Finance and Accounting MSc

Wednesday 7th June 2023 - On campus - 5:30-7PM (BST)

This academic course is carefully designed for students to explore how an accounting and reporting education, as well as advanced study of accounting, will equip you for exciting careers in the business and finance sectors.

Practical in focus, fully accredited and professionally oriented, our MSc in Finance and Accounting will equip you with the high-level skills, knowledge and expertise to advance your career as a qualified chartered accountant or as a specialist in a corporate services role.

Study with us, and on successful completion, you may be exempt from nine papers of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) exams and 11 of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) via the Masters' Gateway, an accelerated entry route to the CIMA Professional Qualification and the globally recognised CGMA designation. As an ACCA Gold-approved learning partner, our course is fully aligned with the Strategic Professional Level syllabus of the ACCA qualification. Depending on your choice of optional modules, you also have the option to focus your study on financial management areas.

The course content has been designed to equip you with the technical, professional, analytical and ethical skills required for a successful global accounting career. Using Bloomberg data available in our state-of-the-art Financial Markets Suite (FMS), you’ll evaluate real-world scenarios, enhance your critical thinking, and learn to explain the impacts of financial transactions and how to make the most appropriate accounting decisions. In doing so, you’ll gain a detailed knowledge of analytical techniques associated with accounting research, together with the key principles and practices in taxation, financial management and corporate valuation, managerial accounting and financial accounting.

Case studies, research and finance skills workshops, projects and guest lectures from current practitioners and CEOs from multinationals, will help you appreciate how these principles are applied by professionals working in accountancy, analytical or research environments, better preparing you for the business and finance world that awaits. We’ll consider contemporary issues in financial reporting, management accounting, auditing and governance, such as fair value accounting, auditors’ independence, corporate valuation and risk management.

For those with no prior accounting knowledge, this master’s level education will develop your knowledge and skills in this specialist subject area. Alternatively, if you’re a graduate member of a UK accountancy body or an overseas equivalent, you may claim up to four module exemptions by applying for Accreditation of Prior Certificated Learning.

Our graduates have gone on to work for leading accounting firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young, as well as multinationals such as Kimberly-Clark and other financial institutions such as London Stock Exchange, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Allifunds Bank S.A.

In December 2021, the University of Westminster received the CIMA Prize-Winner Excellence Award 2021. The Prize-Winner Award recognises university partners with top-performing CIMA students in Case Study exams. The CIMA Excellence Awards celebrate outstanding academic partners, education providers and students who have made significant contributions to the accounting profession and the Institute over the past year.

Top reasons to study with us

• 97% overall student satisfaction in the 2019 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)
• Professionally accredited by ACCA and CIMA – completion offers exemption from multiple papers
• Westminster is a Gold-approved learning partner of ACCA, the global body for professional accountants
• Access to one of the largest financial databases in our state-of-the-art Bloomberg virtual trading room and one-to-one training session to access DataStream for financial data and analysis on companies
• Opportunity to undertake an internship module – one student completed an internship in a ‘Big Four’ firm and was then appointed as an auditor on graduation
• Social activities and offsite trips (including a Thames boat trip in the past) to meet module leaders, industrial practitioners and multinationals' CEOs

Why study this course?

• Outstanding facilities
  State-of-the-art, Bloomberg-powered Financial Markets Suite (FMS) featuring industry-leading technology and software
• Combine theory and practice
  Link theory to global practice through real-life case studies, guest lectures, field trips and insight from one of the world’s largest financial databases
• Professional software
  Free access to professional software including Bloomberg, DataStream, Fame, Factiva, EViews, MATLAB, NVivo, SPSS, Sage, Statista, EIU Viewswire, Mintel, Passport (Euromonitor), and LinkedIn Learning

You’ll be able to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of core accounting and finance principles, developing the advanced numerical and analytical skills to succeed in this rapidly changing and complex environment. Your exposure and manipulation of real financial data in the Financial Markets Suite provide excellent preparation for professional practice. You'll also graduate with a range of interpersonal, leadership, digital and critical thinking skills that employers want.

Upon graduation, you can expect to pursue a range of career opportunities in financial accounting, management accounting, finance, public administration and other roles in finance and accounting. Past graduates of this course have gone on to work as accountants, management consultants, audit managers, business analysts, senior financial analysts and asset-based finance, among other professions.

With a growing global network of 3,000 employers, our Careers and Employability Service is here to support you to achieve your full potential.

• Careers support
  Postgraduate students have access to the University’s Careers and Employability Service for up to three years after graduation.
• Kickstart your career
  Learn how to use social media in your job hunt or LinkedIn to kickstart your career.
• Develop your CQ
  Develop your cultural intelligence – or ‘CQ’ – by studying alongside students and staff representing more than 100 nationalities.

Industry links

We have excellent industry links with some of the top firms in accounting and finance. Our course was designed with input from a range of industry professionals with expertise in financial accounting and financial regulation. To retain the currency and relevance of our course, we receive ongoing feedback from the Business School’s Departmental Employability Board, whose members include representatives from Vanguard, JPMorgan and Global Structured Finance – and we're looking forward to getting more alumni on board too.

Staff who currently teach this course have extensive professional experience that includes financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, banking, risk management, and others.

Graduate employers

As well as setting up their own business and going on to work for a range of SMEs and multinationals, such as Kimberly-Clark, graduates from this course have found employment at organisations including:

• Allfunds Bank S.A.
• Amazon
• Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company
• Deloitte
• Financial Conduct Authority
• London Stock Exchange
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Raiffeisen Bank International AG (Luxembourg)
• Royal Bank of Scotland Business

Westminster Employability Award

Employers value graduates who have invested in their personal and professional development – and our Westminster Employability Award gives you the chance to formally document and demonstrate these activities and achievements.

The award is flexible and can be completed in your own time, comprising a set of core and optional extracurricular activities.

Activities might include gaining experience through a part-time job or placement, signing up to a University-run scheme – such as mentoring or teaching in a school – or completing online exercises.

This course provides a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of key areas of accounting and finance, together with a broad commercial understanding of decision-making within a cost context. Content is benchmarked against the professional body curriculums and regularly updated.

Current study themes include financial and management accounting, taxation, and financial management. Through optional modules, you can choose to specialise either in accounting or finance or choose an equally balanced programme across the two areas. You may also choose any Level 7 electives that may be of interest to you.

Semester 1

The first semester is designed to build a strong foundation of knowledge of accounting in the management of organisations. We’ll look at managerial accounting concepts and techniques, exploring a range of contemporary issues in financial accounting and reporting, such as fair value accounting, creative accounting and ethics of the profession, or environmental and social reporting.

Receiving training in Bloomberg and Excel for accounting, you'll learn to use mathematical and statistical analytical methods. Essential topics covered in the first semester include budgetary planning and control; costing and decision-making; managerial accounting; and research methods that provide you with the necessary guidance to choose a research topic and complete a literature review for your final year project.

Semester 2

The second semester builds on financial management and corporate valuation, and taxation principles and practice. Optional modules enable you to choose areas of personal or professional interest, whether it is accounting or finance, such as auditing and professional ethics, financial derivatives, modern portfolio management and financial information systems.

Your studies culminate with the final project under the guidance of a designated supervisor, an intensive piece of research – an 8,000 to 10,000-word dissertation. As a guide, previous students have considered topics as diverse as dividend policy, gender diversification on boards, stock market volatility, emerging markets finance and earnings management, among others.

The following modules are indicative of what you will study in this course.

You can choose a total of three option modules – two or three from the following list, and a third module may be chosen from anywhere within the University, subject to the course leader’s approval.

Core modules

• Financial Accounting Policy and Practice
• Managerial Accounting
• Financial Management and Corporate Valuation
• Project
• Research Methods in Finance and Accounting
• Taxation Principles and Practice

Option modules

• Auditing Assurance and Professional Ethics
• Data Analysis
• Financial Derivatives
• Financial Information Systems
• Financial Markets and Institutions
• Fixed Income Analysis and Trading
• International Risk Management
• Modern Portfolio Management