MSc in Accounting, Financial Management and Control

The program provides students with all the competencies and skills related to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) profession, preparing them to analyze problems and make managerial decisions from a plurality of perspectives. The same set of knowledge and competencies and skills could also be successfully applied to operating within auditing firms, consulting firms, and financial institutions.

The CFO plays a diverse set of key and challenging roles within all firms:

• Ensuring compliance with financial regulations, preparing financial statements and communicating value and risk information to investors and boards.
• Providing financial leadership and aligning business and financial strategy to expand the business and make investments as well as overseeing the capital structure of the company.
• Developing and implementing internal and management control systems designed to protect company assets and report business performance.
  
  

Teaching leverages on a large number of methods with different objectives: lectures, class discussion, and press analysis to understand management models, algorithms and methodologies; case studies, videos, inviting speakers from the business community to visualize and scrutinize organizational complexity; finally, simulations to improve data analysis, interpretation and decision making.

Program Structure

Courses serve two functions. One important objective is to consolidate and develop the basic knowledge needed for operating in the field of accounting, corporate finance, planning and management control and auditing at a high professional level. The other key purpose is to provide competencies essential for scanning and interpreting the social and economic environment. The 24 credits of elective courses have the aim of specialization and are selected by the student either freely or within one major.

First Semester
Main topics:

• Financial Markets

• Corporate Governance

• Financial Reporting and Management

• Data Analysis

Students learn the institutional context and the business environment where financial information is produced and how to interpret and use financial information for reporting and management.

Second Semester
Main topics:

• Macroeconomic and Legal Issues

• Valuation

• Performance Measurement and Control Systems

Students understand the macroeconomic and legal environment and learn how to value assets and liabilities, to set targets and report performance in a way that fosters learning from experience, enables redirecting ineffective behaviors and supports the generation of stakeholder trust.

Majors

• Accounting and Financial Reporting

• Corporate Finance and Financial Management

• Planning and Control

• Auditing

Free Track

• 4 electives

Study Abroad Programs

• Double Degrees with:
  HSG University of St. Gallen (St. Gallen, Switzerland)
  RSM Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
  Universidade Catolica Portuguesa (Lisbon, Portugal)
  Universität Mannheim (Mannheim, Germany)

• Exchange Programs

Internship (compulsory)
Foreign languages (two languages)
Thesis

Learning Objectives

The Master of Science in Accounting, Corporate finance, and control has the following educational objectives:

• Provide advanced studies to allow a complete understanding of accounting and financial statements, corporate finance and planning, and managerial accounting.

• Develop the skills and competence in management in order to discuss and interact with managers in different business sectors, with financial markets and with company and tax law professionals.

• Complete the preparation in the business field providing competences in economics, quantitative and juridical, so as to develop problem analysis skills in interdisciplinary areas.

• Develop behavioral skills via ad hoc seminars and via in/out of class activities related to courses, namely skills in communication, in interaction, in addressing complex issues.

• Promote fluency in English to work effectively and efficiently; proficiency in a second EU language (in the English version of the MSc: Italian for non-Italian native speakers). Finally, to foster a wide-ranging culture to develop critical thinking and to delve into cutting-edge topics.

Admission Deadlines

Find more info about MSc admission deadline here: http://track.adform.net/C/?bn=25259062

Career Opportunities

The main career path, though not the only one, is that of Chief Financial Officer in manufacturing, commercial and service firms as well as in financial institutions. More specifically, the main entrance areas are represented by the following:

• Activities as accountants, management accountants and controllers in various kinds of firms, with roles in the areas of financial statement preparation and analysis, investor relations, corporate finance, internal control, planning and the design of performance measurement and control systems.

• Activities related to accounting, corporate finance, and control in management consulting firms, auditing companies and in other consulting organizations that support customers in designing accounting information systems and in managing extraordinary operations such as mergers and acquisitions.