Overview

The Master's in Finance is an international, full-time two-year program offered by the Graduate Institute of Finance (GIF) of the Taiwan Tech School of Management. We provide an advanced graduate education for students seeking careers in the finance industry or in academia. Our curriculum offers students four specializations to choose from, i.e. financial engineering, corporate finance, investment, behavioral finance, and quantitative analysis.

The program leads to an internationally recognized Master's of Science degree and is taught by experienced full-time faculty, all of whom are holding PhD degrees from prestigious institutions in the US, Europe, and Taiwan. Our adjunct faculty are professionals from the finance industry and financial institutions in Taiwan, or are holding teaching positions at other academic institutions in Taiwan. 
The language of instruction of our Master's program is English and Chinese, with an increasing number of courses offered in English.

The flexible structure of our program allows students to customize their studies and align them with their personal and professional goals. By combining specializations in the field of finance with a broad range of electives offered by the School of Management, and by the business faculties of the NTU Alliance universities (NTU and NTNU), students have the chance to design a program that suits their personal interests and ambitions.
Through our wide alumni-network, we have built up close connections with the finance industry which allow our students to build networks at an early stage of their careers.

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Credit requirements

 

Program Structure

Students of the Master’s of Finance are required to gain 21 credits through compulsory courses (core courses) which are offered by GIF faculty. It is recommended to take the core courses within the first year of the program to lie a solid foundation of your finance education, and to get to know instructors who could be the future advisors of your Master's thesis. All electives have to be subject-related, i.e. they may only be selected from the courses offered by other SOM departments/institutes, or by the business schools of our affiliated universities of the NTU system (NTU and NTNU). If, exceptionally, a student wishes to take an elective that is offered by another faculty than a Business School, the advisor needs to give his/her approval. 

The following two core courses (6 credits) are obligatory for all students: 
► FN 5501  Investments (3 credits)
► FN 5401  Financial management (3 credits)

The remaining 15 credits (5 courses) of core courses have to be selected from the  following six modules, with not more than one course to be chosen from each module. 

• Research methods
• Financial Institutions
• Financial Products and Pricing
• Corporate Finance
• Investment Management
• Other finance related courses

Please note that not all courses are offered every semester or academic year, some might only be taught every two years. Please check the current course catalogue.

Modul	Courses (Each course bears 3 credits ; Red = taught in English)
Research Methods	► Econometrics (FN 5303)   ► Regression Analysis   ► Linear Models   ► Times Series Analysis   ► Quantitative Research Methods    ► Financial Analytics    ► Research Methods and Methodology in Accounting and Finance
Financial Institutions	► Investment Banking and Mergers & Acquisitions  (FN 5506)   ►  Financial Risk Management   ► Financial Institution Management   ► Financial Institution Risk Management
Financial Products and Pricing	► Futures and Options  (FN 5741)   ► Stochastic Processes and Financial Applications   ► Mathematics for Financial Engineering    ► Open Pricing Theory
Corporate Finance	► International Finance Management (FN 5601)   ► Corporate Governance    ► Business Strategies and Entrepreneurial Finance
Investment Management	► Financial Statement Analysis (FN 5201)   ► Fixed Income Securities
Other Finance Related Courses	► Asset Securitization  (FN 6752)   ► Managerial Economics (FN 5101)   ► Behavioral Finance   ► Macroeconomic Theory   ► Seminar on Banking and Finance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download: List of required core courses (Pdf)

As for electives (21 credits), only subject-related, graduate level courses are accepted. Students can choose from the wide range of courses offered by other SOM departments/institutes, or by the business faculties of NTU system universities (NTU and NTNU).  
When planning your studies, please keep in mind that the list of elective courses keeps changing. Some courses might be offered only once or irregularly. 
 

Academic Research Ethics Seminar

As a requirement by the Taiwan Ministry of Education, all graduate students enrolled at universities in Taiwan have to complete seminars in Academic Research Ethics (ARE) which usually consist of three teaching units, where the first two units are lectures, while the last unit is a test. All Taiwan Tech graduate students are required to attend at least one research ethics seminar before the end of the first year of studies, and to pass the ARE-exam. 

ARE seminars are not credit-bearing, but will appear in academic transcripts as PASSED with a passing grade of 70%. A successfully completed ARE seminar is a requirement for taking the degree examination of the MBA program.
Every semester, the Taiwan Tech Centre of General Education offers eight or more ARE seminars which are taught by experienced instructors focusing on different aspects of academic research ethics. The schedule and topics of ARE seminars will be announced here.

Master’s Thesis

The Master's thesis is an important part of the Master's of Finance program and a requirement for graduation, although no credits are awarded for the thesis.
Choosing a topic: By the end of the first year of the program, students have to choose a thesis advisor who has to be a full-time member of th GIF faculty. Students are free to choose the topic of their thesis, but they need to get approval from their advisor at an initial stage of the thesis-writing process. If required by the topic, students can apply to invite an expert co-advisor from another Taiwan Tech department or from another academic institution, but co-advisors may not be from the industry or other non-academic institutions according to GIF regulations. Students will work on their thesis during the second year of the program, and have to hand in a first draft of their thesis for the oral  defense. After the defense, students will have several weeks to revise their thesis following the suggestions of the Defense Committee, before it will be finally submitted. 

Download: Master's Thesis Advisor Consent Form
Download: Application for Co-Supervision of Thesis/Dissertation

Master’s Degree Thesis Oral Examination ("Defense"): A first draft of the thesis has to be completed and submitted to the advisor within the designated period of studies.The GIF requires students to hand in a a positive Similarity Report (less than 20%) of the Plagiarism Detection Checker software Turnitin which is provided by the NTUST library. If all other credit requirements are fulfilled, students can apply for the Master’s Degree Thesis Oral Examination where they have to defend their thesis to a panel of experts. Students can make suggestions on the members of the Defense Committee which has to consist of three to five members. The committee members must have research expertise in the field of the student’s research topic, and hold at least a Ph.D. degree as academic qualification. At least two members of the committee have to be from Taiwan Tech. Committee members from outside academia have to hold  "a distinguished record of achievement or practical experience in an unusual or highly specialized academic discipline or profession". Please refer to the NTUST Master’s Degree Thesis Defense Examination Regulations for more details.

Submitting the Thesis: After a successful defense, students will have to revise their thesis according to the feedback given by the committee members. The deadline for submitting the final master’s thesis (both paper and digital copies) is in the beginning of the following term/ academic year as marked in the NTUST academic calendar. One printed copy has to be submitted to the NTUST library, and one to the GIF department which will be forwarded to the National Central Library. 

All  procedures, beginning with the registration for the defense, to the invitation of committee members, to the submission of the printed and digital copies, and the final school leaving process, are explained in detail in the information sheet Timeline for the Master’s Degree Thesis Oral Examination
Download: Timeline for the Master’s Degree Thesis Oral Examination

 

Last update: 14 Jan 2022