Programme Specification: MSc Risk and Finance
1. Awarding Body
2. Details of accreditation by a
professional/statutory body
eg ESRC; BPS etc)
3. Name of final award
4. Programme Title
5. Duration of the Course
6. Based in the Department/Institute:
7. Relevant QAA subject benchmark
statements
8. UCAS Code/application code
9. First written/Last amended
LSE
N/A
MSc
Risk and Finance
Full-time 12 months
Department of Finance
N/A
N4U3
Oct 2007 / Nov 2012
10. The programme aims to:
offer the following benefits:
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The opportunity to study in one of the most highly-rated Departments in the subject area in the
world, both for its research and its institutional links.
Research-led teaching by internationally renowned faculty from several departments and with
practitioners expert in the area.
Exposure to different approaches to risk, its management and regulation.
Expert practitioner-led seminars for a more applied approach
An opportunity for students with prior training in diverse disciplines and with a range of
professional backgrounds to acquire a broad knowledge of risk management and regulation,
and to deepen their competency in a chosen area of specialisation.
An opportunity to apply for an optional internship at a leading institution to gain hands-on risk
management experience.
Preparation for a variety of challenging career opportunities in a wide range of countries,
including: consulting, finance and banking, insurance, management, regulation and supervision,
public administration.
11. Programme outcomes: knowledge and understanding; skills and other attributes
Knowledge and understanding:
At the end of the programme, students will have a comprehensive view of risk perception in organisations
and of how the success of organisations depends on their ability to operate in the face of risk. They will
have gained knowledge and understanding of the important recent advances that have been made
towards developing quantitative tools that complement the traditional techniques of ‘insurance’ risk
measurement and that can be applied to financial markets and environmental risk. At the same time they
will have gained knowledge and understanding of the important insights being revealed by other social
science disciplines into how more complex risks are perceived, and how social organisations can
adjust to regulate and share them.
Subject specific skills:
Risk management is now recognised as requiring special skills that are central to the functioning of the
organisation. At the end of the programme, and to the appropriate extent indicated by their level of
award, students should demonstrate:
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appropriate understanding of and ability to apply tools of risk measurement;
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appropriate ability to communicate the ways that risk can be perceived and can impact
decision making in organizations;
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appropriate ability to communicate knowledge and understanding of techniques of risk shifting
in markets, firms and societies and of the tools available to managers and regulators for
controlling risks, and ability to recognize and explain the limitations of these techniques;
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appropriate ability to communicate knowledge and understanding of how the organisation of
enterprises, governments or markets may increase or decrease risk, based on a critical
evaluation of related theoretical and conceptual frameworks and relevant empirical evidence.
Cognitive abilities and non-subject specific skills: At the end of the programme, students should be
able to demonstrate:
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appropriate ability to evaluate arguments and evidence critically;
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appropriate ability to locate, extract, analyse, and draw reasoned conclusions from multiple
sources—including electronic sources—of appropriate literature and relevant data;
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appropriate ability to acknowledge and reference sources;
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appropriate capacities for independent and self-managed learning;
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appropriate use of communications and information technology, such as spreadsheets, wordprocessing and on-line databases;
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appropriate communication skills such as ability to present quantitative and qualitative
information, together with analysis, argument and commentary, in an appropriate form;
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ability to work in groups and other appropriate inter-personal skills, including oral and written
presentation skills.
Information relating to careers can be accessed here
12. Teaching, learning and assessment strategies to enable outcomes to be achieved and
demonstrated
Teaching and learning strategies:
This programme provides both research-led and practice-based teaching which aims to deliver an
integrated knowledge of risk management and regulation across a range of substantive domains. It
brings together a unique and innovative collaboration between Accounting and Finance and four other
departments: Geography and Environment, Law, Operational Research and Sociology; together with
practitioner-led seminars, primarily through staff at Deutsche Bank. It also offers an opportunity for
students to be considered for a summer internship at Deutsche Bank.
Students acquire their detailed knowledge and understanding of the course, and their subject specific
skills, through a combination of lectures, seminars, problem classes and progression to guided
independent study, reinforced by the opportunity to meet teachers and their supervisors one-to-one in
office hours.
Course reading lists include not only leading textbooks but references to current research literature and
primary sources, including relevant examples from current practice, official and professional policy
documents, websites and other electronic data sources.
The compulsory dissertation (equivalent to a half-unit) is of not more than 10,000 words on a topic
agreed with the course director and is due to be submitted at the beginning of September. The
dissertation is carried out under the supervision of an LSE faculty member who may or may not be an
instructor in the core course of the programme. Dissertation supervision is structured according to a
schedule of three meetings (subject definition, progress review and reading of preliminary draft).
Academic teaching staff are leading-edge researchers who give students an insight into current thinking
and recent developments in their fields. Several teachers are also involved in policy advice and formation
and give students insights into real-world developments in finance, economics and econometrics and the
forces that shape them.
Professionals working in the field contribute to the practitioner-led seminar.
Students have the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience of IT as well as familiarity with
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electronic data sources and databases.
The programme also offers students an opportunity to apply for an internship at Deutsche Bank to gain
hands-on risk management experience.
Assessment strategies:
Summative assessment of knowledge and understanding and of subject-specific skills is primarily by 3hr
unseen examinations at the end of each year. For the core course, assessment is by examination (50%)
and dissertation (50%). For some of the options coursework project assessment amounts to 20%-30% of
the final course grade.
Formative assessment is through class assignments, including numerical and computer-based
exercises, critical essays and commentaries, and individual and group presentations, for example on
case studies and mini-projects.
Cognitive and non-subject specific skills are developed in parallel with the development of—and through
the same teaching and assessment structures that are designed to achieve the appropriate levels of—
the knowledge and understanding and subject specific skills described above.
13. Programme structures and requirements, levels, modules and awards.
See MSc Risk and Finance for more information.
Additional Information
14. Criteria for admission to the programme
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Entrants should have a first degree of at least upper second standard from a UK university, or
its equivalent.
Applicants are assumed to have some knowledge of mathematics and statistics. Interesting
applicants with weak backgrounds in this regard will be required to take an LSE Summer
School course.
For students who do not hold a UK university degree, a GMAT score of 650 is generally
required (or, exceptionally, a GRE score of 700 will be considered). Graduates from a UK
university may also be asked to take a GRE or GMAT test. (See the introductory section in
the LSE Graduate Prospectus on GMAT/GRE.)
Non-English speakers also have to meet the School’s standard requirement for English
language for all graduate programmes - IELTS 6.5, TOEFL 603 in the paper test, 250 in the
computer based test.
15. Indicators of quality
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RAE rating (2008): Business and Management Studies: 70% of research outputs graded at 3*
or 4* and ranked in top 5 UK HEIs.
Finance Faculty lead and are associated with major ESRC funded research centre, the
Financial Markets Group (FMG)
The last TLAC review of the Department of Finance was in March 2009
The LSE Careers Centre website provides data on career destinations of LSE graduates
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16. Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standard of teaching and learning
School mechanisms (*operate at departmental level):
 regular staff appraisal*;
 induction and mentoring* system;
 student satisfaction survey by TQARO;
 external examiner check-up system by TLAC;
 review of all new courses and programmes, and major modifications, by GSSC;
 full departmental TLAC review every 5 years.
The Department’s additional quality evaluation procedures are coordinated through its Teaching
Quality Enhancement Panel. Primary responsibility lies with individual course leaders, course
lecturers, class teachers, and supervisors and their own self-evaluation is focussed primarily through
the Department’s annual course reviews and peer-teaching observations, the TQARO student
questionnaires and the School’s mentoring and staff appraisal processes. Other Departmental
structures and processes include:
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the annual Examination Sub-Board meeting constituted for this degree and the appointed
External Examiner’s reports;
the termly Departmental meeting;
the responsibilities of the Programme Director and the programme steering committee, student
feedback and consultation through the MSc staff-student liaison committee (SSLC) constituted
for this degree;
ad hoc reviews.
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