced training in banking and finance so as to pursue a range of exciting careers in the City, government, or an academic career via a PhD. More specifically, graduates would be able to pursue a wide range of careers in financial institutions that hire economists to analyse economic and financial trends, banking regulatory organisations like the FSA, or in leading investment banks like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

Internationally, our postgraduates would become attractive candidates for their domestic regulators and private sector banks. In addition, many graduates will follow other career paths including financial services, and doctoral research. Since their training would include exposure to both financial economics and the economics of banking, they would be able to proceed to our doctoral programmes in both economics and finance.

Work Placements

About the Professional Practice Placement

All students who enrol on the full-time Banking and Finance MSc will have the opportunity to complete a placement. A placement can significantly improve your employability and expose you to real-world situations in the Banking and Finance industry, and importantly, allow you to network with industry professionals.

Students completing the work placement option will have a competitive edge in pursuing careers as high-level analysts, economists and managers in financial institutions, governments, financial regulators, business companies and central banks, as well as international organisations.

The placement option is available to full-time applicants and will last for 12-15 weeks during the summer of your course. Placements will begin at the earliest in the last week of May and will finish by 19^th September 2017. Some employers may also provide a salary.

For students who complete the placement, their dissertation will be completed after the placement has finished and submit by 19^thJanuary 2018. Students who do not find a placement will do their dissertation throughout the summer and submit in September.

Securing a Placement

Students will initially enrol onto the full-time route and will only transfer to the placement route when an offer for a placement has been made. The placement will be dependent on students finding and obtaining a placement through Brunel’s Professional Development Centre. The PDC will help students prepare for the placement in the MSc Preplacement Module, by advising on writing applications, CVs, cover letters, interview training and assessment centre training.

Students who do not find a placement will do their dissertation throughout the summer and submit in September.

If you will hold a Tier 4 visa to study at Brunel, there will be no need to extend it, as normally Tier 4 visas to study an MSc in the UK expire in January in any case. If you are unsure, apply for a visa that covers the whole length of the course you intend to do.

During the Placement

As well as supervision from your employer, you will also have support from a Work Placement Tutor from Brunel. Your Work Placement Tutor will be there to support you throughout your placement via email, telephone and will make a visit to your placement before the end date.

After the Placement

Students who complete the placement will attend a Tutorial Day in September and will prepare a compulsory presentation. More details will be available closer to the time. After the Tutorial Day, students will write their dissertations and submit this in January.