MSc Sustainable Finance and Accounting with a Professional Placement Year

Meet our Business School faculty and discover the right course for you.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2022/23. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to COVID-19, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let our applicants know of material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

We’ll do our best to provide as many optional choices as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown below.

We’ll display the modules running in the academic year 2023/24 as soon as possible.

Year 1

Core modules

Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

Autumn teaching

• Accounting, Organisations and Society
• Sustainability Accounting and Reporting
• Sustainable Business Finance
• Sustainable Development: Politics and Policies

Spring teaching

• Accountability and Ethics
• Climate Finance
• Research Methods for Accounting and Finance

Summer teaching

• Research Project (MSc Sustainable Finance and Accounting)

Options

Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example, in response to student feedback or the latest research.

While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped, and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.

Spring teaching

• Corporate Governance
• Energy Policy and Sustainability
• Entrepreneurial Finance
• Ethics and Organisations

Year 2

Core modules

All year

• MSc Professional Placement Year

Please note

If you’re receiving – or applying for – USA federal Direct Loan funds, you can’t undertake your placement/internship in the USA if the number of credits for the placement/internship exceeds 25% of the total credits for your course.

The course looks at the global nature of sustainability in the context of accounting and finance.

You’ll understand the role of accounting and finance in meeting the key challenges surrounding sustainability development goals, climate finance, environmental reporting and corporate governance. You’ll be prepared for rewarding and socially beneficial employment in sustainability-related accounting and finance roles.

As a graduate, you can pursue careers in a wide range of sectors. This could include roles in the local and national government, NGOs, global organisations, business and industry, such as:

• ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) analyst, or transparency and ESG reporting manager;
• sustainability reporting manager;
• sustainable debt analyst or sustainable innovation associate.

This degree can also be helpful for getting into research roles in climate finance or early career roles in sustainability management.

• 1st in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022)
• 1st in the UK for annual research income in 2020/21 (Chartered Association of Business Schools)
• 13th in the UK for Business and Economics (The Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2022)