Financial Sector Management (Postgraduate Diploma)

Overview
Structure
Study materials
Fees
Assessment
Requirements
Leaders

Is this programme for me?

The Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Sector Management is designed to give a strong foundation for a career in banks or other financial institutions. The programme can also provide a suitable route towards entering the MSc Finance (major: Financial Sector Management).

Programme aims

The programme will enable you to deepen your understanding of the principles, applications, and context underlying decision making in financial sector management.

Programme details

	You study	Study period	Cost (2012-13)
Postgraduate Diploma	4 modules	1-5 years	£4,920
Individual Professional Awards	You can take up to three individual modules from this distance learning programme. Each module lasts eight weeks and you are registered for two years. The fee per module is £1,230.

Prestige

The programme has been developed by academics at the Centre for Financial and Management Studies (CeFiMS), a postgraduate research and teaching department within SOAS, University of London. Staff at CeFiMS have international reputations and are involved in researching their subjects at the very limits of current knowledge.

Career progression

As a graduate of this programme you will be prepared for a management career in deposit banks, investment banks, fund management, consultancy, central banks and international bodies.

Comprehensive study materials and support

You will be given all of the learning materials that you need to complete each course. These will typically include:

The Study Guide, a core text specially written for the course. This takes the form of a looseleaf binder containing eight ‘course units’. The units are carefully structured to provide the main teaching of the course, defining and exploring the main concepts and issues, locating these within current debate and introducing and linking the further assigned readings.
Textbooks and collections of key journal articles and book extracts.
Online and multimedia tools. You will have access to the Online Learning Environment (OLE), which is a web-accessed learning environment. Via the OLE, you can communicate with your assigned academic tutor, administrators and other students on the course using discussion forums. The OLE also provides access to the course Study Guide and assignments, as well as a selection of electronic journals available on the University of London Online Library. In addition, some course material will also include video lectures on DVD, CDs of case studies, and econometric software.
A Welcome Pack is available online, which provides you with resources and tips on effective distance learning. We will also send you a Study Skills textbook to help you manage your studies.

Your time commitment

This will depend partly on choices you make, but most students take two years to complete Postgraduate Diploma. The study calendar consists of five sessions per year. Each session is devoted to a specific course and lasts eight weeks (with the exception of the first session which runs for 10 weeks). During each session you will need to allocate between 15-20 hours per week to complete the programme.

Summary of key dates

Application deadline	8 October 2012	17 December 2012	3 April 2013	4 June 2013
Start date	3 December 2012	18 February 2013	20 May 2013	22 July 2013
Examinations	Late September-October

Modules

Four modules from the following

Corporate finance C321

This course enables you to relate principles and practice to the financing decisions of enterprises in modern economies. The course analyses the decisions firms make about financing their investments in productive capital.

Unit 1: Perspectives on Corporate Finance
Unit 2: Net Present Value and Capital Budgeting Decisions
Unit 3: Risk, Capital Market Equilibrium and Capital Budgeting Decisions
Unit 4: Efficiency of Capital Markets and Implications for Corporate Financing Decisions
Unit 5: Dividend Policy
Unit 6: Capital Structure I
Unit 7: Capital Structure II: Information Asymmetries and Agency Costs
Unit 8: Mergers

Banking and capital markets

This course examines the underlying principles and characteristics of banking and financial markets that are the foundation for understanding both their normal role in economies and the headline events. It concentrates on the theoretical and empirical scientific knowledge produced by modern research on banking. Since such knowledge is never fully established or ‘proven’, it enables the student to examine opposing points of view and to discuss the published studies.

Unit 1: Bank-Based vs Market-Based Financial Systems
Unit 2: Why do Banks Exist?
Unit 3: Why Banks Exist: Explanations Based on their Lending
Unit 4: Banks vs Capital Markets
Unit 5: Credit Rationing and Overlending
Unit 6: Bank Runs and Regulatory Responses
Unit 7: Financial Crisis
Unit 8: Portfolio Analysis

Banking strategy

The module examines bank strategy in the global economy. This module deals with the strategic (as opposed to operational) side of international banking, such issues as how banks are funded, how they acquire loan books, how they enter new markets and how they deal with international regulatory requirements.

Finance in the global market

The main objective of the course is to enable you to understand some of the main characteristics of that globalised financial world. Because of the centrality of foreign exchange markets to international finance, we regard understanding foreign exchange markets as the core of that objective.

Unit 1: The International context of finance
Unit 2: The markets for foreign exchange
Unit 3: Exchange rates and prices
Unit 4: Exchange rates and interest rates
Unit 5: Managing foreign exchange exposure
Unit 6: International corporate financing and project finance
Unit 7: Capital structure and cost of capital in international financing
Unit 8: Corporate finance and currency crises

Banking regulation and resolution of banking crises

The recent banking crisis has motivated heightened discussion of the merits of bank regulations used to minimise the risk of bank distress and intervention tools to mitigate its effects. In this course you will study technical aspects of bank regulation, supervision and intervention to resolve crises.

Unit 1: Principles of Bank Regulation
Unit 2: Banking Supervision & Regulation
Unit 3: The Prudential Supervision of Banks
Unit 4: Banking Crises: Weak Banks and Lender of Last Resort Support
Unit 5: Restructuring Failed Banks and Protecting Depositors
Unit 6: The Institutional Structure of Financial Regulation
Unit 7: Regulation, Supervision and Financial Stability
Unit 8: Issues in International Supervision and Regulation

Bank financial management

This course concentrates on the principles of bank management of assets and liabilities. You will learn about the principles of bank balance sheet management and money market operations as well as liquidity ratios and capital adequacy ratios. You will also study issues of bank supervision and regulation.

Unit 1: Banking Innovations and Risk
Unit 2: Bank Accounts: A Useful Tool if Handled with Care
Unit 3: Bank Valuation
Unit 4: Bank Risk Management - Liquidity Management
Unit 5: Bank Risk Management - Interest Rate Risk Management
Unit 6: Cost of Funds and the Funding of Operations
Unit 7: Bank Risk Management - Credit Risk
Unit 8: Capital Management

How you study

Without leaving your job or home you can study, write and submit assignments, receive expert guidance from your CeFiMS tutor and advice from the student support team. In addition to printed study materials, the Online Learning Environment (OLE) allows students to work with course materials, send queries to tutors and submit assignments via the Internet.

When you take a CeFiMS distance learning course you will be sent everything you need to complete your studies. A typical set of course learning materials would include:

The Study Guide, a core text specially written for the course. This takes the form of a looseleaf binder containing eight ‘course units’. The units are carefully structured to provide the main teaching of the course, defining and exploring the main concepts and issues, locating these within current debate and introducing and linking the further assigned readings.
Textbooks and collections of key journal articles and book extracts.
Online and multimedia tools. You will have access to the OLE, which is a web-accessed learning environment. Via the OLE, you can communicate with your assigned academic tutor, administrators and other students on the course using discussion forums. The OLEalso provides access to the course Study Guide and assignments, as well as a selection of electronic journals available on the University of London Online Library. In addition, some courses materials will also include video lectures on DVD, CDs of case studies, and econometric software.
A Welcome Pack is available online, which provides you with resources and tips on effective distance learning. We will also send you a Study Skills textbook to help you manage your studies.

Online Learning Environment
Created by CefiMS to provide additional resources and support, the OLE allows you to:

access study materials that complement printed texts
submit assignments
communicate with tutors
contact support staff regarding administrative queries
access online resources provided by the Univeristy of London Library including full-text journal databases of JSTOR and EBSCO.

Note: Students who are eligible to use the OLE are automatically contacted by CeFiMS staff and given information about how to access the system for their course.

Fees

Fees may be paid in one of two ways:

Either, pay the total fee on registration by making a single payment for all the module fees;

Or, if you prefer to spread out your payments, pay the fee for each module you want to take in the first year, and then in subsequent years pay the fee for each new module you take.

Fees are subject to annual review. The 2012-2013 fees take effect from 1 August 2012.

	2012-13
Fee per module	£ 1,230
Total Postgraduate Diploma	£ 4,920






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Other costs

In addition to the fees payable to the University, you should also budget for

the fee charged to your local examination centre to cover its costs; this fee will vary
customs duties/taxes where these are payable on educational materials, including educational USB stick/CDs. We recommend that you check the status of imported educational materials with your country’s customs authorities.

Note

The University reserves the right to amend previously announced fees, if necessary. For a full list fees that may be applicable, please see the fee schedule.

Academic Requirements

In order to be considered for registration applicants must have:

Either

(a) a bachelor's degree in finance, economics, or other appropriate discipline, from a UK university or other institution acceptable to the University or an equivalent international qualification (qualifications in other subjects will be assessed on their merits)

Or
(b) previous education and experience without a UK bachelor’s degree, or international equivalent that satisfies the University as a qualification on the same level as a UK bachelor's degree approved under (a) for this purpose, and which has included suitable preliminary training.

Please visit the EduGarage website [external link] to find out which browsers, plugins and operating systems best support Blackboard 8.0 for the Online Study Centre.

Language Requirements

For awards at FHEQ level 7, students must provide satisfactory evidence showing that they have passed within the previous three years a test of proficiency in English at the following minimum level:

IELTS with an overall grade of at least 6.5 with a minimum of 6 in each sub test; or
TOEFL with a score of 250 on the computerised test plus a Test of Written English (TWE of at least 4.5); or
a test of proficiency in English language from the prescribed list published by the Universtiy.

Where an applicant does not meet the prescribed English language proficiency requirements but believes that they can demonstrate the requisite proficiency for admission the University may, at its discretion, consider the application.

Note: Some programmes will require greater proficiency in English language; these requirements will be reflected in the relevant programme regulations.

Computer Requirements

Online access and general computer requirements
As one of our students you need to have regular access to a computer and the internet; this may be for accessing the Student Portal, downloading course materials from the Virtual Learning Environment, and accessing resources from the Online Library. You will also need to have access to appropriate software, for example, a PDF reader and suitable hardware capacity on your computer, e.g. for document storage. Additional requirements include that you have JavaScript and cookies enabled to access particular online systems, for example, the Student Portal.

Supported Browsers include:
Internet Explorer 7+
Firefox 5+
Chrome 13+

Screen resolution (recommended)
1024 x 768 or greater

Certain programmes may have their own specific requirements, please refer to the relevant Regulations.

Financial Sector Management (Postgraduate Diploma)