Financial Training Flourishes
The Financial Times offers a comprehensive look this week at financial training programs. European business schools have traditionally run Master’s in Financial Engineering (MFE) programs, as compared to financially-oriented MBAs in the United States. But new, specialized degrees are on the horizon here and abroad.
According to FT, European business schools have launched, or will launch, nine specialized masters degrees in finance–schools such as Cass Business School and the London School of Economics in the UK and EM Lyon and Edhec in France. IE Business School in Spain and The University of Strathclyde in Scotland are launching programs in 2009.
In the US, Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, Pepperdine and Rochester are launching programs this year. The Anderson school at UCLA will enter the fray with a degree in financial engineering in 2009, the article reports, adding that MIT’s Sloan school of management is also expected to launch a masters in finance degree in the next year.
The growth in demand mirrors the growth in the financial services sector but also reflects a growing demand for technical knowledge, says Sabine Vinck, associate dean of the London Business School Masters in Finance program. “Finance is a specialist industry and it is more and more a technical industry.”
The Haas School’s Master’s in Financial Engineering (MFE) Program is featured prominently in this special section. “Jobs Outside Wall Street and the City” describes the placement success of Haas MFE graduates. Another article, titled “Global Links Help Talent Pool Flourish,” describes how the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore’s de facto central bank, created a scholarship initiative to train talented Singaporeans at the Haas MFE program.
