Master of Financial Economics (MSFE/MFE)
The MFE curriculum includes courses in key areas of finance and supporting areas of economics and quantitative methods. Our students are able to select from one of three specializations, namely CFA/FinTech, CFP, and PhD Prep. Two of the specializations in the MFE curriculum help students pass either the CFA level I exam or the CFP exam. This degree prepares students for a wide range of careers both inside and outside the financial industry, including risk management, asset management, financial forecasting, trading, and financial and economic research.
Even though many of the assessments included below are from MSFE students, the department has transitioned away from the MSFE program, which required a three-credit research thesis, to the MFE, which provides more credits towards professional development.
Learning Goals and Objectives
L1: Students will develop a rigorous understanding of modern financial economics.
- L1.1: Students will demonstrate a mastery of financial asset pricing.
- L1.2: Students will demonstrate a mastery of financial market efficiency.
L2: Students will be able to apply appropriate analytical techniques in financial analysis.
- L2.1: Students will demonstrate relevant mathematical and statistical skills generally applied in empirical financial analysis.
- L2.2: Students will demonstrate functionality with the programming languages SAS, R, or Python.
L3: Students will develop the qualitative skills commonly applied in financial analysis.
- L3.1: Students will demonstrate an understanding of foundational theories in finance, such as asset pricing, market efficiency, corporate valuation, capital structure, and agency costs.
- L3.2: Students will demonstrate a broad understanding of impactful research in both finance and economics.
L4: Students will develop the qualitative skills commonly applied in financial analysis.
- L4.1: Students will individually manage an equity portfolio in a virtual stock exchange.
Outcomes Data
We have gathered data for competency objectives utilizing our core MFE graduate course, Advanced Financial Economics. This course is ideal for evaluating progress on our key objectives and AACSB accreditation, as it is required for all MFE graduate students and it covers foundational areas of both finance and economics. We have defined assessment methods in different areas of the course, from which we gather measurements to compare to performance benchmarks.
Links to outcome data are provided below. Users can also hover over each display to obtain more details on the assessments.
Closing the Loop & Continuous Improvement
When assessments of program objectives are submitted, the submission form provides an opportunity to add “closing the loop” discussion, including changes that could be made to help continuously improve the MFE program. These and other efforts identified potential changes to be made.
In terms of student performance, the following potential changes have been identified:
- Re-structuring delivery of foundational theories
- Spending more time discussing programming techniques and applications
- Exposure to a greater variety of theoretical and applied financial economics research
- Introducing more assignments tied to key objectives
- More emphasis on connecting content
In terms of improving assessment methods, the following potential changes have been identified:
- Consideration of adding measures
- Increasing the number of assessing courses
- Maximizing incentives to ensure participation
- Revising assessment measures