Learn to make resilient, long-term, and performance-oriented decisions. This Sustainable Finance course builds your understanding of key sustainability issues and develops practical skills to integrate social and climate considerations into valuation, financing, and investment decisions.
The course is designed in consultation with industry professionals, opening doors to careers in sustainable finance. Updated recently in 2025, it covers the fundamentals, key instruments, methodologies, and frameworks for integrating sustainability into financial decisions, alongside global initiatives and regulations.
Participants gain practical skills to create long-term value and explore advanced sustainable finance approaches, making it ideal for professionals from government, academia, finance, business, and civil society.
In this course, you will explore sustainable finance, including capital markets, key participants, and motivations for sustainable investments.
You will learn methods and financial tools to create long-term value and implement sustainable finance strategies.
You will examine approaches such as ESG integration, exclusion, best-in-class, thematic, and impact investing.
You will understand environmental, climate, social, and governance risks, transition finance, greenwashing, and rating divergences.
You will also study green and social bonds, regulations, and frameworks, review academic research on sustainable investing, and develop skills to evaluate portfolio performance and integrate sustainability into financial decisions.
RGU Upskilling
Undertaking a RGU online short course can help you to develop or change your career or support your business to grow.
We're proud to offer a range of online short courses tailored to meet the evolving needs of businesses and individuals both locally, nationally and in the global community. Additionally, if you are domiciled in Scotland, you may be eligible for a fee-waiver place, which means you could study for free. Identified and created in collaboration with industry, these credit-bearing online courses are designed to enhance employability for individuals and organisations looking to upskill their workforce.
Find out more about the range of courses on offer and the benefits of studying online with RGU:
Learning Methods
The course will be delivered online using the University’s virtual learning environment, Moodle.
There are materials introducing the core concepts for each week’s delivery and students will have the opportunity to connect with the academic tutor every week both virtually through online forums and in-person via a live online classroom. Additionally, you will construct and manage a sustainable portfolio of financial assets that you will monitor in terms of its performance.
Materials and exercises are available online, allowing you to study flexibly and independently at time and place to fit around existing work and life commitments.
This is a 10-week course with 7 weeks for teaching and 2 weeks for working on the assessment and submission.
Activity Summary
- Lectures - total of 8 hours of recorded lectures, 30 minutes per week
- Practical class or workshop - total of 8 hours of live classes, 1 hour per week
- Session with an industry practitioner - 1 hour per module
- Independent study - xx hours in total for the module
Independent Study
This course is completed through online independent study. It is expected that you will spend a minimum of xx hours study over the 10 weeks of the module, including the preparation and submission of your written assessment. Your academic tutor will be there to support you through the module.
Assessment
This course is assessed through individual written coursework. Construction and management of a sustainable finance portfolio in the form of weekly workshop exercise which will also be assessed.
Staff Delivering on This Course
You will be taught by academic staff with publications in leading academic and industry journals and extensive experience in both the finance industry and higher education.
Degree course credit
Subject to meeting the entry requirements, those who complete this course and achieve 15 credits may be able to use this credit towards a number of RGU courses including:
Job Prospects
Upon completion of this course, students can apply sustainable finance principles within businesses, asset management firms, banks, and financial institutions.
They can work in roles related to responsible investing, portfolio construction, and ESG analysis, or as investment advisers who integrate sustainability into financial decisions. The course also prepares students for positions in consultancy, corporate finance, and sustainability-focused research.
Find out moreRGUflex
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Academic Year 2025/2026
Fee-waiver places
If you are domiciled in Scotland, you may be eligible for a fee-waiver place, meaning you can study for free.
To meet the requirements to be allocated a funded place, applicants must meet the criteria to be assessed as "Home" for the purposes of fees. Find out more about the Fee Status and the Scottish Government regulations that we use to make our assessment:
Eligibility is assessed on application and further evidence may be required.
All other applicants
Applicants who are not eligible for a fee-waiver place will be required to meet the module cost to study:
- Course fee - £520 for entire module
Additional Costs
Some other costs are not included in the course fees:
Disclaimer
For new intakes, course fees are reviewed and published annually for each mode of delivery. Tuition fees are fixed for the duration of a course at the rate confirmed in the offer letter. For further information:
Any Questions?
Get in touch with the team and we'll do our best to help.