International Master's in Finance

Nova SBE’s International Master’s in Finance is a three-semester, English-taught specialist finance degree on the Carcavelos coast outside Lisbon, with 72 students enrolled in 2025/26 and 78% of them international.¹ It is a separate programme from the International Master’s in Management that this site profiles as Nova’s MiM.

Overview

Three semesters across two years, extendable to four if you need the full 120 ECTS.² The minimum to graduate is 90 ECTS — 21 mandatory, at least 35 elective, 2 for the career programme, 2 for skills modules, and 30 for the Work Project that stands in place of a conventional thesis.

The structural feature that defines this degree, and the one worth deciding on before you apply, is that internationalisation is compulsory.¹ ² Every student completes either an eight-week international internship outside both Portugal and their home country, or an exchange semester abroad. There is no domestic route through the programme.

Curriculum

The first year is the Master’s in Finance curriculum with mandatory courses, a dedicated career acceleration programme, and language instruction with limited places. The third semester is the Work Project, which Nova offers in four formats. Two optional areas of expertise are available — Corporate Finance and Financial Markets — and neither is mandatory, so the degree can be taken as a generalist finance master’s.²

Nova also sets a graduation language bar rather than only an entry one: English at C1, a second language at mother tongue or B1, and a third at A2 for those whose first language is English.²

Class Profile

Unlike most schools in this catalogue, Nova publishes a real cohort rather than a typical profile: 72 students, 78% international, in 2025/26.¹ It describes the intended intake as 0–2 years of professional experience with an average age of 23–24, and requires a minimum of 12 cumulative weeks of work experience or internships to apply — volunteering explicitly excluded.⁴

No GMAT average, gender split or nationality count is published, so none is stated here.

Application & Deadlines

Nova’s published eligibility criteria name no GMAT or GRE requirement, and publish no minimum score for either.⁴ This profile records that absence rather than converting it into a claim that no test is wanted.

What Nova does require is specific, and stricter for this programme than for its others:

• English at C1 or mother tongue — a B2 certificate is enough for Nova’s other master’s, but not for the International Master’s in Finance or the International Master’s in Management.
• A motivation video.
• A minimum of 12 cumulative weeks of work experience or internships, volunteering excluded.
• A degree from an accredited or recognised institution.

⚠ On dates: Nova’s application pages read “Applications are closed” on 9 September 2026, and publish no dated rounds for the next cycle — so this profile carries no live deadline rather than an invented one. Nova does state that for 2026/27 it moved master’s admissions to a rounds-based process, “designed to enhance efficiency and transparency and to align with international standards”. Check Nova’s own apply pages when the calendar opens, and compare every European MiM round on our interactive deadlines timeline (it tracks the Master in Management, not this programme).

Tuition, Scholarships & Funding

Nova prices by citizenship and by route, and the enrolment fee is the part most easily missed:³

So the headline is €13,250, and a non-EU student taking the exchange route is looking at roughly €20,200 before living costs. Nova also lists €36.50 in administrative costs and insurance, €50 for the Master’s certificate and €120 for the diploma, and states that all figures are subject to annual review.

Nova offers merit and social-mobility scholarships, and a Nova SBE Women in Finance Scholarship for outstanding female candidates.¹

Career Outcomes

Nova reports 100% of graduates working within six months of graduating, and 72% with an international career.¹ Note the window: six months, not the three months most schools in this catalogue report, so the figure is not directly comparable with a three-month rate elsewhere.

Nova publishes no salary figure for this programme, so this profile states none. Nova’s own master’s index shows “#8” beside the International Master’s in Finance; the page does not name the ranking table or year in text — only in an accompanying image — so this profile reports the figure as displayed rather than restating it as a Financial Times position.

Campus & Life

Nova SBE’s campus is at Carcavelos, on the coast between Lisbon and Cascais and about twenty-five minutes by train from central Lisbon — a purpose-built seafront campus rather than a city-centre building, which is unusual in this catalogue and is a genuine part of the decision. Portugal’s cost of living is among the lowest of the countries on this site at this level of ranking, which is much of why Nova’s programmes appear where they do on our cheapest MiM table. Applicants choosing between Nova’s two international master’s should read the International Master’s in Management profile beside this one.