Sustainable Management and Finance MSc
Key information
Duration: 12 months
Attendance mode: Full-time
Fees: £30,240 (more information)
Location: Bunhill Row
Start of programme: September 2024
Application deadline: Rolling applications
Entry year: Showing course information for 2024
Shape the future of sustainable management and finance, become a responsible leader
Overview
Sustainable Management and Finance MSc Who is it for?
Sustainability and Environment Social and Governance (ESG) management is the way business must operate now to: adapt and shape regulatory initiatives, transform supply chains and work with innovative actors that understand how climate change is going to transform business.
Why choose this course?
- Shape the future of sustainability and ESG management and finance
- Become forward-looking, courageous, and conscious
- Work with the people that are asking new questions on how to lead responsibly in academia, in business in politics and in society
- Lead a new way of doing business: nature and people centred
- Guided by a Steering Group, which will assess and provide guidance on the program's direction, and will assist students in actively participating in the latest industry discussions
- Members include: ESG rating agencies, asset owners, advisory firms, professional associations, NGOs, and think tanks which are at the forefront of shaping discourse on ESG and sustainability in management and finance.
Course objectives
This program combines managerial, ethical, legal, accounting and investment skills to give a 360-degree view of ESG management. It provides the tools and techniques for effective financial valuation, risk assessment, ESG accountability and communication.
Most importantly this masters course will help you ask the important questions and take responsible decisions, perparing you to lead a new more sustainable world.
We conceive learning as an engagement process with the knowledge and practice: through case studies, lectures, guest speakers, industry projects, connecting you directly with the local financial and managerial scene surrounding the City.
We offer an inter-disciplinary learning environment with core modules in Finance, Management and Communications to learn about topical, state-of the art knowledge.
You'll gain valuable international exposure to latest debates, experiences, practices and tools.
Teaching staff
Course director: Dr. Itziar Castello, Reader in Sustainability. Itziar has more than 20 years of working in sustainability in the industry and academia.
Our module leaders and lecturer are the top scholars in sustainability and finance driving the academic and practices thinking.
Teaching staff include
(subject to change)
- Bobby Banerjee, Professor of Sustainability, Bayes Business School
- Daniel Beunza, Professor in the Social Studies of Finance, Bayes Business School
- Joelle Evans, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour, Bayes Business School
- Jean Pascal Gond, Professor in CSR, Bayes Business School
- Mehrshad Motahari, Lecturer in Finance, Bayes Business School
- Ioannis Moutzouris, Associate Dean for Engagement
- Professor Aneel Keswani, Professor in Investment Management
- Professor Roman Kräussl, Professor of Finance.
Course content
Sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management present a landscape rich in intricacies and perpetual evolution. Various industries, including finance, insurance, real estate, consultancy, and many others, have a growing demand for professionals well-versed in ESG matters. Effective work in the ESG domain necessitates a blend of skills, including the ability to analyse complexity, employ critical thinking, demonstrate high-level interpersonal aptitude, and apply analytical proficiency. These competencies are vital for success in an environment that is rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly intricate.
We offer you a competitive yet challenging 1-year study program to develop skills across different disciplines: Management and Finance.
You will acquire a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and how to employ analytical and ethical skills and tools to address systemic issues. This includes, for example, challenges related to climate change, poverty, discrimination, and corruption.
While the programme is practical and hands-on, the fundamental aim of the MSc course is to deliver graduates both a solid theoretical underpinning and the ability to apply knowledge to practical problems immediately.
Course structure
Programme content is subject to change. We regularly review our module offering and amend to keep up to date and relevant.
Induction weeks
All of our MSc courses start with two compulsory induction weeks which include relevant refresher courses, an introduction to the careers services and the annual careers fair. These will include:
- Team building
- Career induction and careers fair
- Professional development skills
- Descriptive statistics and introduction to probability
- Introduction to programming languages
Modules
Eight compulsory, core modules are given in terms 1 and 2. Term 3 is dedicated to a compulsory and supervised industry-led project, as well as to three elective modules of your choice.
Term 1
Core modules
The Challenges and debates of sustainability and ESG
The aim of this module is to equip you with a comprehensive understanding of the potential impact of climate change, poverty, inequality, and corruption in businesses and the responsibilities of modern businesses and other organizations to tackle them. It will do so by building the knowledge and the critical thinking necessary to move beyond the current status quo and transform organizations. It will serve to set the scene of the challenges current organizations are facing to think collectively about and the potential solutions and opportunities.
The module unpacks the key terms, origins, and evolution of the contemporary challenges and debates inherent to management of sustainability and ESG. It does so by inviting the sustainability and ESG experts at Bayes, and beyond, to present their research. These experts will present different perspectives to sustainability and ESG, which will help you to understand, articulate and contribute to the current debates on these issues.
The module is primarily taught through the development of critical thinking and debate-based sessions. This method will be supplemented with the case method, readings and short lectures to help build a comprehensive view of the issues associated with sustainability and ESG, taking into consideration the expectations and challenges of a range stakeholders.
Principles of Sustainable Finance
This module will help you to analyse social, environmental and governance (ESG) issues, and the impact of these issues on financial risk, financial performance, and investment decisions. It offers essential resources you to work on sustainable finance, or responsible investment, as well as understand how environmental and social issues affect the financial world, and what financial market can enable green transition and the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
This module will introduce the basic theories, principles and tools of sustainable and green finance including green loans, green bonds, green equity capital markets and other green securities. It will also analyse the concept and trading practices of carbon emissions and carbon trading in systems such as EU ETS, UK ETS, Cap-and Trade Programme in Japan, etc.). This will be facilitated by showing in class real-life applications of carbon trading, in some cases, delivered by practitioners.
Sustainable Management
The aim of the module is to provide you with an overview of the current issues and prospects related to the expectations of society towards business, and with an understanding of the contemporary social and environmental issues in global business. This includes the understanding of ethics and good governance in decision-making, the complexities of supply chains and the importance of leadership in dealing with these issues.
Working towards more sustainable business implies understanding the complexities of ethical and environmentally oriented decision-making, their implications for business strategies, operations and supply chains as well as understanding the importance of leadership for sustainability transitions. This module addresses these challenges by presenting 360-degree perspective on the key contemporary issues of managing sustainable business, exploring how expectations beyond financial returns are affecting everyday decision making in business operations and governance.
Engagement, Communication and Governance
The aim of this module is to equip you with a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of stakeholder engagement and governance of ESG, appropriate for the level of an MSc. It provides hands-on learning experience, allowing you to apply theoretical concepts to real life situations and incentivizes you to work as a team: you will work in small groups to complete your coursework.
The module content is therefore structured around the foundation of sustainability and ESG management with the aim of providing a rounded understanding of the theories, principles, frameworks and tools of stakeholder engagement. It situates stakeholder engagement in key actors such as investors, activists and civil society, the general public, and governments and will analyse the best practices and challenges of engagement towards key environment, social and governance issues. It will analyse the role of governance and accountability in the development of the sustainability and ESG field.
The module tackles the challenges of communication of the ESG commitments, goals and initiatives. It also analyses the problems of failed engagements, greenwashing, miscommunication, the political role of the firm and woke capitalism.
Term 2
Core modules
Metrics, Asset Management and Modelling in Responsible Investment
This module aim is to provide you with an understanding of the structure and functioning of the asset management industry of ESG. The module will make it possible for you to acquire an understanding of the principal objectives and constraints of asset management in the ESG field.
The content of the module will include the main investment philosophy and processes applied to ESG and sustainable finance. It will also introduce you to portfolio risk analysis, search of alpha, market efficiency and styles taking into consideration ESG criteria. These tools will be based on an understanding of behavioural finance, performance analysis based on ESG criteria and global asset allocation.
ESG Regulation, Accountability and Reporting
The aim of the module is to discuss critically the different forms of corporate governance mechanism, their challenges and opportunities to meet sustainable goals. The module will reflect on how soft governance schemes such as ESG labels, ratings and rankings influence companies. The module will also discuss the accounting and accountability mechanism of the investments field, identifying different standards and classes of actors such as pension funds, insurance firms, sovereign wealth funds, and asset managers and how they engage with ESG matters.
In this module, you will learn about the different governance schemes for sustainability, including board structures, compensation systems, performance measurement, codes of conduct, and whistleblowing. You will also study the different elements and standards of ESG reporting and will discuss the different accountability mechanisms including rankings and ratings.
Business Strategies, Climate-tech, and Innovation
The aim of the module is to explore how companies are responding to the need to define new strategies, provide new secure, affordable products while and engaging with its key stakeholders to minimising its environmental impacts and work towards the mitigation of climate change. It will do so by building the knowledge necessary to understand how businesses are transforming towards climate change reduction and adaptation. It will put special emphasis in the role that innovation and technology plays in this transformation.
In this module, you will learn about the challenges of environmental and social wicked problems, such as climate change, and how business strategies and models must be transformed to deal with them. This module explains climate mitigation strategies. It also looks at the key innovations and technology developments of leading sectors in climate change and the necessary transformation of business models they are undertaking. The module involves working with cases to understand real examples and analyse its challenges and opportunities. It also involves working in projects to develop an innovative cleantech business proposition. Cleantech innovations are part of products and services which main goal is to avoid or diminish the adverse environmental effects of human activity. You will be guided through the stages that take a nascent idea and an untested team to the point where the team has a well-formed cleantech idea that can be pitched to an investor or sponsor.
Applied Research Methods in ESG
This module has both short-term and long-term educational aims. The short-term objective is preparing you to craft your final projects in the pursuit of an MSc degree, by providing the essential methodological tools necessary for conducting the empirically-based projects The long-term objective is offering a set of analytical and methodological tools that will be fundamental to your future career, whatever research project based on empirical data you will be called to do in your future job.
The module content covers the fundamentals of research methodology as well as the basic principles of research methods. The module is divided in two parts. In the first part, you will learn the fundamentals of research methodology, including: 1) how to select and craft research questions and working testable hypotheses; 2) how to do a literature review; 3) how to design a research project and how to choose between different research designs. In the second part, you will learn the basic principles of case study research designs and financial modelling. You will learn how to gather information through database research, which you will be able to use to support your learning, substantiate your arguments and make assessments about the nature of the evidence you are using. You will learn about the different models and methodologies which can be used in ESG research, including event studies, the difference in difference approach to causal inference and regression analysis with trees.
Term 3
In your third term you'll work on a compulsory and supervised industry-led project alongside a choice of three elective modules.
Industry project
To train you to undertake individual research within the context of an industry-related problem or issue and to provide you with an opportunity to specialise in a contemporary business or finance topic related to your future career aspirations.
Elective modules
- Sustainable Finance with ESG
- Emerging Global Risks
- Operational Risk Management
- Advanced Company Valuation
- Country and Geopolitical Risk Management
- Strategy Consulting Skills
- Storytelling for Business
- New Market Creation
- Sustainability in Real Estate
- Real Estate Portfolio and Fund Management
- Venturing for Social Impact – (in Kenya)
- Shipping Risk Management
- Corporate Entrepreneurship
- FinTech - Financial Services in the Digital Age.
* The list of electives offered in a given year will be confirmed by February.
Assessment methods
Term dates
Term dates 2024/25
- Induction: 9th September 2024 - 20th September 2024
- Term one: 23rd September 2024 - 6th December 2024
- Term one exams: 6th January 2025 - 17th January 2025
- Term two: 20th January 2025 - 4th April 2025
- Term two exams: 21st April 2025 - 2nd May 2025
- Term three - international electives: 5th May 2025 - 16th May 2025
- Term three: 19th May 2025 - 4th July 2025
- Term three exams: 7th July 2025 - 18th July 2025
- Resits: 11th August 2025 - 22nd August 2025
- Additional resit week - tests only: 25th August 2025 - 29th August 2025.
Timetables
Course timetables are normally available from July and can be accessed from our timetabling pages. These pages also provide timetables for the current academic year, though this information should be viewed as indicative and details may vary from year to year.
Please note that all academic timetables are subject to change.
Fees & funding
UK/Home/International fee
September 2024 entry
£30,240
Tuition fees are subject to annual change.
Deposit: £2,000 (usually paid within 1 month of receiving offer and non-refundable unless conditions of offer are not met)
First installment: Half fees less deposit (payable during on-line registration which should be completed at least 5 days before the start of the Induction period)
Second installment: Half fees (paid in January following start of course)
Students who require a visa should check the financial requirements of the visa.
Scholarships & bursaries
Scholarships, sponsorships, loans and other funding could support your education at Bayes Business School.
Learn about the cost of living as a Bayes student in London.
Scholarships
There are a number of general scholarships, open for applicants to all Bayes MSc degrees.
View our scholarships and fundingOther funding opportunities
Scholarships are very competitive, you may wish to look other options for funding, including the government PG Loan.
View other funding optionsSponsorship
Students on the course who are sponsored in full or in part by their employer will need to complete a sponsorship form as part of the application process.
View our sponsorship guidanceCareers
Graduates can expect at least three different avenues toward the job market.
Develop your career in the financial sector, and steer institutional ESG transformation as a business analyst, or as an innovation manager /service innovation specialist. Your degree allows you as well to take up traditionally known roles, such as investment manager or data analyst and apply your forward-looking knowledge accordingly.
You could also enter the advisory industry, and work in consolidated consultancy firms or smaller niche oriented advisory firms in the sustainability field.
You might join a business to help them develop their core business sustainability strategy or their sustainable finance strategy. You might also find interest in green oriented start-up ventures, who are always seeking for individuals with a hybrid, i.e., inter-disciplinary knowledge. This course can as well push you to develop your own sustainable business idea and bring your venture to the market.
Last, but not least, this course can push you in working for purpose-oriented organisations such as NGO’s or B-Corps, etc., where you can put in practice your business skills while working for a cause that you care.
Potential graduate destinations
- Advisor in ESG Management or Sustainability in consultancy firm or non-profit organization
- ESG Investment Consultant in Bank, Investment Fund or Asset Management firm
- ESG and Risk Management Analyst (Investment and Research)
- Investment Compliance Officer in ESG in corporate organisations
- Sustainability Manager in corporate organisations
- Researcher in ESG in public organisations, non-profit organization, financial regulators, think tanks or academic institution.
The programme is also be supported by a group of professionals that facilitates connections with the industry.
Alumni stories
Entry requirements
- A UK upper second class degree or above, or the equivalent from an overseas institution.
- Some level of previous study in business or finance is preferred.
- Work experience is not a requirement of this course.
English language requirements
If you have been studying in the UK for the last three years it is unlikely that you will have to take an English language test.
If you have studied in the UK at degree level for less than three years (e.g. 3+1, 2+1, 2+2, etc.) you will be required to provide the results of an approved English language test and possibly resit the test to meet our academic entry requirements.
Full list of approved English language tests/qualifications and minimum requirements.
Apply
Please see our Application Guide for details of the documents you will need to supply as part of your application, and other useful information.
We cannot comment on individual eligibility before you apply. We can only make a decision on your application once it is fully complete, with all requested information received.
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Students applying to study at Bayes Business School are subject to City, University of London's terms and conditions.
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