This master’s degree is designed to enhance your employment potential across international banking, accounting, and finance functions of multinational organisations.
Level: Postgraduate Taught
Delivery type: Full Time, Part Time
Degree qualification: MSc
Mode of delivery: On-Campus
Duration: 1 year
Location: Edinburgh
Start date: September, January
Next intake: September
Our MSc International Accountancy and Finance degree will equip you with highly employable expertise, and a thorough understanding of global financial issues. You’ll learn the academic theory and professional application necessary to set you up for life after graduation. By gaining widespread knowledge across the discipline, the programme will allow you to pursue professional and managerial careers in international accounting and finance, both in the private and public sectors.
You’ll develop a systematic understanding of international accounting and finance and acquire a critical awareness of contemporary issues in professional practice, and the academic discipline. You’ll understand the way the environment affects accounting and causes international differences, and how financial decisions or questions are analysed or modelled in theory. You’ll analyse and understand a wide range of real-life contexts, including the way financial markets and institutions operate, how much a company decides to borrow, and how investors select portfolios of assets.
You’ll learn about, and evaluate, a comprehensive range of research techniques used in international accounting and finance and understand how such techniques create and interpret knowledge. This will allow you to critically evaluate academic research, professional research and pronouncements, and financial media articles. These research and critical analysis skills will enable you to carry out an original research project on your chosen topic.
The career-focused master’s programme will develop your transferrable skills, including teamwork, communication, and presentation to make you highly sought after upon graduation. You’ll gain the skills and knowledge to help you thrive in the accountancy and financial services sector, in academic research, or in your chosen employment sector. The strong international relevance of this programme will make your skillset highly transferable across the globe. The MSc is accredited and approved by several accountancy bodies, providing you with the necessary accreditation for those looking to gain professional qualifications from the key accounting associations.
Your student experience
Our Expertise: Your learning will be informed by the expertise of our research-active academics whose work covers four key areas:
- Employment, Work and the Professions
- Logistics and Sustainability
- Networks and Enterprise Excellence
- Social and Economic Data Analysis
Your learning environment: Taught through a combination of lectures and tutorials, you’ll get to know and build relationships with the teaching staff and academics. You’ll 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 accountancy, finance, and other relevant industries.
Customise your learning: You’ll have the opportunity to focus on the areas of international accountancy and finance that interest you the most. You can customise your degree to match your specific interests or career pathway by selecting two specialist course options.
In semester three, you’ll explore in-depth your chosen area of international accounting and 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 by course. This flexibility allows you to fit your postgraduate studies around your lifestyle. You can begin the programme either in January or September, based on your availability, and the full-time course will last 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time. If you decide to study part-time, you’ll register for two courses per semester and progress to the dissertation at the end of your second year. Alternatively, you can study as part of a Postgraduate Diploma, which will last 9 months full-time, or 21 months part-time.
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.
Accreditation: MSc International Accounting & Finance is accredited by a number of institutions for exemptions from some professional examinations:
- Accredited by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) for the purpose of exemptions from some professional examinations.
- Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations through the Self-tailored Learning Pathway route.
- Accredited by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations.