PhD in Finance

In the first year you will attend a comprehensive set of courses designed to train you in the theory and methods necessary to conduct high quality finance research. These courses are academically rigorous and you will be examined in each of them. Upon successful completion of all first year courses you will progress to year two.

First term:

Courses:

• Financial Econometrics
• Corporate Finance Theory
• Topics in Finance

Second term:

Courses

• Asset Pricing
• Empirical Corporate Finance
• Topics in Banking

Third term:

• Research Project
• Faculty workshop & seminars

Your research training continues in this second year with workshops focused on developing specific skills such as academic writing, advanced level reading groups where we delve deeply into key current research papers, and courses introducing you to the practice of learning, teaching and assessment.

Alongside this, you will commence research in your chosen topics and the year culminates with the defense of your first research paper before a transfer panel committee. After the successful defense of your transfer panel paper you will move onto the final two years of the PhD programme.

First term:

Workshops

• Literature reviews
• Reading groups
• Learning, teaching and assessment

Second term:

Workshops

• Academic writing
• Reading groups
• Advanced seminars

Third term:

• Faculty workshop & seminars

You complete your remaining research papers in years three and four, and will defend your work in the viva voce exam soon after completion of your thesis. Training continues in the final two years but the focus shifts towards preparing you for an academic career.

You will attend workshops designed to help you to publish your work and to introduce you to the academic job market.

First term:

Workshops:

• Reviewing and publishing
• Advanced seminars

Second term:

Workshops:

• The job market
• Advanced seminars

Third term:

• Faculty workshop & seminars

In the final year we devote a lot of time to both viva and job market preparation with the aim of you successfully defending your thesis and taking up academic positions in leading business schools or universities, or research jobs in policy institutions.

First term:

• Career talks

Second term:

• Job market preparation

Third term:

• Viva preparation

To be eligible to apply for next academic year, you must hold a first degree (a first or equivalent) in a subject related to your proposed research topic.

The following qualifications are highly desirable and would enhance your likelihood of being accepted:

• A masters degree from a leading institution with a distinction or equivalent
• A GRE or GMAT score is highly recommended for applicants

Our students have a variety of academic backgrounds ranging from Accounting, Actuarial Science and Economics to Engineering, Finance, Management and Mathematics.

We are looking for mature, highly-motivated individuals with excellent analytical, problem-solving and verbal skills.

The following items (in electronic format) are compulsory for your application:

• Research proposal with a 400 word non-technical summary (please include with the proposal)
• Statement of Purpose 300 words
• Your CV/resume including a passport photograph
• Names and e-mails of two academic referees
• Your personal details, including a contact email
• Official transcripts for your Bachelor and or Master's Degree
• Official transcript of proficiency in English, if English is not your first language.
• A GRE or GMAT score is highly recommended for applicants, please upload this in the relevant section.

The following items should be supplied if available:

• Transcripts or provisional results of your Master's degree(s)
• Professional qualifications
• Employment history.

Please provide details of your intended research proposal in support of your application. This is an important part of your application in which you outline up to two research directions you would like to pursue in your PhD.

Before preparing your proposal you should familiarise yourself with the research interests of Bayes academics to make sure that your research is aligned with their expertise.

The research proposal should include

• an abstract
• the research objectives
• the proposed research methodology
• a summary review of the relevant literature and current understanding or knowledge
• an indication of how the proposed research will contribute to the discipline.

You should also provide an outline work plan for the period of research including consideration of approval of any research ethics implications. You are also asked to comment on why you wish to pursue this research and what you feel you will bring to it. The research proposal should be a maximum of three sides of A4.

In addition, if you wish to be considered for a Bayes Studentship, you should provide a non-technical summary of your proposed research. This summary should be no more than 400 words.

You will need to provide names and emails of two referees who know your work well and can comment on your aptitude for critical thinking and original research within a well-defined framework. We will contact the referees once you have submitted your application.

Please note: the email account of referees are required to be a professional email account.

We cannot accept references emailed from web-based email accounts such as @gmail.com, @hotmail.com or @126.com because we cannot confirm the provenance of these. Please bear this in mind when you fill in their email address on the application.

For students whose first language is not English, the following qualifications will normally meet the English language requirement for entry to a postgraduate course of study and to apply for a Student Route visa:

• A first degree from a UK university or from the CNAA
• A first degree from an overseas institution recognised by the institution as providing adequate evidence of proficiency in the English language for example, from institutions in Australia, Canada or the USA
• GCE O-level/GCSE English language or English literature, grade C minimum
• Cambridge ESOL CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) at grade C or above
• An overall minimum score of 7.0 in the English Language Testing System (IELTS *Academic) with a 6.5 minimum in all 4 areas (IELTS scores are only valid if they are less than two years old on the programme start date)
• We accept TOEFL iBT score of 100 or higher overall.
  TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition
  City’s institution code for TOEFL is 0870
  Please note we do not accept My Best Scores

In addition to the above, we will also monitor your English language skills throughout the admissions process.

Please note, at the initial stage of your application we will accept electronic copies of your official transcripts. If your application is successful we will require you to send us the original hard copies before a final offer of place is made.