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The two-year elite International Master of Science in Quantitative Economics (IMSQE) programme is a special programme offered by the Department of Economics and Business. The programme corresponds to 120 ECTS credits within the areas of economics, econometrics, finance, and accounting. Enrolled students can tailor their own study programme on the basis of a range of advanced-level core courses with a quantitative orientation, including selected PhD-level courses. The programme requires strong analytical skills in quantitative methods, and there are special requirements regarding the level and qualitative content of written assignments.
Outstanding international research environment
The elite programme is an international programme. The department is renowned for setting high academic standards and collaborates closely with many internationally recognised researchers. The IMSQE programme is based on the departments outstanding research environment, covering broad areas of economics, finance, accounting and econometrics. A core part of the departments research environment is the Center for Research in Econometric Analysis of Time Series (CREATES), with Nobel Laureate Robert F. Engle serving as a member of the centres advisory board.
Your own personal academic ADVISOR
Each student enrolled in the IMSQE programme is assigned a personal academic advisor from the departments academic staff.
Outstanding analytical skills
The programme provides students with outstanding analytical skills.
IMSQE graduates often find work at large consultancy firms and financial institutions.
Continue at PhD level
The IMSQE programme provides an excellent opportunity for graduates to continue studying at PhD level, and the department offers a special transitional arrangement for IMSQE students who wish to continue research training as part of the PhD programme.
The IMSQE programme is a two-year, full-time programme of instruction corresponding to 120 ECTS credits within the areas of economics, econometrics, finance and accounting. The courses in the IMSQE programme consist of a mixture of regular MSc courses with a quantitative orientation and PhD courses offered through the PhD programme in economics and management. Furthermore, there are special requirements regarding the level and qualitative contents of written assignments, and particular emphasis will be put on the students analytical, quantitative skills.
Besides the courses constituting the formal program of study, the students are expected to take a number of special, intensive courses at the PhD level offered through various network programmes like the Danish Graduate Programme in Economics (DGPE) and the Danish Doctoral School of Finance (DDSF). Further, a Summer School will be organized in August between the first and second year, where the students must attend lectures for two weeks and prepare a written report.
A personal academic advisor - or mentor - from the corps of faculty associated with the programme will be appointed to each student in the IMSQE programme. The advisor will assist the student in putting together the individual study programme.
Course Work
The course work makes up a total of 80 ECTS credits. The IMSQE programme has a number of core courses that are guaranteed to run annually (each course is equivalent to 10 ECTS credits). The courses labeled advanced are PhD level courses which presuppose that the student has acquired substantial knowledge of the field beforehand, typically by following courses at the MSc level. The core IMSQE courses are:
Micro 2
Macro 2
Time Series Econometrics
Micro-Econometrics
Derivatives and Risk Management
Accounting for Decision and Control
Mathematical Analysis
Advanced Microeconomics
Advanced Macroeconomics
Advanced Econometrics
Advanced Corporate Finance
Advanced Financial Economics
Advanced Financial Econometrics
Advanced Accounting
However, to allow for additional flexibility, the student may in consultation with his/her advisor - choose to complement the courses above with a (limited) number of other courses, which may be of particular interest to the student. The general requirement is that these additional courses should have one of the core IMSQE courses listed above as a required course (this will follow from the relevant course description). Examples of such courses are (it cannot be guaranteed that all of these courses will be offered on an annual basis):
- Fixed Income and Credit Risk
- Corporate Finance and Governance
- Macro Labor
- Labor Economics
- Economics of Education
- Industrial Organization
- Advanced Programming
- Applied Time Series and Financial Econometrics
- Applied Micro Econometrics
- Computational Methods in Econometrics
Finally, the student may apply to the Study Board to get other courses approved (that will require approval from the advisor of the student and from the Director of Research).
Written Work
In addition to the course work, written work makes up the remaining 40 ECTS credits. Of these 10 ECTS credits must be earned by completing a written assignment, while the final MSc thesis is equivalent to 30 ECTS credits. In the assessment of the final thesis, special emphasis will be put on the students analytical, quantitative skills. The thesis may thus be shorter than a regular MSc thesis, but a very high level of independence is required. The student must defend the thesis orally at a public defence where an external examiner will also be present.
