RNCP Code: 35913
The TSM Master in Finance among the top 10 Masters in Finance that are EFMD-accredited worldwide
The European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Accreditation is the most thorough programme accreditation system for business and management programmes with an international perspective. According to EFMD: "The TSM Master in Finance is a robust academic programme with a commendable connection with the world of practice. The programme demonstrates several examples of best practices among which the use of ILOs to develop the provision but also to conduct programme delivery and assessment. The programme also offers a unique academic approach combined with the purpose of applying knowledge and skills to solving real-life problems and practical learning opportunities through internships."
The curriculum offers a rigorous training programme, covering the foundations of finance during the first year and offering students the option to specialise in one of three fields during the second year (Corporate Finance, Financial Markets and Risk Evaluation, Finance and Information Technology). It also offers the opportunity to get a double degree with our partner HEC Liège (Master 2 Corporate Finance - double degree HEC Liège, Master 2 Financial Markets and Risk Evaluation - double degree HEC Liège).
This first year of the Master in Finance allows students to build a strong conceptual framework in order to analyse financial issues. The second year of the programme builds on this by developing practical applications.
At the end of the first year, students will undertake a compulsory internship in a company from 2 to 5 months.
At the end of the second year, a 6-month internship is mandatory.
By the end of the Master in Finance, students will be able to:
- Know the basic institutional and regulatory framework of finance in organisations and markets ;
- Understand the conceptual foundations and analytical methods in finance ;
- Apply analytical methods in finance to solve practical problems encountered by corporations, financial institutions and markets ;
- Critically assess the drivers of contemporary financial issues ;
- Incorporate ethical dimension and implications for sustainability in financial decisions ;
- Communicate effectively in oral and written form ;
- Solve complex problems.
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UE01 Foundations of asset pricing
ECTS : 6.00
HCM : 30.00
HTD : 15.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
Being able to price a financial asset, such as bonds and shares, is the starting point of any financial decisions. The purpose of the module is to provide students with the fundamental principles of asset pricing, using theoretical concepts, empirical evidence and some practical applications. The intention is for the students to increase their knowledge and understanding of modern finance theory.
By the end of the module students should be able to:
- recognize different types of financial assets
- discuss the characteristics and pay-offs of financial assets
- explain the risk/return trade-off of investment strategies
- describe the benefit of diversification of holding a portfolio of assets
- list the factors which can affect asset prices
- compute the value of financial assets using traditional asset pricing models
- synthesize information and present the results in a written form.
- work effectively in a group
- Prérequis
Notions of probability theory and calculus.
UE02 Introduction to corporate valuation
ECTS : 6.00
HCM : 30.00
HTD : 15.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
This course is about how corporations make financial decisions. Topics include asset valuation, capital budgeting, cost of capital, financial reading of accounting statements, capital structure, profit ratios, value creation and price-earning ratio. Students will learn core concepts and tools to make investment decisions and maximize value.
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- calculate the fair price of a financial instrument
- identify appropriate financial criteria for investment decisions
- integrate risk into the cost of capital
- recognize key financial indicators from financial statements
- perform corporate valuation based on discounted cash flows
- reconcile the book and market value of equity
- calculate price-earnings ratios
- Prérequis
Accounting basics.
UE03 Mathematics for finance and insurance
ECTS : 6.00
HCM : 30.00
HTD : 15.00
Introduction to optimization for finance and insurance
ECTS : 3.00
HCM : 15.00
HTD : 7.50
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
The purpose of the lectures is to give the mathematical foundations of analysis and optimization needed to present modern and classical economic theory as optimal consumption problems.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- explain the main features of multivariate functions
- solve simple problems of constrained optimization
- utilize optimization methods in selected finance applications
- Prérequis
Basic mathematical calculus, including derivative and maximization/minimization of a function of one variable
Introduction to probability for finance and insurance
ECTS : 3.00
HCM : 15.00
HTD : 7.50
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
The purpose of this course is to give the mathematical foundations (Probability theory) needed to understand modern finance theory, including Mathematical theory of Risk, Portfolio theory, Capital Asset Pricing Model, option pricing, etc.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- describe the concept of probability and stochastic variable
- compute the main moments of stochastic variables
- utilize probability theory in selected finance applications
- Prérequis
Basic mathematical calculus, including derivative and integration.
UE04 Business economics
ECTS : 6.00
HCM : 30.00
HTD : 15.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
UE05 Introduction to financial accounting and reporting
ECTS : 4.00
HCM : 15.00
HTD : 7.50
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
The increase in the internationalization of many industries in recent years has led to an important increase in the number of companies operating globally. Knowledge of international accounting rules is thus becoming increasingly important for the accounting and finance professionals.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- explain the main accounting principles and mechanisms
- read and analyse financial statements
- describe and apply some basic international accounting standards
- communicate effectively in oral form
- work effectively in a group
- Prérequis
General accounting background.
UE06 Initiation to research
ECTS : 2.00
HCM : 12.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to important research questions in finance and to general methodological challenges. The course should provide students with a better understanding of current finance research and of on-going controversies and debates on selected financial issues. The emphasis is on developing a critical approach to conceptual as well as related practical issues.
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
- Comprehend research terminology
- Describe ethical principles of research, ethical challenges and approval processes
- Critically evaluate the research design relevant to a specific research question
- Translate academic insights into everyday language
- Set up an oral presentation of a research paper
- Implement self-management of a project team
Research skills:
- Knowledge and intellectual abilities: practical application of research methods; information seeking; analysing; synthesising
- Personal effectiveness: integrity; self-reflection; time-management
- Research governance and organisation: ethics; project planning and delivery
- Engagement, influence and impact: team working; collegiality; communication methods
- Prérequis
None.
UE07 Financial markets
ECTS : 6.00
HCM : 30.00
HTD : 15.00
Introduction to derivatives
ECTS : 3.00
HCM : 15.00
HTD : 7.50
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
Modern managers can use financial derivatives such as futures, options, and swaps to hedge particular kinds of risk or to change the returns on their portfolios in certain ways. The purpose of this course is to provide the student with the necessary preliminary skills to value simple forward contracts and plain vanilla options by arbitrage. In order to provide a useful treatment of these topics it is necessary to stress fundamentals and to explore topics at a somewhat technical level.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- explain what derivative instruments are
- explain how derivative instruments may be used to manage risks or design directional strategies
- price simple forward contracts on financial assets by arbitrage
- price a European call or put option in the binomial model of Cox-Ross-Rubinstein
- use Black Merton Scholes formula to price a European call or put option
- work effectively in a group
- Prérequis
This course is a technical course. Students are expected to have a minimum preparation in probability theory (random variables, expectation, conditional expectation, binomial distribution, normal distribution) and statistics.
Organization of financial markets
ECTS : 3.00
HCM : 15.00
HTD : 7.50
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
This course provides an extensive introduction to financial markets and its environment. The main objectives are to give an overview of all asset classes and the different financial instruments (stocks, bonds, money market instruments and foreign exchange), to review the regulation of financial markets and their participants, and to understand the functioning of some key markets.
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
- explain the main functions of financial markets
- list the main financial markets and market participants
- describe how markets, banks and insurance companies are regulated
- explain the process of trading in financial markets (limit order book, fixed income markets)
- calculate the value of the main fixed income instruments such as bonds, commercial papers, foreign exchange
- synthesize information and make focused presentation
- work effectively in a group
- Prérequis
None.
UE08 Principles of corporate finance
ECTS : 6.00
HCM : 30.00
HTD : 15.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
This course provides theoretical foundations of corporate financial decisions. It aims at understanding how financial decisions (capital structure, capital budgeting, payout policy) contribute to the objective of the firm, in particular to shareholder value maximization. The course also emphasizes the conceptual framework underlying standard corporate valuation techniques.
By the end of the course, students should be able to
- discuss the merits of corporate social responsibility
- compare various sources of external finance
- explain the basic determinants of capital structure
- appraise the tax implications of capital structure choices
- describe basic agency problems arising in corporation
- appraise how financial decisions contribute to the objectives of the firm
- work effectively in a group
- Prérequis
An introductory class to corporate finance and valuation principles is highly recommended. An introductory class to game theory is a plus.
UE09 Econometrics
ECTS : 6.00
HCM : 30.00
HTD : 15.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
This class is an introduction to econometrics. The goal is to provide students with methodological and quantitative tools to understand basic econometric models and use them to answer real-world questions. This class introduces models that facilitate the understanding of financial econometrics. Emphasis is put on intuitive understanding of concepts and on examples related to finance.
At the end of the class students should be able to:
- describe the statistical properties of the OLS estimator
- translate an economic argument into a formal econometric test
- implement simple statistical tests of hypothesis
- use statistical packages to estimate econometric models
- provide an economic and statistical interpretation of a regression output
- communicate effectively in oral and written form
- work effectively in a group
- Prérequis
Basic knowledge of Probability, Statistics and Matrix Algebra.
UE10 Introduction to Information Technology for Finance
ECTS : 6.00
HTD : 60.00
Programming for Finance
ECTS : 3.00
HTD : 30.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
The aim of this course is to introduce the main concepts of algorithmic (variables, data structure, functions and subprograms...) and the main instructions of procedural programming (loops, tests,...). The course will use Visual Basic for Applications as programming language as well as graphical formalism to design algorithms.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- design an algorithm using a graphical formalism
- implement an algorithm in VBA, following basic best programming practices
- modify and debug an existing program using the VBA editor and debugger
- develop a simple Excel VBA program using simple interactions with the Excel Object Model
- Prérequis
None.
Excel for finance
ECTS : 1.50
HTD : 15.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
Modern finance is digital, so mastering digital tools and in particular Excel is among the fundamental requirements for a career in finance. In this course, the student will learn how to use Excel to value firm’s financial policies and to price financial securities. The instruction stresses on the best practices to tackle various issues that are commonly at stake.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- compute basic financial determinants (NPV, IRR) of an investment project using Excel
- determine the composition of an optimal portfolio using Excel
- compute the cost of capital using Excel
- manage cash holdings using Excel
- price an option using Excel
- communicate effectively in written form
- work effectively in a group
- Prérequis
Computer basics, office tools.
Intermediate knowledge in both corporate and market finance as long as intermediate knowledge of Excel.
Database management
ECTS : 1.50
HTD : 15.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
This course is an introduction to Management Information Systems (MIS) and to one of their main issues: data management. The first goal is to present MIS and how they can help businesses accomplish their goals and objectives. The second and main goal of this course is to present data management: the essential rules allowing designing a coherent database within the framework of a precise activity, and the query languages which allow you to benefit from these data. Acquired competences must allow students to be able to exploit a database, within the framework of their professional activity, to be informed interlocutors for the design of computerized information systems in their company. Concepts seen in this course are implemented through the DataBase Management System (DBMS) Microsoft Access, which is widespread in the field of micro processing. The students will thus control the essential functions of any DBMS of the market.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- explain how a Management Information Systems (MIS) can help businesses accomplish their goals and objectives
- interpret an entity-relationship diagram and translate it into a data model
- create and execute SQL queries on a given database schema
- work effectively in a group
- Prérequis
Computer basics, office tools.
UE11 Group project
ECTS : 3.00
HTD : 41.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
In this module, students are required to carry out a project in finance (e.g., business valuation, financial analysis, option pricing, test of the CAPM model, fund performance…). By group of four students, they should define the objectives of the project, the milestones to achieve the objectives, use adequate methods to carry out the analysis, interpret the results and make recommendations with valid justifications for actions. Students should communicate effectively in a well-structured manner both when writing the technical report and when presenting it orally.
By the end of the Module, students should be able to:
- define the objectives of a project and define the milestones to achieve the objectives
- plan and use adequate methods to conduct qualified tasks in given frameworks
- interpret analysis results and make recommendations with valid justifications for actions
- build team spirit, presentation and technical writing skills
- respect and integrate the opinion of others
- communicate effectively in a well-structured manner and build up an open minded attitude
- Prérequis
Basic finance knowledge studied in Asset pricing and Corporate finance.
UE12 Career development and internationalisation
ECTS : 2.00
HTD : 24.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
UE13 Internship
ECTS : 2.00
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
- Présentation et objectifs pédagogiques
Students are required to do an internship of 2 to 5 months (at least 3 months is highly recommended) starting in April (after the exam session). During the internship students are supposed to participate to the activities of investment funds, investment banks or retail banks, or to work in the finance department of companies. Students can also set up their own firm.
By the end of the internship students should be able to:
- integrate academic theory with practical experience in a professional field of interest
- develop content specific and transferable skills
- synthesize information in written and oral form
- establish mentoring relationships with professionals in a career field of interest
- build a professional network
- respect and integrate the opinion of others
- work effectively in team
- Prérequis
Basic knowledge studied in the M1 classes.
Prerequisites applicable to all candidates
→ Successful completion of 180 ECTS
→ An English language test for non-English speakers (B2 required). List of the English language certificates accepted here.
Students having completed at least two years of full time university studies (at Bachelor or Master level) in English are exempted.
→ Examination of candidate’s application and possible interview
As a foreigner, choosing amongst other institutions/cities in France, I found in the academic plan the perfect balance between theoretical knowledge and professional experience, which is something that not all schools are able to offer. Besides this balance, the fact that the courses are developed in English provides me with wider international knowledge, but also opens the door to more possibilities of international work experience. After having some professional experience, I look forward to applying the hands-on knowledge into my courses and to complement each side with the other. I expect my career not to be developed in only one country; I look forward to the international experience and knowledge.
Montserrat ANGLES ENRIQUEZ
Class 2016/2017
Following the first year, the second year of the Master in Finance (M2) offers students various training paths:
Students who wish to do a double degree must apply during their M1 in Finance at TSM.
Our graduates are highly sought after by French and international recruiters, such as banks, consultancies, large multinationals and asset management firms, among others.
