The Master of Public Financial Management is designed to meet the current and expanding national demand for well-trained financial managers for public and non-profit organizations. Public institutions are faced with multiple challenges as they attempt to efficiently and effectively manage their finances and initiate new programs that are financially sustainable.
Public finance deals with the finances of the state or the state divisions such as provinces, counties or municipalities, also including central banking system that have a great influence in the global economy. Corporate finance is focused on maximizing the profit or the value of a private enterprise by balancing risk and profitability in the management of investments and is the main area studies within a Bachelor or Master degree in finance.
Finance students will receive insight into business procedure and will achieve the capacity to make use of mathematical aptitude and take the organization’s or client’s goals, resources and options into consideration while making suggestions for financial growth.
As a graduate of our MPFM programmes, you will be well prepared for a career in government ministries, the public sector, NGOs and consultancies, as well as development projects, charitable trusts, social enterprises, and bodies concerned with environmental policy and poverty. You will also acquire the requisite skills for roles in higher education and research institutions. We expect that many of our graduates will be employed as civil servants in central government administrations, governmental agencies, local governments, NGOs, super-national organisations, and consulting firms.
The curriculum will explore key aspects of budget reform, accounting and internal audit reform—as well as how these parts come together to facilitate effective public financial management systems. Lectures, case studies, interactive exercises and classroom discussions will illuminate theory and enable you to work through real-life challenges.
The program also makes extensive use of PEFA (Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability) data, which will enable you and your peers to draw meaningful conclusions about the quality of financial management systems in various countries.
Students specializing in Public Financial Management will take core courses in public finance, macroeconomic policy, public budgeting and financial administration, expenditure analysis and fiscal decentralization and local government finance. They will also complete required courses covering policy analysis and applied development economics, as well as a master’s project. A range of elective courses is also available depending on specific interests and length of program undertaken.
A unique aspect of the program is that the curriculum goes beyond numbers, presenting case studies that focus on qualitative stories of reform in action. The case study approach allows you and your peers to discuss learnings and decide how to implement reforms in your own country. Speakers who are experts in public financial management at multilateral organizations and bilateral agencies lead the case studies, which come from Africa, Southeast Asia.
