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Strategic Finance

Master of Science Degree

The Master of Science in Strategic Finance presents tools and applications necessary to add value within the exciting and dynamic field of financial management in today's global business environment.

This program is designed to enhance business leaders' enterprise-wide financial decision making skills and insights by focusing on the application of value optimization, enterprise risk management and business strategy in a holistic context.

Core courses provide key individual and organizational skills and knowledge, and then you'll choose a 9-credit concentration from one of several disciplines to complete an interdisciplinary degree with career flexibility. Concentrations include:

  • Accounting
  • Acquisition and Contract Management
  • Cybersecurity
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Executive Coaching
  • Finance
  • Global Economic Threat Environment
  • Healthcare
  • Human Capital Management
  • Human Resource Management
  • Information Security Management
  • Interdisciplinary Business
  • Interdisciplinary
  • International Management
  • Management Information Systems
  • Marketing
  • Project Management
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Tax
Pre-requisites: Business executive / finance career experience or aspiration; knowledge and abilities in accounting basics (eg MBA 600), algebra, Excel/Word/PPT; aptitude in and comfort level with quantitative analysis.

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Courses in the major include:

Emphasis is placed on understanding reported financial information used to assess a company's current performance, future risks, and business opportunities. Students develop skills necessary to understand the performance impact on financial statements and how economic events such as operating activities, corporate investments, and financing transactions affect the three main financial statements - the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. 1. Students may waive the MSF 520 course under the following conditions: a. Students have an undergraduate degree in accounting, or b. Students have completed both Intermediate Accounting 1 (AC 311) and Intermediate Accounting 2 (AC 312) and have earned at least a C or better in both of these courses c. If students meet the conditions (a) or (b) above, they must complete a graduate-level elective for any course waived to reach the 36-hour program requirement. The elective may be chosen from the MBA, AC, BA, or MSF disciplines (course prefixes), or from any of the MSSF concentration course options. Prerequisite: Graduate standing
This course includes fundamental principles and practices of risk management and insurance with an applied focus on risk management processes rather than institutional and contractual details of the insurance industry. Topics include risk identification; risk characterization; pricing of risk reduction techniques; risk retention; regulatory, legal and tax implications; insurance; and other hedging strategies. Additionally, personal, business, and public policy perspectives concerning life, health, property, and liability risk management and insurance are addressed. Prerequisite: MSF 624
This course addresses the macroeconomic environment and its impact on decisions faced by the firm. Topics include the business cycle, trade and capital flows, foreign exchange, international yield curves, and the impact of fiscal, monetary, and tax policy in the international framework. Students are introduced to the study, measurement, and use of economic indicators available internationally to gauge the current state and trend of international business conditions. The focus is to understand how economic conditions influence decision making of an organization. Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
Investment principles and practices are studied in the context of individuals or organizations operating in well- developed financial markets. The course will integrate accepted economic relationships and practices to provide students with an understanding of the current investment environment. Additionally, the course will survey the institutions and securities that make up the investment environment. Students will have an opportunity to understand and experience how individuals trade financial instruments, including: stocks, options, bonds, futures, and other derivative securities. Prerequisite: MSF 624
Cash Management, also known as treasury management, short-term financial management, or working capital management addresses fundamental principles and practices concerning cash management for businesses operating in today's financial markets. This course challenges students to understand and assess fundamental principles, practices and applications relevant to efficient and effective cash management and to understand why cash management is a critical success factor for businesses of any type. Topics addressed: the role of cash management, credit, accounts receivable, collection management, accounts payable and disbursement management, electronic commerce, information and technology needs for cash management, forecasting, short term investments and borrowing, international cash management, relevant relationship management, and other contemporary issues. Prerequisite: MSF 624
The use of a variety of business analytics techniques, including quantitative and qualitative descriptive analysis tools, to support informed decision-making serves as a major focus of this course. Techniques addressed include tabular and graphical displays of data such as the bar chart and histogram, numerical measures such as the mean and standard deviation, and linear regression. Critical evaluation of actual business scenarios will be conducted during this course. Cross-listed with MSF 624 MBA 624 Prerequisite: MBA 500 and MBA 520
Students develop the knowledge of accounting information concepts that enable them to develop recommendations for improving the performance of the firm. Students gain skills and knowledge in topics such as cost-volume-profit analysis and the balanced scorecard to support budget preparation and variance analysis to improve company performance. 1. Students may waive MSF 641 under the following conditions: a. Students have an undergraduate degree in accounting, or b. Students have 21 credit hours of accounting that include an undergraduate cost or advanced managerial accounting course. Student must have earned a grade of C or better in these courses. c. If students meet the conditions (a) or (b) above, they must complete a graduate-level elective for any course waived to reach the 36-hour program requirement. The elective may be chosen from the MBA, AC, BA, or MSF disciplines (course prefixes), or from any of the MSSF concentration course options. Prerequisite: MSF 624
This course provides an integrating summary of the core elements of the program and solidifies the strategic leadership perspective of the finance discipline in networking and communicating with diverse internal and external stakeholders to maximize firm value within the financial, economic and political environments the firm operates in. Topics include project management, system analysis, causal loop analysis, emotional intelligence, capital development, business strategy, sustained growth and effective communication. Prerequisites: MSF 520, 624, 641, 615, 655, 602, 616
Students acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities to evaluate financial performance and strategies to utilize limited resources to optimize the financial value of a business. Key elements of the course include assessing financial performance, understanding financial and economic markets, computing the value of money and cash flows over time, performing risk analysis and project valuation. Prerequisite: MSF 624

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Your SHRM or HRCI® certification is valued at 6 credit hours (2 courses) toward the Master of Science in Human Resource Strategic Management.

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