Course Content
Master in International Finance
Benefit from the optimal combination of content taught by the world-renowned finance faculty of HEC Paris and leaders in the finance industry in your MIF course. During the Fall 1 term, you will follow core courses in either the Accelerated Track (if your previous academic degree is in economics, engineering, mathematics, or sciences) or the Business Track (if you already hold a business or management degree). During the Fall 2 term you will specialize in Capital Markets or Corporate Finance based on your career aspirations.
In the Spring, you will follow one of the five Concentrations on offer, or will have the possibility to create your own concentration. You will also have the opportunity to choose elective courses among 25+ on offer. Various workshops, that range from AI Data Bootcamps, CV reviews, improving your CV and interview skills, to the London Study Trip, are offered throughout the academic year. You will also do one of the ten HEC Paris Certificates and write a Master Research Paper.
The Master in International Finance (henceforth MIF) program aims to provide an in-depth knowledge of finance in general while allowing students to highly specialize in the areas of Capital Markets or Corporate Finance through rigorous coursework. In parallel, we take great care to provide our students with the foundations necessary for a highly successful career in finance through workshops given early in the academic year. Moreover, MIF students are required to write a research paper, obtain one of the ten HEC Paris Certificates on offer, and acquire professional experience through a four-month long internship.
The MIF program’s content amounts to 120 European Credit Transfer System credit hours that are obtained through coursework (65 ECTS) that takes place between September and April, a certificate (15 ECTS) that’s attended during May, a research paper (20 ECTS) written during the academic year, and professional experience (20 ECTS) in the form of an internship (or full-time employement) starting in June or July. MIF also provides many online and in-person workshops, including the week-long London Study Trip during which our students visit a large number of financial institutions and have the opportunity to meet our program’s alumni who follow highly successful careers in the City. Throughout the academic year, HEC Talents provide job-search related career services to our students.
MIF’s coursework is spread over four 7-week-long half-semesters and additionally involve a series of online and in-person workshops:
In September, prior to the start of classes, in-coming students are offered a series in-person/face-to-face workshops on our campus explaining in detail the different aspects of finance jobs, how to navigate the job market, how to optimize CVs and cover letters for internship applications, how to improve your interviews. The highlight of the pre-coursework preparation is the London Study Trip when all the MIF cohort visits the City of London and its myriad of financial institutions. Students also participate in online workshops offered by Hi! Paris that cover the basic principles of data science through fun projects that are done in small groups but do not necessarily require programming skills. An online introductory Python programming course is also offered (in line with the M1-year curriculum at HEC Paris and the finance industry standards).
During the Fall 1 term (that runs from September to October) MIF students take their Core Courses via the Accelerated Track or the Business Track:
The Accelerated Track (AT) is designed for students who have studied economics, econometrics, engineering, mathematics, or other areas of basic or applied sciences at a top university but who don’t have the necessary background in finance and financial accounting. Students who follow the AT take longer classes in corporate finance, securities markets, and financial accounting that bring them to the intermediate level in these subjects so that they can successfully follow the MIF curriculum. They also take an Empirical Methods in Finance class designed for students with an economics or scientific background.
The Business Track (BT) is designed for students who obtained a management degree prior to joining the MIF, and already have had the introductory coursework in finance and financial accounting. BT students take intermediate level classes in corporate finance, securities markets, financial statement analysis, and international finance. They also take an Empirical Methods in Finance class designed for students with a business degree.
The fact that students follow their core courses through the Accelerated or Business Track has no bearing or any limiting consequence for what follows in the MIF program or regarding the career opportunities thereafter.
During the Fall 2 term that takes place during November-December, MIF students take their Specialization in either Capital Markets or Corporate Finance, depending on the choice that they had expressed in their application (which is binding and cannot be changed ex post). While we highly recommend consistency between the specialization and the Concentration to be followed in the Spring term, following the Capital Markets or Corporate Finance Specialization in Fall 2 does not restrict a student’s choice set in the Spring 1 and 2 terms.
During the Spring 1 term, all students have to take two Advanced Core Courses (Economics of Financial Regulation and Behavioral and Sustainable Finance) and are enrolled in the Research Paper Workshop and the Ethics Seminar. They also attend their four Concentration classes as well as take their five elective courses (among 25+ on offer) over the Spring 1 and 2 terms. The Research Papers are written by pairs of students and need to be submitted by the end of May, and defended in the second half of June.
During the month of May the MIF students attend one of the ten HEC Paris Certificates on offer. They fulfill their professional experience requirement through four-months long internship or full-time position in the finance industry or in consulting.
By the end of this program you will:
- have an in-depth knowledge of the asset management profession, the myriad of financial contracts that are created, structured, priced, and traded in various financial markets, the state-of-the-art portfolio management methods used by various types of asset managers including hedge funds;
- have an in-depth knowledge of the investment banking professions, ranging from sales to structuring, from IPOs to M&As, operations of PE to VC funds;
- not only understand the drivers of the asymmetric-information and incentives-driven problems encountered in the financial services industry but also how they interact with the financial regulation that is imposed to mitigate them;
- learn the actual tools used to evaluate the financial performance of corporations, how to assess the risk-return trade-off involved in financial investment decisions , calculate value-added by corporate financial transactions and learn how investment bankers come up with their recommendations for them;
- learn the latest developments at the cross-roads of information technologies (AI, Big Data, Blockchains) and their applications in the finance, such as financial decision making, asset management, or cryptocurrencies.
- Exams, homework, quizzes, exercices
- Case studies
- Business and role-playing games
- Online/in-person group projects
- Presentations, pitches
- Master Research Paper
The coursework (worth 65 of the 120 ECTS needed for the degree), including various workshops, is taken during the period of September to April (in fact, some of the online courses and workshops can be taken during the month of August that precedes the start of the program).
- Preparation for IB Applications
- Finance Consulting Positions
- Jobs in Finance – Capital Markets
- Jobs in Finance – Corporate Finance
- London Study Trip*
- Ethics Seminar
- CV & Cover Letter Workshops
- Data Resources for Academic or Industry Research
- Research Paper Workshop
- Basics of Programming with Python
- Hi! Paris Data Bootcamp* (online or in-person and by level: Introductory (no programming skills) or Intermediate (some Python knowledge))
- Hi! Paris Hi!ckathon* (online and in-person, no advanced programming skills required)
* two of three required/mandatory
For the Accelerated Track (AT):
- Corporate Finance 1&2
- Securities Markets 1&2
- Financial Accounting & Reporting
- Empirical Methods in Finance 2
For the Business Track (BT):
- Corporate Finance 2
- Securities Markets 2
- Financial Statement Analysis
- Empirical Methods in Finance 1
- International Finance
*Please note that the coursework listed above is subject to change without prior notice upon the Academic Director’s discretion if the need for such a change arises in his opinion.
Capital Markets:
- Securities Markets 3
- Financial Engineering
- Quantitative Asset Management
- Fixed income and Money Markets
- Bond Portfolio Management
Corporate Finance:
- Corporate Finance 3
- Corporate Restructuring
- Financial modeling 1 and 2
- Fixed income and Money Markets
- Derivatives
*Please note that the coursework listed above is subject to change without prior notice upon the Academic Director’s discretion if the need for such a change arises in his opinion.
- Economics of Financial Regulation
- Behavioral & Sustainable Finance
*Please note that the coursework listed above is subject to change without prior notice upon the Academic Director’s discretion if the need for such a change arises in his opinion.
Corporate Investment & Financing
- Advanced Venture Capital
- Equity Capital Markets
- Structured Finance
- Investor Relations
Corporate Restructuring
- Corporate Finance Live: Legal & Contractual Processes
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Private Equity & LBO
- Credit Risk & Turnaround of Distressed Companies
Corporate strategy
- Behavioral Strategy
- Corporate Strategy & Financial Institutions
- Financial Dimension of Strategic Decisions
- Strategies for International Expansion
Data & Finance
- Algorithms, Data & Trading
- Blockchain
- Numerical Analysis
- Data Analysis in Finance
Financial Engineering
- Foreign Exchange Derivatives Trading
- Exotic Products & Structuring 1
- Stochastic Processes
- Modeling Techniques for Financial Engineering
Open Concentration
- Four subjects chosen by the student
*Please note that the coursework listed above is subject to change without prior notice upon the Academic Director’s discretion if the need for such a change arises in his opinion.
- Alternative Investments
- AI & Investment Management
- AI & Decision Making
- AI for Quantative Trading Strategies
- Energy Markets
- ESG Measurement & Reporting
- Exotic Products & Structuring 2
- Intrastructure and Real Assets' PE
- Introduction to Data Science & AI for Managers
- Sustainable & Responsible Investing
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Equity Research
*Please note that the coursework listed above is subject to change without prior notice upon the Academic Director’s discretion if the need for such a change arises in his opinion.
During the second week of September, all MIF students have the opportunity to participate to the London Study Trip (which generates 5 ECTS credit hours on a Pass/Fail basis). The trip offers students plenty of conferences, case studies, and presentations given by various financial institutions in the City. Organized by the HEC Paris UK House in London, this study trip also provides networking opportunities with the MIF alumni in London.
The London study trip can include company events with:
- Bank of America - Merrill Lynch
- Barclays
- BNP Paribas
- Blackstone
- Boussard & Gavaudan
- Commerzbank
- Crédit Agricole
- Exane
- Goldman Sachs
- HSBC
- Morgan Stanley
- Société Générale CIB
- Thomson Reuters
- Unicredit
- ...
- Master in International Finance students must write a research paper (that generates 20 of the 120 ECTS needed for the degree) under the supervision of an HEC Paris faculty in finance (supervisors other than those designated by the Academic Director must be approved by the latter).
- The objective of the Research Paper is to explore how the knowledge accumulated during the coursework of the program can be used to examine an interesting research question and generate a well-structured piece of writing
- The research paper is written by pairs of students on a topic agreed upon by academic supervisor and the Academic Director of the MIF program.
- The Research Paper must involve a research question, a literature review, conjecture/hypothesis formulation, data collection, empirical testing of one or more the hypotheses, and an interpretation of the findings’ economic as well as statistical significance.
- The Research Paper must be defended in front of a Finance Department faculty member.
- The Research Paper can involve an original idea that was never tested before, or can replicate an existing paper (in part or in full) using new data. The writing must be original (i.e., must be the student-pair authors’ own text).
The professional experience requirement is satisfied when the student completes a professional experience of at least 4 months (worth 20 of the 120 ECTS needed for the degree) in an area related to their MIF coursework at HEC Paris.
Our policy at HEC Paris is that the best type of internship is a full-time job! We strongly encourage our students to look for permanent hiring as soon as the academic year starts.
As an international business school, HEC Paris welcomes students from all over the world. Almost one hundred nationalities live on the campus. It's a fantastic opportunity to discover other cultures and to share exceptional moments, and it's important that students can communicate as much as they wish.
HEC Paris Learning Center of Languages aims at helping students to learn or strengthen any language they would like, providing a wide range of I.T. and print resources.
Students do not need to speak French to enroll in the program as all core courses and all electives are offered in English. However, some knowledge of French can be useful to enjoy the full HEC experience, become professionally bicultural and optimize networking with French students and alumni.
MIF students are required to speak at least one language other than English at intermediate level upon graduation. Thus students who speak only English and no other language are strongly encouraged to attend either the Preparatory Intensive French Course in August or French Classes offered during the year.
During their studies, students may also register for a two week French language course (TEF certificate – all levels) in August. This is an exceptional opportunity to learn French before joining the Campus. Extra fees are applicable.
Double Degree
This 2-year double degree program was created in Fall 2012 in collaboration with the School of Economics and Management of the premier Chinese university, Tsinghua University.
HEC students who want to join the double degree program need to apply during the spring term of the HEC Paris MIF.
Pre-selection will be made on the basis of academic results in the fall term and final decisions will be made after an interview with Tsinghua SEM Faculty members. Selected students will join the Tsinghua SEM Master in Finance for a second year of study and receive the two degrees: HEC Paris MIF and Tsinghua SEM Master in Finance.
The double degree program with Tsinghua SEM is the opportunity to combine strong academic training in finance offered by leading programs with a unique cross-cultural experience. Fluency in Chinese is not required. All courses can be taken in English. Any current Tsinghua students can apply for the double degree, but all other applicants must not be Chinese passport holders.
Certification
This program is accredited to grant a Master’s degree under European Standards and, by extension, are registered on RNCP (Répertoire national des certifications professionnelles)
The grade of master, or master's degree, is acquired through various diplomas, officially establishes the level of training at bac + 5. It comes after the bachelor's degree (bac + 3) and precedes the doctorate (bac + 8). It is translated into a number of credits (ECTS): a student with a diploma conferring the grade of master has accumulated 300 ECTS (180 during their bachelor's degree and 120 for the master's degree) during his or her higher education studies, allowing him or her to continue on to a doctorate. Degrees were introduced in France to facilitate European mobility of students and the integration of diplomas between European countries
HEC Paris is accredited by the “Bienvenue en France” certification, by the Campus France organization and the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation for the quality of the reception of its international students. We have obtained the highest level of accreditation, recognizing the quality of HEC Paris for reception in all the criteria provided:
- The quality and accessibility of information
- Reception facilities and the integration process within school and life in France
- Academic support and availability of English-speaking staff and the teaching community
- Housing and quality of life on campus
- The quality of post-graduation follow-up and career placement
Your Degree
Disability Program for Learners
This program is adapted and open to people with disabilities.
Click here to find out more about the HEC Paris Disability Mission
Contact us : esh@hec.fr