The ICEF Master of Financial Economics Programme was founded in collaboration with the London School of Economics (LSE) and combines the best of the scholarly traditions of Britain (with a focus on profound professional expertise) and Russia (scholastic education). The Programme builds on the experience of teaching master’s programmes in Economics and Finance at LSE, Oxford and other leading universities. With courses (Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Econometrics) offering fundamental and advanced skills, the Programme is aimed at students with ample knowledge of Mathematics.

The main advantages of the ICEF Master of Financial Economics Programme lie in its international format, unique combination of theoretical and applied courses, tailored to the individual student’s needs, and promising career opportunities. The Programme meets the globally-recognized standards for curricula and teaching quality, which puts it on a par with the world’s leading master’s level programmes. The quality of teaching and its consistency with the international standards is achieved through the highly qualified academic staff with internationally recognized track record in research and lecturing. ICEF professors have received PhDs from the leading universities in the USA and Europe and have taught at academic institutions around the world.

The level of skill that master’s graduates are expected to meet when they enter the workplace is constantly rising. In response to financial and economic globalization, with Russia’s economy coming into play, the employment market poses cardinally new requirements to candidates’ level of skill, expecting Economics graduates to be on a par with analysists and experts at the industry, lead investment banks, global equity markets, and international organizations. For graduates to live up to employers’ expectations, their skills need to rely on profound theoretical knowledge – the one which is offered by master’s degree programmes at the world’s leading schools. The knowledge and skill level as high is this is what ICEF Master of Financial Economics Programme targets to provide its students with.

The programme will quip students with the following comprehensive competencies: ability to analyze and adjust familiar research methods and professional skills; ability to generate concepts and theoretical models, and test new methods and tools for professional activities; ability to learn new research methods and alter his or her own research techniques and professional methods; ability to analyze, verify and assess professional information for completeness, and, if necessary, restore or generate the missing information; ability to perform under uncertainty; ability to carry out research and professional activities as part of an international team.

Apart from that, the learning process targets to enhance students’ professional skills, grouped into instrumental and research competencies – ability to generalize from facts, critically approach the research outcomes obtained by domestic and overseas research teams, identify promising areas of research; set up research plans and programmes, ability to substantiate the theoretical and practical relevance of a chosen research topic, ability to carry out independent research and follow independently developed research programmes; analytical competencies – ability to source data for analyses and economic calculations from different sources, ability to deal with large and diverse pieces of information and predict social and economic performance of a corporation, industry, geographic area, and economy in general using, among other things, ICT; and socially and individually important competencies – ability to generate cardinally new ideas and products, be creative and resourceful.

While some of its graduates are pursuing successful careers at investment and commercial banks (mainly in Moscow and London), private consulting firms and real economy sector, others have chosen to do a PhD degree at the leading universities of the USA and Western Europe – University of California, Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, San Diego, London School of Economics, Bocconi University, London Business School, University of Minnesota, University of Maryland to name a few.

The Programme graduates hold positions at financial corporations – Central Bank of Russia, Sberbank CIB, VTB Capital, Morgan Stanley (London), Barclays Capital (London), Credit Suisse (London), Goldman Sachs, Merill Lynch, JP Morgan, Citi Group, HSBC, UBS, Fleming family and partners, Raiffeisen bank, VTB, Gazprombank, Rosbank, Sovcombank; consulting firms – Yakov and Partners, Oliver Wyman, McKinsey & Company and operating companies – Megafon, Lukoil, Renault, Gazprom, Rosneft, JTI, RosAtom among others.

Information on professional competencies is available in the Programme Curricula at https://www.hse.ru/ma/financial/learn_plans

For students admitted in 2024:

Key learning outcomes (KLO):

Features of professional activities:

In their first year, students follow a core programme which includes Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Financial Economics, Econometrics, Mathematics for Economists and two elective courses from the list below.

The core programme to be followed in the second year includes Financial Econometrics and Financial Economics (Corporate Finance), and a range of electives – Investment Analysis, Corporate Valuation Cases in Mergers and Acquisitions, Banking, Risk Management, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Big Data and Machine Learning with Applications to Economics and Finance, R Programming and Applications to Finance, Fixed Income, Derivatives, and Market Microstructure, Python for Machine Learning, Foundations of securitization.

In addition to the core programme, optional practical courses are available for students.

Also, students follow the programme of core research seminar called “Financial Economics”. It involves two-hour weekly classes (seminars) that take place in semesters 1 and 2 of each of the two years of the Programme. The research seminar aims to make research a regular activity as master’s students follow their learning paths at ICEF, as well as get them involved in the endeavors of the Russian and global research community. This requires an effort to instill researcher skills in students, and the master’s thesis serves as the actual vehicle to facilitate it.

The “Financial Economics” programme is offered in line with respective HSE University’s Educational Standard and features one track – “General”. The programme curriculum features four respective academic modules: the “Key Seminars” module, the “Major” professional module, the “Internship” module and the “Final State Certification” module. MAGOLEGO is an elective component of the curriculum aimed at customizing students’ learning process.

The “Key Seminars” module includes the seminar run by the track supervisor and the “Financial Economics” research seminar. The track supervisor’s seminar allows students to develop individual curricula jointly with the supervisor both for the study process and for building their future career. It is organised in the format of personal meetings and round tables with external experts from different fields of finance and economics that help students  expand their views and choose suitable electives in order to achieve their academic and professional goals.  

The “Financial Economics” research seminar helps learners to build and develop skills for writing academic /analytical works, present different types of materials and critically analyze data and information.

The ICEF research seminar is an international platform for the presentation and discussion of academic results, recently generated by Russian and foreign economists. The seminar’s feature is that these analytical results meet international standards in terms of quality of an academic work, validated by publications by speakers in international peer-reviewed journals. In turn, this series of seminars can help to overcome gaps in standards of quality for academic works, while also raising the criteria for analysis carried out by Russian economists.

The “Major” professional module includes obligatory courses, as well as electives. The obligatory courses include: Mathematics for Economists, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Econometrics, Financial Economics, and Financial Econometrics.

The elective part includes applied courses, as well as academic (taught) courses, including: IInvestment Analysis, Corporate Valuation Cases in Mergers and Acquisitions, Banking, Risk Management, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Big Data and Machine Learning with Applications to Economics and Finance, R Programming and Applications to Finance, Fixed Income, Derivatives, Market Microstructure, Python for Machine Learning, Foundations of securitization.

The combination of disciplines such as Mathematics, Financial Economics, Financial Econometrics and Programming allows learners to cultivate and develop their skills in the latest data analysis methods for solving economic and financial tasks. Instruction is held in English.

The “Internship” module includes writing term papers and thesis works, as well as project internships. With the framework of project internships, students take part in projects implemented by their teachers, as well as potential employers.    

In turn, this module helps instill research skills in learners: ability to write term papers and thesis works (Master’s theses). Students prepare term papers in their first year of studies, while theses are developed in the second year, followed by the defense process.  

Master’s theses’ defenses are carried out within the framework of the “Final State Certification” module.

This degree programme of HSE University is adapted for students with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities. Special assistive technology and teaching aids are used for collective and individual learning of students with SEN and disabilities. The specific adaptive features of the programme are listed in each subject's full syllabus and are available to students through the online Learning Management System.

All documents of the degree programme are stored electronically on this website. Curricula, calendar plans, and syllabi are developed and approved electronically in corporate information systems. Their current versions are automatically published on the website of the degree programme. Up-to-date teaching and learning guides, assessment tools, and other relevant documents are stored on the website of the degree programme in accordance with the local regulatory acts of HSE University.

I hereby confirm that the degree programme documents posted on this website are fully up-to-date.

Vice Rector Sergey Yu. Roshchin

Summary of Degree Programme 'Financial Economics'