Financial Risk Management

This MSc programme, which has been designed in conjunction with leading risk professionals, aims to meet the growing demand for professionals who are highly skilled in quantitative risk management. Students gain core competencies in risk analysis and have the opportunity to tailor the programme to their own interests and needs through the wide variety of options available.

Students will be educated to an advanced level in programming and computing and will gain mathematical, statistical and computational modelling skills. They will have a clear appreciation of different types of risk within the industry, and of the managerial and psychological issues related to risk control.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of four core modules (60 credits), four options (60 credits) and the research dissertation (60 credits).

A Postgraduate Diploma will be offered to the students that have completed 8 taught modules (120 UCL credits).

A Postgraduate Certificate will be offered to the students that have completed 4 taught modules (60 UCL credits).

Core modules

• Financial Data and Statistics
• Market Risk, Measures and Portfolio Theory
• Financial Engineering
• Stochastic Processes for Finance

Optional modules

Four modules must be chosen from the following list.

• Applied Computational Finance
• Asset Pricing in Continuous Time
• Equities, Foreign Exchange and Commodities Modelling
• Financial Institutions and Markets
• Forecasting
• Networks and Systemic Risk
• Numerical Analysis for Finance
• Operational Risk Measurement for Financial Institutions
• Quantitative Modelling of Operational Risk and Insurance Analytics
• Market Microstructure
• Compliance, Risk and Regulation

Dissertation/report

Students undertake modelling, research and data analysis which takes place over the summer placement. This forms the basis of the 10,000-word dissertation.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials and project work. Modules are assessed by written papers and/or coursework. The research project is assessed by a written report and (optional) oral examination.

Placement

Students undertake a summer work placement in an industry environment organised by the department.

A minimum of an upper second class UK Bachelor's degree, in a relevant discipline, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, with a strong quantitative component evidenced by good performance (higher than 60%) in relevant mathematics, statistics or computation options.