Lincoln’s Rural Finance programme aligns with the University’s focus on land and with the Millennium Development Goals of ending extreme poverty and hunger and promoting environmental sustainability. More than a billion poor people lack access to the basic financial services which are essential for them to manage their precarious lives. Literature has shown that direct access to financial services affects the productivity, asset formation, income and food security of the rural poor. Rural finance should not be considered as the mechanism for poverty alleviation. Its impact is fully felt only when appropriate policies are in place, markets are functioning, and non-financial services are available and accessible by the poor. The poorest of the poor, i.e. those living below the poverty line may be more effectively reached through income transfers, safety nets and improved social infrastructure. These topics form the basis of the Rural Finance programme at Lincoln, in conjunction with more generic subjects like business statistics and research methodology.
Career prospects
Rural Finance graduates tend to pursue careers with government and non-government rural development organisations, AID agencies and development banks, research and teaching institutions, and consulting firms. The programme prepares students to work at an applied level (for example relate rural finance theory to real rural finance problems in an effort to understand and evaluate current events occurring between the poor and the rural banking industry), as researchers, and as advisors at the planning or policy levels. The following examples indicate a range of employers and jobs:
- Assistant Professor, Kasesart University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Rural finance specialist, China
- Agricultural Credit Policy Council, Manila, Philippines
- Business Research Department, Export-Import Bank of Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand
- Banking Advisor, Retail Banking, BNZ, Auckland
- Management Trainee Marketing, Bank of New Zealand
- Researcher, Statistics New Zealand
Major courses
Six 600-level courses must be taken towards a Masters degree. Students usually take three courses per semester and complete their course work in the first year of a two-year Masters degree. The second year is dedicated to a full research thesis. For more information about Rural Finance research, visit the Rural Finance Research Theme.
Postgraduate students specialising in Rural Finance take the following core courses:
ACCT 604/ECON 615Applied Research Methods
QMET 615 Business Statistics
FINC 601 Finance Theory
These core courses are often complemented with one or more of the following courses:
ECON 603 Development Economics
ECON 602 International Trade
ECON 605 Microeconomics
ECON 611 Financial Macroeconomics
ERST 636 Aspects of Sustainability: An International Perspective
FINC 603 Commercial Banking
FINC 604 Finance Futures and Options
MGMT 627 Advanced Agribusiness Management
MGMT 615 Planning International Development Programmes
MGMT 628 Agribusiness in Developing Economies
SOCI 602 Social Science Research Methods (Qualitative)