Core Courses for both tracks (21 Credit Hours):
FINA 605 Corporate Finance
The objective of the course is to provide an understanding of the nature of business finance, financial planning and analysis tools and help students acquire the necessary skills to be able to take important financial decisions which add and protect value to the corporation such as, the decision of financing investments and efficient resource allocation. The course also deals with the different types of risks that face the financial manager, and how to incorporate these risks in financial decision-making.
FINA 607 Investment and Portfolio Management
This course helps students transform a real life investment problem into an analytically flexible model. The Students will be exposed to quantitative aspects and Empirical Knowledge where evidence from all types of financial markets studied in this class.
FINA 608 Financial Analysis and Valuation
This provides students with hands-on experience in financial statement analysis. Students will be exposed to general tools of financial analysis, theoretical concepts, and practical valuation issues. Financial analysis requires understanding of the economic characteristics and current conditions of a firm's business in addition to the nature of its financial statements. Students will integrate the concepts of accounting, finance, economics, and other business disciplines in order to analyze firm's financial results, project future performance and estimate firm's market value.
FINA 610 Derivatives and Financial Engineering
The purpose of this course is to provide students with the necessary skills to value and use options, futures, and related financial contracts in corporate risk management. The topics explored are of high technical level. These topics include the valuation of futures contracts on stock indices, on commodities and Treasury instruments; the valuation of options; empirical evidence; strategies with respect to these instruments; insurance; swaps; and the use (and misuse) of derivatives in the context of corporate applications. This course aims at helping students to turn financial theory into testable hypotheses. The course uses quantitative methods to analyze financial data with the objective of helping students to write research papers in finance. The course topics include research design, framing testable hypotheses, survey design, probability and probability distributions; statistical inference; regression analysis and time series analysis.
FINA 617 Financial Econometric I
The Financial Econometrics course draws from a variety of related disciplines to the unique characteristics of financial data. It aims to introduce students to a broad range of available econometric methods and their application. The course introduces popular tools along with their application to finance. It equips students with the basics to manipulate financial data and to master more advanced topics in econometrics.
FINA 619 Financial Econometric II
The course of Financial Econometrics provides a solid grounding in advance developments in applied econometrics in Finance. A major feature of the course is the use of both analytical and computer-based (data) to analyze financial data This course will cover several topics including Vector Autoregressive (VAR), co-integration and switching models and dynamic panel data Models. [FINA 617 is prerequisite to this course]
Track specific (6 Credit Hours only):
Thesis track (6 Credit Hours):
FINA 699 Thesis
The aim of the thesis in the M.Sc. in Finance program is to provide students with the necessary skills to carry out research. Students are expected to submit a research document tackling a well-defined research question related to the field of Finance. The main objectives of the research thesis are to develop skills in writing research document; identifying and using scientific research tools to solve marketing problems. Ultimately, students will gain a deep knowledge and understanding, and developed capabilities in conducting scientific research in the finance discipline.
FINA 695 Thesis Defense
The this defense is an exam where the student will be presenting his/her thesis including the literature review, the research questions tackled in his/her Master thesis, the utilized research methodology, the main findings of his/her research and the concluding remarks.
Non-thesis track (6 Credit Hours):
MIST 660 Business Analytics
This course will present business analytics concepts and techniques. Specific topics to be covered include: relevance of data-driven analytics to improving decision making, data preparation, preprocessing, data reduction, data quality issues, modeling techniques, model development, model assessment, model selection, and model deployment. The latest business analytics tools will be used on real-life data sets to illustrate the course concepts.
FINA 698 Finance Graduation Project
This course provides the practical side of Finance discipline within the Qatari economy. It shall reflect high level of consultancy capabilities in applied research within Qatari firms. Student have the opportunity to tackle problems related to different specific financial topics, including those from the two offered concentrations: Energy Finance and Islamic Finance.
Elective courses (9 Credit Hours):
FINA 615 Advanced Islamic Banking and Finance
This course examines the core principles of Islamic banking and finance. Its aims are to develop an appreciation of the Sharia compliant financial products and the rationale for the prohibition of Riba, Gharar, Maysir and Qimar. The course will look in detail at the financial techniques applied by Islamic banks with detailed analysis of Islamic asset and fund management and risk-sharing concepts (PLS model). Additionally, this course will examine the Islamic Sukuk and Takaful market.
FINA 620 Islamic Capital Markets and Institutions
This course will provide an understanding of the structure and the principles driving Islamic Capital Market (ICM). It will also explore Islamic investment opportunities, securitization, fund, equities, indices, derivatives and hedge funds in Islamic finance. The course is planned to empower students to acquire a working knowledge of the role of Islamic financial institutions.
FINA 625 Special Topics in Islamic Finance
This course will cover advanced practices and theories of risk management in Islamic banking and discuss their adequacy. The emphasis in this course will be on gaining a deep understanding of the different approaches of assessing the risk-weighted assets in Islamic banking. The goal of this course is to give students a comprehensive understanding of risk management in Islamic banking and finance.
FINA 628 Risk Management in Islamic Finance
The purpose of this course is to provide students with the necessary skills to handle and manage liquidity, operational, credit and market risks that face the Islamic-based institutions. The covered topics are of high technical level and considers the management of liquidity risk, operational, credit swaps, options and market risk.
FINA 630 Energy Financial Economics
This course shows how legal/regulatory systems affect the energy industry, and the important economic and political concerns that underlie the regulation of production and sale of energy. It presents the country energy system, analysis tools and help students acquire the necessary skills to take important energy financial and economic decisions at both micro and macro level. The course deals with the issue of "political/regulatory and country risk" as it affects investment in the energy industry.
FINA 633 Energy Risk Management
The objectives of this course are to investigate the evolving and expanding practice of risk management in the energy sector. Risk management is a complex process of identifying, quantifying and managing various risk exposures. The course analyses and discusses the various sources of risk. Particular attention is devoted to the main risk management techniques such as Value at Risk (VaR), volatility models, correlation models, oil and NG options and futures contracts.
FINA 691 Energy Finance Practicum
The Energy Finance practicum course offers the students with the main elements of financial analysis and reporting of the energy companies using both class and practical formats. The financial analysis and reporting principles allows the students to form groups and study the various aspects of the companies including the financial structure, figuring out the problems and the potential solutions facing the companies under study. Additionally, the students will be able to analyze the consequences of oil and gas volatility on the energy companies.
FINA 692 Special Topics in Energy Finance
This course examines the application of advanced models used in energy and private equity markets by energy companies. It analyzes the market trends affecting the investment behavior of sovereign institutions and provides investment advice and developing tailored investment solutions. Additionally, the course deals with merger and acquisition between energy companies regionally and globally. Additionally, the course deals with financing the renewable energy.
ACCT 604 Energy Financial Accounting
This course introduces oil and gas accounting with emphasis on accounting for costs incurred in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas using full cost accounting methods. Topics also cover joint interest accounting, gas pipeline accounting, required disclosures for oil and gas activities, and analysis of the financial statements of oil and gas companies.