Finance

start: winter semester | duration: 4 semesters |  degree: Master of Finance | special application and admission procedure

Specification and Aims of the Program

The Master in Finance program provides a unique interdisciplinary education in mathematical finance to students from around the world. The program, which is taught in English, includes courses from financial mathematics, applied mathematics, and finance and insurance.

Through the program, students will gain a sound understanding of cutting-edge techniques used by financial institutions, consultants, regulators and many other economic institutions. Topics of the program include valuation and hedging of derivatives, portfolio and risk management, regulatory aspects, and insurance. Graduates with a sound training in these areas are sought after on the job market even in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis (after all, one reason that the crisis came about was that too few people understood complex financial products).

Special attention will be given to foundations from various branches of applied mathematics (stochastics, statistics, applied and numerical analysis), which are necessary for modeling complex financial processes and products. With the help of such knowledge, students will be able to use advanced mathematical methods in order to solve practical problems. Example applications are portfolio optimization, the pricing and risk analysis of credit derivatives, asset-backed securities and insurance products, or bankruptcy prediction. Many of the offered courses focus on such applications. Students will also gain familiarity with the information system Bloomberg, which is available in the faculty’s trading room.

Admission Requirements

Applicants for this program must have completed a Bachelor’s degree (or an equivalent thereof) in mathematics or in another quantitative and mathematically-orientated discipline from a recognized university. Furthermore, an above-average performance in the completed degree and good knowledge of the English language is required (TOEFL score of at least 570 for the paper-based test , 230 for the computer-based test, or 88 for the internet-based test; not needed by applicants who have completed a Bachelor taught in English or whose mother tongue is English). You do not need prior knowledge in finance. The compulsory courses of the first semester are structured such that they can serve us an introduction to finance.

Structure

The program starts with compulsory courses in Financial Mathematics and Asset Pricing. Other compulsory courses include Practical Financial engineering, which is designed to practice the implementation of modern financial techniques, and seminars, in which you will write and present papers and thereby prepare for the Master thesis.
After the first term, students can decide whether to major in financial
mathematics or financial economics. Depending on the chosen major,
the focus of the optional courses to be taken in the second and
third term will be on mathematical finance or finance, respectively.

More Information about the Program