Degrees of profit

Bright young graduates with little or no work experience are signing up for MScs in management and finance as the route to highflying careers in the City of London. More specialised than the MBA, and usually cheaper, business MScs promise a sound background in financial theory and are ideal for those who want to work in banking.

MBA students tend to be in their thirties, with several years' work experience and the ability to cough up at least £20,000. MSc students, on the other hand, are in their early twenties, and the cost of their degrees can be nearer to £5,000.

Some choose the MSc because they want to build on their first degree and gain the financial skills employers require. Others are trying to choose a career, or need to update what they already know about business. Only a few want to head in the direction of research and an academic career.

Cranfield School of Management, established in 1967, is one of the UK's oldest business schools. Its students take an MSc to follow a specific area, such as marketing. This year, Cranfield launched an MSc in finance and management aimed at graduates who want careers in investment banks, financial consultancy and corporate finance.

"This is a specialised programme," says Sudi Sudarsanam, professor of finance and corporate control. "It's not broad and general. Students will get a deep understanding of finance."

However, it is not a good idea to study finance without having an understanding of management and "what business is all about", according to Sudarsanam. "MBA students have around six years' work experience in their bellies when they come here. Work experience is useful for an MSc, but it's more for people who want to specialise and move into financial careers, not into management."

MBA programmes are still dominated by men, but there appear to be more women pursuing MScs. Almost 30 per cent of students on Cranfield's new finance MSc are women, compared with just 20 per cent on the full-time MBA. "Finance is perceived as a macho function," Sudarsanam says. "We are very pleased to have more women."

One of the most popular business courses at the University of Newcastle is the MA in international financial analysis, which costs £5,900. This includes the development of software/ ICT skills and work-related skills such as presentations and teamwork.

For those who want to study online, the University of Derby has an MSc in strategic management, although those without a first degree need three years' practical experience. Like many business degrees, it has been developed in association with industry advisers. It is designed to help the "strategist to steer his/her organisation through the difficult and turbulent 21st-century environment," says a spokesperson for the university.

Durham Business School, one of the oldest in England, has seven finance-based MScs covering investment, corporate and international finance. Each degree has a central core of subjects including corporate policy and financial theory.

Most of Durham's students have a first degree in economics or finance, and around half have no work experience. "The MSc is really about giving students a more practitioner-based degree," says Charles Nolan, the MSc programme director. It's especially geared towards those who want to work in the City. Some students have become bond traders.

Nottingham Trent University has a range of MA and MSc degrees in management, finance and marketing. Their MSc in investment strategies began in 2002 and has really taken off, according to Kate Jackson, the business school's marketing and communications manager.

Students are attracted by the fact that the courses are interdisciplinary and teach management skills to those who don't have a practical first degree but who want to get into industry. Next year, Nottingham will be offering a new MSc in strategic entrepreneurship.

The business school at the élite Imperial College has a full-time MSc in finance, now in its eighth year and numbering 100 students. "It's becoming one of our flagship courses," says Dr Dirk Nitzsche, the programme's deputy director. The course is highly technical and requires a solid mathematical background. Students take the degree as a conversion course because, Nitzsche says, "they see that a lot of money is to be made in finance, but they don't know any themselves".