Financial Computing MSc

The UCL Financial Computing MSc (2007)

Founded in partnership with Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Reuters, this new MSc aims to increase the diversity of graduate intake from UCL into investment banking technology careers and provides a pathway for highly talented students from non-IT backgrounds to give them the skills they need for a career in financial services technology.

The partner banks are deeply involved in the curriculum design and annual updates thereof (with appropriate academic guidance and governance from UCL); the delivery of the curriculum, including a large number of lectures (typically 30 hours each year, involving 30-60 bank staff), tutorials & mentoring, and the hosting of summer projects.

The target enrollment for this degree programme is 20-30, and the MSc specifically aims to attract a highly diverse body of students - in particular, to exceed the CS department historical norm of roughly 15% women students).

Metrics:

Date Applications Enrollment Gender Diversity 2007-2008 174 45 47% 2008-2009 224 28 61% 2009-2010 202 31 52% 2010-2011 250 34 53% 2011-2012 301 24 46%

National and international recognition:

The new MSc programme and the new laboratory (see below) have attracted repeated interest from the press (e.g. The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, various industry magazines) and broadcast media (e.g. BBC News, BBC Radio 5) - mostly in the UK but also overseas (we have, for example, been visited by a camera crew from an Austrian television production company).

UCL is now an established graduate recruitment pipeline for technology graduates seeking IT careers with investment banks throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

We have received delegations and expressions of interest from many universities in the Far East (e.g. Dalian University of Technology, China; National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan; the University of Malaya; the National University of Singapore) who are now sending their graduates to London to study on the MScFC.

We have assisted the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary to establish degree-level modules in Financial Computing in partnership with Morgan Stanley and with assistance from the London Business School.

Awards

Finalist: LDA Commercial Deal of the Year Award [2008]