Programs

The BCom Finance Option is designed to provide broad professional competence for students entering management positions in financial departments of business enterprises, in investment management and services, in banking or other financial institutions, or in government agencies concerned with private finance. In addition, the student can acquire specific technical skills required in an increasingly quantitative environment. 

Specific skills and general management principles can be obtained in the following subject matter areas: 

1. Management of the assets and liabilities of a publicly-owned business enterprise ("corporate finance")
2. Analysis and management of financial assets ("securities") using modern portfolio theories ("investment management")
3. The workings of Canadian capital markets and the financial institutions that operate in those markets ("money and banking")
4. The workings of international capital markets and special skills required to manage corporate assets and liabilities in an international environment ("international finance")

The purpose of the Finance specialization in the MBA program is to prepare students for superior achievement in the highly competitive, complex and rapidly changing field of finance. Our students will acquire the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to solve the strategic and tactical problems that finance executives face today and will face in the future in the international business world. 

Our audience is students who are interested in an applied, yet rigorous, education that prepares them for careers in investment banking, money management, corporate finance, securities trading, commercial banking, and financial research and consultancy.

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.

UBC Sauder's finance Ph.D. program is central to our research mission, and we welcome our new students into a close-knit and collaborative research environment. We pride ourselves on our diverse research interests, with faculty research ranging from machine learning analysis of financial contracts to theoretical models of how ambiguity impacts asset prices. This breadth gives students the freedom to explore multiple areas of financial research.

A Ph.D. in finance is an advanced, academically oriented degree in financial economics. The rigorous training we provide in theoretical and empirical finance equips students with the tools needed to become leading scholars. Past placements for recent years are listed in full below and historic placements include Columbia, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the University of Toronto. 

The Dean of Commerce (UBC) Portfolio Management Foundation (PMF) is a three-year extra-curricular program for BCom students that begins at the second year of university. It consists of two summers of internships, an academic year as a “Junior Research Associate” (receiving training from PMF supervisors and participants), an academic year as a “Research Associate” (assisting the students one year ahead in the program), and an academic year as a “Fund Manager” (making team-based decisions and guiding students who will follow in the program). The FMs’ and RAs’ task is to add value to a real portfolio of stocks and bonds, currently valued at about $10 million. To accomplish this, PMF students aggressively pursue the opportunities which the program provides, including access to key members of the investment community, experience in developing the linkage between investment theory and practice, and dealing with the real life pressures of investment management by committee. The highest degree of ethical and professional behavior must be followed at all times.

The UBC Sauder Women+ in Finance Training (SWIFT) is designed to provide top quality training in finance for a more inclusive pipeline of talent. SWIFT is an extra-curricular program for students pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Through connections between academics and practitioners in finance, students reconcile practical portfolio management with rigorous academic theory.