MSc Sustainable Finance with Fintech

Overview

Our MSc Sustainable Finance with Fintech degree will allow you to become a leader in sustainable finance. You’ll develop specialist expertise of sustainable finance principles and financial technologies and apply this knowledge to real-world challenges.

Throughout this master's programme, you’ll gain relevant skills and knowledge to be highly employable for careers in sustainable finance, including investment management, banking, consultancy, and policymaking. You’ll develop a range of cognitive skills to allow you to analyse complex financial information, make informed decisions, and communicate effectively with a range of audiences. You’ll also acquire practical skills for implementing sustainable finance strategies including risk management, impact measurement, and sustainable investment practices.

This programme combines academic rigour with practical relevance, providing you with the knowledge and skills needed to address the financial industry's complex challenges. You’ll learn from leading academics and practitioners in the field, gaining a deep understanding of the latest trends and innovations in sustainable finance and fintech.

Upon graduation, you’ll be able to apply your knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development and positively impact society and the environment.

As Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University is situated on the edge of Edinburgh, you’ll have excellent links to the financial sector of Scotland’s capital city, and the UK’s second-biggest financial and economic hub. Edinburgh is a major centre for fund management and is home to two of the world’s largest banks. You’ll also benefit from our close ties to the London Stock Exchange and Bloomberg, which can provide you with excellent industry-focused learning opportunities. 

Our expertise

Your learning will be informed by the expertise of our research-active academics whose work covers four key areas:

• corporate governance and sustainability;
• financial technology innovations and their applications in the modern financial world;
• sustainable finance and its role in shaping environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) criteria.

And a thorough understanding of emerging financial markets which includes:

• risk management, particularly in the context of climate change, and
• the analysis and management of portfolios that prioritize sustainable and ethical investments.

Your learning environment 

The MSc Sustainable Finance with Fintech programme is taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, and lab work, allowing you to get to know and build relationships with the teaching staff and academics. You will be assessed by coursework, exams, and your dissertation, and will receive support and feedback throughout the programme. 

During your studies, you’ll benefit from and have access to our state-of-the-art facilities, including our professional-standard Bloomberg Trading Room with 12 Bloomberg Terminals to enhance your employability with data skills. These terminals are equipped with industry-standard software that provides live financial data and trading tools to the world’s leading banks and corporations. 

Outside of the classroom, you can join Heriot-Watt’s Business Society which holds regular social events and provides networking opportunities and insights into career prospects in Economics, Business, Finance, and other relevant industries. 

Customise your learning 

You’ll learn six core courses and can focus on the area of finance that interests you the most by choosing two optional courses from: Corporate Finance, Capital Markets, Derivatives, Advanced Valuation of Financial Markets, Portfolio Management, or Empirical Financial Modelling. This gives you the opportunity to customise your degree to match your specific interests or career pathway by selecting a specialist course option. 

In semester three, you’ll explore in-depth your chosen area of Finance through your dissertation. You will be required to demonstrate your mastery of the subject area by developing new insight from the analysis of valuable primary research.

You can choose whether to study the programme full-time, part-time or per course. This flexibility allows you to fit your postgraduate studies around your lifestyle. The programme will last 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time. If you decide to study part-time, you register for two courses per semester and progress to the dissertation at the end of your second year. 

You may have the opportunity to Go Global on our Inter-Campus Transfer. Opportunities for postgraduate study abroad are assessed on a case-by-case basis and if you are interested in studying at our Dubai campus or Malaysia campus for a semester or longer, you should contact the Go Global Team. 

Industry

We work closely with the industry to ensure our course content is up-to-date and reflects the current and emerging needs of the industry and employers. You’ll gain the right blend of knowledge, practical skills, and soft skills to set you up for life after graduation. 

Heriot-Watt University is named Bloomberg Experiential Learning Partner (ELP), a programme designed by Bloomberg to recognise universities that are leaders in experiential learning. 

Our partnership with Bloomberg, and the achievement of ELP status, is a mark of our innovative approach to connecting our teaching experience with real-life practical applications. Being a Bloomberg experiential learning partner allows Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Business School to better integrate industry-leading data, research, news and analytics into our curricula.

The Bloomberg Trading Room at Heriot-Watt University is unique in Scotland and enables students from different disciplines of business to better understand different aspects of markets, business behaviours and economic trends. It enables:

• performance comparison between different companies or industries using financial reports, company valuations, company news, company portfolios, and key changes/trends
• supply chain analysis through a company's supply chain relationships that include suppliers, customers and competitors. This enables managers to refine their supply chain configuration and strategy
• market share analysis by providing key industry data, interactive charting and commentary by Bloomberg industry experts.  It also provides industry fundamental statistics, market share and other key industry-specific metrics (e.g., retailers, airlines, and global auto manufacturing)
• strategic portfolio analysis through creating portfolios against markets and market positions, allocation of assets and performance attribution analysis
• accounting and financial analysis by providing the financial history of companies and indices including current and historical income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, ratio analysis and more