Course description

Title of the Teaching Unit

Integrated Assignment in Sustainable Finance

Code of the Teaching Unit

21FFM20

Academic year

2026 - 2027

Cycle

Number of credits

Number of hours

Quarter

Weighting

Site

Anjou

Teaching language

French

Teacher in charge

DESAGRE Christophe

Objectives and contribution to the program

Based on a case study of an investment fund categorized as "sustainable" under European regulation and marketed in Belgium, the TIFD pursues several objectives:

Contribution to the teaching profile (competency goals) and targeted learning outcomes (learning objectives)

This activity aims to enable students to:

1. Develop themselves

work autonomously;
integrate feedback received in order to progressively improve the quality of their work;
develop continuous learning skills when facing new challenges.

2. Exercise critical thinking

collect, analyze, and interpret data from various sources;
assess the quality, relevance, and limitations of the information used;
take a critical view of the financial models and digital tools employed, including artificial intelligence tools;
compare the results obtained with economic, financial, and societal realities.

3. Design desirable futures

understand ESG issues and the challenges related to the habitability of the Earth;
assess the impact of investment choices on different stakeholders;
analyze the consistency between the stated objectives of a sustainable fund and its actual practices.

4. Decide

mobilize quantitative and qualitative data to support well-reasoned decision-making;
analyze the risks and opportunities associated with different investment strategies;
make relevant use of the decision-support tools studied in the option's courses.

5. Communicate

produce a structured and rigorous report;
present and orally defend one's analyses and conclusions before a panel/jury;
argue methodological choices clearly and convincingly.

Prerequisites and corequisites

This course REQUIRES following the 3 courses of the Financial markets & sustainability option at the same time (except for students who already succeeded those three courses).

Content

Context of the TIFD:
The "Financial Markets & Sustainability" option is composed of 3 courses whose objective is to train students in market finance by making them aware of the sustainable dimension of finance in the face of economic and global issues. These three courses address three aspects of market finance:
- Economics, ESG criteria and financial markets (21FFM18).
- Portfolio management and sustainability (21FFM14)
- Risk Management and Financial Institutions (21FFM16)
These three courses, although distinct in terms of content, have the common objective of acquiring a reflective approach to the sustainable dimension of finance. For this reason, each course prepares the student for the integrated work in sustainable finance -TIFD-, which cannot be taken in isolation.

Teaching methods

The TIFD will be carried out and presented individually. Each student will be assigned a fund to analyze by the instructors at the first class session.

Although the TIFD is mainly carried out outside of class ("extra muros"), certain sessions are held in person on Fridays from 11am to 2pm, according to a schedule set on the course's Moodle site. Attendance at these sessions is mandatory. During these sessions, students must bring their laptop with the Anaconda software already installed.

The work is carried out in stages, in the form of 6 assignments to be posted according to a schedule defined on Moodle. Some stages will receive feedback for the final work. This constitutes a continuous assessment of the student's work.

Students must check the course's Moodle site every week and post their assignments there, as well as the final work at the end of the term.

The evaluation will take place during an oral exam during the exam session. It will not be necessary to present the work; the panel/jury will question the student on the content of the final written work.

The completion of the TIFD relies on an autonomous and progressive learning approach. The feedback provided by instructors at each stage should enable students to continuously improve their work and develop their ability to learn from their mistakes. Responsibility for incorporating feedback lies with the student.

Content of the TIFD

To carry out this work, students have access to data relating to the assigned fund, as well as associated regulatory and commercial documents (prospectus, KIID, ESG reporting, etc.).

Students will be required to:

collect information from various sources;
analyze the fund's investment strategy;
assess its contribution to its stated sustainability objectives;
measure its financial performance and its various risk profiles;
build and analyze several investment scenarios;
use quantitative tools in Excel and Python;
interpret the results obtained;
take a critical view of the consistency between the fund's financial strategy and its sustainability ambitions.

Particular attention is paid to the quality of the argumentation, the justification of methodological choices, and the student's ability to establish connections between the different parts of the work.

Use of AI and Academic Integrity

Students must demonstrate intellectual honesty, scientific rigor, and respect for the thinking of others.

The use of artificial intelligence is permitted when transparently disclosed. Students must be able to:

identify the limitations of the tools used;
verify the accuracy of the information produced;
justify all the analyses presented in their work;
retain control over the analytical and methodological decisions made within the TIFD.

The use of AI may under no circumstances substitute for the personal reasoning expected at the master's level.

The various stages of the work will be explained at the start of the course and summarized in a document with detailed instructions on Moodle.

Assessment method

The evaluation system was designed to progressively assess the competencies developed within the TIFD. The intermediate assignments make it possible to assess the student's progress in acquiring analytical methods and their autonomy. The evaluation covers analytical, critical thinking, and communication skills, the ability to justify the methodological choices made, as well as the student's critical distance regarding their results.

The TIFD evaluation consists of 3 elements:

Continuous assessment of work throughout the semester. Students will have intermediate deadlines by which they must submit certain deliverables, which will be checked and graded. This intermediate work, together with participation in exercise sessions and lectures, represents 10% of the final grade. Intermediate assignments are to be posted on Moodle according to an established schedule.
A piece of work to be submitted no later than May 10, 2027. The student submits a zipped folder on Moodle containing the report organized by sections (see the document with detailed instructions), the Excel file(s), and the Python script(s)/notebook(s). This written work represents 15% of the final grade.
An oral exam during which the student is questioned on their final work before a panel/jury during the exam session, representing 75% of the final grade.

The evaluation of all components is carried out by the panel/jury, composed at minimum of the option's instructors.

In the event of failure in the June session, the work must be resubmitted by the end of the day before the first day of the second session at the latest, and re-presented in the second session, according to the terms specified on Moodle. The 10% awarded during the semester carries over from one session to another within the same year, but not from one year to the next.

Any repeating student ("bisseur") in 2026–2027 who has the TIFD in their study program (PAE) must complete the TIFD in its entirety, even if certain courses were previously validated. They will work on a new fund assigned to them.

References

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