Explore innovative financial instruments to support ethical and sustainable investment strategies.
Year of entry: 2025 (September)
1 year full-time
September 2025 (semester dates)
Join us online or in person to find out more about postgraduate study at York.
Upcoming eventsThis course will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of sustainable finance concepts and techniques, along with the knowledge and skills to introduce environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into financial analysis, investment decisions, and capital allocation strategies.
Emphasis will be placed on exploring innovative financial instruments, such as green public procurement, public private partnerships, green bonds, social impact bonds, and ESG-focused funds, and evaluating their role in promoting sustainable development and value creation.
You'll also explore the renewable energy markets, including analysis of key financial instruments such as green bonds and the FTSE Environmental markets index, and to understand how fossil fuel energy markets affect the renewable energy markets. Additionally, you'll develop critical analytical skills to evaluate the impact of factors such as CO2 emission pricing and derivatives on renewable energy investments.
You'll examine the context and underlying causes of energy poverty, including socio-economic factors and access to energy resources and will analyse data on energy poverty to understand its prevalence, distribution, and impact on communities and economies.
The course includes discussion of research results and interaction with participants from international research projects funded by UKRI and the European Commission.
This course provides key elements to working in this new exciting area of finance. Our future-orientated syllabus provides essential skills, tools and knowledge to equip you for a career now and beyond. You'll experience and learn an analytical and robust approach to decision-making with sustainability at its heart. We develop a general theoretical consideration of finance, financial institutions, markets and instruments, quantitative methods and sustainable finance in the first semester.
In the specific core modules you'll explore renewable energy markets, analysing key financial instruments such as green bonds. You'll also study how fossil fuel energy markets affect renewable energy markets and the impact of CO2 emission pricing on renewable energy instruments.
In the second semester, you'll develop applied and focused assessments of investment management and corporate finance. You have options to develop further skills to make your degree bespoke to your interests and skills.
In your final semester, you'll work on an independent research project, where you'll be supported by an academic supervisor to work on an original research topic.
You will study one option module. Examples can be found below. Some option module combinations may not be possible. The options available to you will be confirmed after you begin your course.
Our modules may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of our staff, and in line with Department/School academic planning.
You'll complete a piece of independent research of up to 8,000 words, carried out over three months of the summer. It will offer you the chance to examine a topic in depth and to develop your academic research skills.
Every course at York is built on a distinctive set of learning outcomes. These will give you a clear understanding of what you will be able to accomplish at the end of the course and help you explain what you can offer employers. Our academics identify the knowledge, skills, and experiences you'll need upon graduation and then design the course to get you there.
| Study mode | UK (home) | International and EU |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time (1 year) | £16,810 | £33,700 |
Students on a Student Visa are not currently permitted to study part-time at York.
UK (home) or international fees? The level of fee that you will be asked to pay depends on whether you're classed as a UK (home) or international student. Check your fee status.
Find out more information about tuition fees and how to pay them.
Discover your funding options to help with tuition fees and living costs.
We'll confirm more funding opportunities for students joining us in 2025/26 throughout the year.
If you've successfully completed an undergraduate degree at York you could be eligible for a 10% Masters fee discount.
We are pleased to work with Chevening Scholars to offer funding for our Masters programmes. Chevening Scholarships provide one year of fully-funded postgraduate study in the UK for international (including EU) students. The scholarships are open to early and mid-career professionals who have the potential to become future leaders.
You can use our living costs guide to help plan your budget. It covers additional costs that are not included in your tuition fee such as expenses for accommodation and study materials.
You’ll work with world‐leading academics who’ll challenge you to think independently and excel in all that you do. Our approach to teaching will provide you with the knowledge, opportunities, and support you need to grow and succeed in a global workplace.
This Masters combines a variety of different teaching methods, including:
A member of the teaching staff will act as your supervisor throughout the degree, to help guide your studies and monitor progress.
The department also has a vibrant research community. You’ll be able to attend seminars and research workshops in which staff and invited speakers discuss their research.
You'll be based in the Department of Economics and Related Studies on Campus West. Most of your teaching will take place in Alcuin College and elsewhere on Campus West.
You'll gain access to our schools' and departments' shared resources and financial databases, including:
Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around campus - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can always use the fast and frequent bus service.
Formal types of assessment in this course include:
As you study modules you’ll take part in assessments that do not contribute to your final mark, instead giving useful feedback on your progress and understanding.
This course provides the solid foundations required for building a future career in finance. It will provide you with the essential postgraduate skills you need to follow a career in sustainable finance in both private and public institutions. This course will help build your qualifications for a career in sustainable finance, financial advice, financial management and also acts as an ideal basis for progression to a PhD. It can act as a stepping stone to a financial position in, for example, financial analysis, investment management, corporate finance and as energy analysts, portfolio managers, risk managers, renewable energy consultants.
| Typical offer | |
|---|---|
| Undergraduate degree | 2:2 or equivalent in an undergraduate degree in any subject. We would expect applicants to have experience of one or more modules containing some statistics/maths/economics/finance/physics/engineering content. |
| Other international qualifications | Equivalent qualifications from your country |
If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. We accept the following qualifications:
| Minimum requirement | |
|---|---|
| IELTS (Academic and Indicator) | 6.5, minimum 6.0 in each component |
| Cambridge CEFR | B2 First: 176, with 169 in each component |
| Oxford ELLT | 7, minimum of 6 in each component |
| Duolingo | 120, minimum 105 in all other components |
| LanguageCert SELT | B2 with 33/50 in each component |
| LanguageCert Academic | 70 with a minimum of 65 in each component |
| Kaplan Test of English Language | 459-494, with 426-458 in all other components |
| Skills for English | B2: Merit overall, with Pass with Merit in each component |
| PTE Academic | 61, minimum 55 in each component |
| TOEFL | 87, minimum of 21 in each component |
| Trinity ISE III | Merit in all requirements |
For more information see our postgraduate English language requirements.
You may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language courses. These courses will provide you with the level of English needed to meet the conditions of your offer.
The length of course you need to take depends on your current English language test scores and how much you need to improve to reach our English language requirements.
After you've accepted your offer to study at York, we'll confirm which pre-sessional course you should apply to via You@York.
Get in touch if you have any questions
Department of Economics and Related Studies, School for Business and Society
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