Finance MSc

UBC Sauder's two-year finance MSc program is a competitive research-oriented master's degree that aims to give students exposure to the frontiers of academic research. The majority of our students go on to pursue finance doctorates, with our Past Placements including Columbia, Cornell, NYU, and Wharton; while others work for financial firms in Canada or abroad. Our small class of master's students benefit from extensive contact with our world-class Finance Faculty, research assistantship work, and low tuition. 

Our master’s students take classes side-by-side with our Finance PhD students and interact extensively with our finance faculty. Similar to PhD students, they are provided with individual office space, fostering a collaborative and focused academic atmosphere. The rigorous training we provide in theoretical and empirical finance equips students with the tools needed to become leading scholars. A high level of faculty contact sets our MSc program apart.

Students start their coursework in September taking foundational finance PhD courses, graduate economics courses, and electives. Their first summer is typically spent as a paid research assistant for a UBC faculty member. The guidance, courses, and research assistantships we offer set up students to apply to PhD programs in the Fall of their second year, with our program ending the following May.

Admission is competitive and incoming students typically have very strong academic records and undergraduate training in business, economics, mathematics, engineering, and other quantitative disciplines. Our students come from countries around the world and previous work experience is not required. The MSc in Business Administration program commences annually in September. Please apply before the December 31 deadline to be considered for the following year.

Tuition

Annual tuition and fees for the 2024/25 are less than $7,000 for domestic students and $8,000 for international students (net of a partial tuition scholarship for research-oriented masters graduate programs of $3,200 per year). Please refer to the Graduate Program Calendar for current information.

Research Assistantships

Our MSc students are integral to faculty research and commonly work as paid research assistants over the summer. Beyond building valuable research skills, students earn money to support their studies. Students and faculty match on the basis of faculty needs and common research interests and so earnings vary, but past summer research assistants have earned up to $12,000.

Teaching Assistantships

Our master’s students often supplement their income and hone their instructional skills by working as teaching assistants. As of September 2023, master’s student teaching assistants are paid $37.53 per hour. Refer to the latest CUPE 2278 salary scale for updated information.

Subsidized Graduate Student Housing

The university offers subsidized housing for graduate students, with options available to match student family situations. Housing options are available at UBC Housing Fees & Payments.

RBC Graduate Entrance Scholarship for Women in Finance

A competitive $25,000 entrance scholarship is offered annually by the Royal Bank of Canada for an outstanding female student in the program. Conditional on the recipient’s continued satisfactory academic progress, the scholarship may be renewed for an additional year of study. Learn more about this award.

Y. P. Heung Foundation Award in Honour of Michael A. Goldberg

A competitive $5,000 award is offered by the Y. P. Heung Foundation in honour of Michael A. Goldberg for second-year MSc students every other year. Learn more about this award.

MSc students take a combination of Masters (500-level) and PhD (600-level) courses. A representative MSc student's schedule follows, with elective courses varying based on interests and backgrounds:

• Year 1 Fall: COMM 671 Theory of Finance (required), ECON 500 Microeconomics, ECON 502 Macroeconomics, An elective from the following list: ECON 527 Econometrics, STAT 305 Statistical Inference, or ECON 526 Mathematics for Economics.
• Year 1 Winter: COMM 672 Theoretical Corporate Finance (required), COMM 676 Empirical Corporate Finance (required), Two electives from the following list: ECON 514 Information and incentives, ECON 544 Political Economy, Institutions, and Business, ECON 556 International Finance, ECON 573 Environmental economics.
• Year 2 Fall: Two to four electives from the following list: CPSC 532M Machine Learning and Data Mining, ECON 516 Special Topics in Macroeconomics, ECON 522 Game Theory, ECON 543 Political Economy, ECON 546 Monetary Theory and Policy I, ECON 560 Economics and Labor.
• Year 2 Winter: COMM 673 Theoretical Asset Pricing (required), COMM 674 Empirical Asset Pricing (required), Up to two electives from the following list: ECON 514 Information and Incentives, ECON 544 Political Economy, Institutions, and Business, ECON 556 International Finance, ECON 573 Environmental Economics.

To bring students into our research culture, students are encouraged to attend our regular seminar series, where they gain first-hand knowledge of current research in finance. Students have dedicated offices alongside our PhD students and participate in a variety of divisional events. Students may elect to enrol in only three courses to allocate more time to research work or during those semesters in which courses with particularly heavy work loads are taken. With permission of the finance MSc advisor, students may forgo some second-year electives and instead write an MSc thesis.

Since 2018, three-quarters of our graduating students (19/26) have gone on to pursue PhDs. We proudly list them here.