Accounting and Finance with CIMA (Taught)

Do you currently work in accounting and finance and want to gain a master’s qualification and an accelerated route to chartered status? Or do you have a business-related degree and want to move into a career in accounting and finance? This MSc in Accounting and Finance with CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) could be for you.

With recent changes in the business and financial world, the demand for management accountants is on the increase. Business success relies upon key individuals with a detailed knowledge of the environment in which the business operates and the ability to forward plan and effectively manage risk. This MSc Accounting and Finance (with CIMA) offers you postgraduate level study of the theory, knowledge, analytical and practical skills required for understanding the implications of decision making within organisations. It has been developed in conjunction with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Available full time or part time, this course allows students to obtain a master’s degree along with part qualification as management accountant, with significant exemptions from the CIMA professional examinations. There is also study support available from CIMA.

Why QMU?

This course is designed in collaboration with a professional body which qualifies you both academically and professionally: Our collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) offers the opportunity for students to obtain a master’s degree, a prestigious professional qualification (CIMA Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting) and the maximum 11 exemptions from CIMA’s certificate, operational and management level examinations.

Teaching expertise and care: The course is taught by professionally qualified chartered accountants and academics with industry and research expertise. As we offer smaller class sizes than many other universities, you will be able to learn from a caring team of finance professionals who will prioritise your career development. Our recent (2023), QSS* results rated postgraduate teaching quality on MSc in Accounting and Finance (with CIMA) at over 97%. (*QSS is an internal survey of QMU’s students).

Diverse career opportunities: Our collaboration with CIMA opens the door to a wide range of role opportunities within in a professional capacity - you are not obligated to becoming a chartered accountant. This management accounting qualification is broad enough to lead to key roles in the areas of information management, consultancy, operations, commercial, executive as well as, of course, finance.

Strong professional links: The Queen Margaret Business School is a member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) and a signatory member of The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). This course is designed in close collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the largest management accounting professional body in the world. The course allows its students the maximum level of exemption offered by CIMA to the Management Level Case Study in their global syllabus.

Great location: QMU is located in the UK’s second largest financial centre. Not only does this pave the way for career opportunities on graduation, but also enables us to offer field trips and enlist guest speakers to enhance your learning experience.

Access to our on-campus Startup Studio: This provides business incubation space for student/graduate-led start-up companies with access to: desk space; a QMU business address; meeting facilities; Business Gateway support and advice; a profile for your company on the QMU website; support with marketing materials; and access to entrepreneurial networks within QMU and other universities, for example, Enterprise Campus, Scottish Institute for Enterprise, Sporting Chance and Converge Challenge.

Course Modules

• International Financial Reporting: This module seeks to deepen and broaden your ability to prepare, analyse and critically interpret financial statements. It will enable you to explore the principles and theories of international financial reporting and analysis, and introduce you to recent critical debate on the sufficiency of conventional financial accounting practices.

• Finance for Managers: This module develops critical understanding of essential management accounting and finance topics within a business environment, to develop high-level understanding of how financial information helps to make informed and accurate management decisions.

• Advanced Management Accounting: This module extends the techniques of management accounting in its role in shaping short-term and long-term decision making, in analysis, planning and control. This module also places management accounting techniques within its strategic context to help you understand how you can support the strategic objectives of a business.

• Corporate Financial Management: This module is designed to introduce key concepts and principles of modern finance and financial management and apply them to the main decisions faced by financial managers.

• Research Methods: Problems and solutions (20 credits): This module is designed to develop both your theoretical research knowledge, and your practical insights into the purpose, nature, execution, and value of research approaches and how these can be effectively utilised in the solving of problems in the context of academic knowledge creation or organisational professional practice.

• Contemporary Issues in Business and Society: This module aims to enable you to reach a well-grounded understanding of the theory and practice of international management and relate it to events taking place at a global and national level. Utilising the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a discursive element within the module, the ways in which business can positively contribute to achieving these will be critically evaluated.

• Data Analytics for Management Decision-Making: This module explores the sources of data, how that data is collected, processed, and presented, and then continues the data lifecycle by considering how this is used within informed decision-making processes within contemporary enterprises. With so much data noise, how can businesses be certain that the data they are using is reliable and valid? How can they then link that to a primary function within management and leadership, making decisions?

• Strategic Management: Strategic management concerns itself with assessing what’s important, determining how to get there, and avoiding the potential pitfalls. By focusing on long-term sustainable success, it enables practitioners to avoid the noise of the day-to-day. The module incorporates strategic concepts, tools, and techniques that organisations can employ to assess their environment and resources and make strategic decisions towards long-term success. This is a mandatory module for all the Queen Margaret Business School MSc courses.

Accounting or Finance Dissertation: To enable you to develop, plan and critically evaluate a piece of research in the relevant degree subject-related area, written up in the form of a dissertation. This offers the opportunity to conduct a substantial academic research project around a topic of choice.

Business Consultancy in Practice: This is a hands-on practical project where you will work with a business on a live project, determine the project parameters, manage the project, and deliver a consultancy report recommending actions the company can implement.

The Business Incubation Programme: The aim of this module is to critically evaluate a range of nascent, micro and family businesses and to develop, through inception, investigation and planning, a new start-up business or social enterprise of your own design.

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants