SMU and the City University London have inked a partnership to offer their first joint-Master’s degree programme – the Master of Science in Quantitative Finance, or MQF. On 26 June 2012, SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer, witnessed the MOU signing ceremony between Professor Howard Thomas, Dean of SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business, and Professor Steven Haberman, Director and Deputy Dean of Cass Business School, City University London.
The MQF follows a successful collaboration in the Masters of Science in Applied Finance, or MAF, where an elective module on Monetary Policy was jointly taught by faculty from the business schools of both universities.
The 12-month, full-time MQF leads to a Master’s degree that is jointly awarded by SMU and City University London.
It was a momentous event for both universities as they celebrated several ‘firsts’ with this partnership. This is the first time that SMU is working with a partner university to offer a joint-Master’s degree programme. SMU is also the first university in the world that City University London, ranked fourth in the UK and 15th in Europe by Financial Times in the European Business School Rankings 2011, is partnering on this level.
A unique discipline that straddles across banking and finance, statistics, computer science, and financial mathematics, the MQF is one of three new Specialised Masters to be launched at SMU in the forthcoming academic year. The other two are: Master of Science in Innovation and Master of Applied Information Systems.
Commencing on 6 September 2012, the pioneer SMU MQF cohort will draw from a diverse group of 33 high-calibre students from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Besides acquiring in-depth knowledge of quantitative finance, students will also learn the entrepreneurial way of thinking so as to tackle new problems in the quantitative finance industry. Frequent industry talks will also provide students with opportunities to interact with potential employers.
Students on the programme will study four core and five elective courses at SMU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business in Singapore, and spend about four months at the Cass Business School in London for five core courses. They are expected to benefit immensely from their experience studying in Singapore and London.
Besides being located in two major financial hubs of the world and situated in the heart of the cities of Singapore and London, both schools also adopt the same approach and global perspective in pedagogy. It therefore comes as no surprise that both business schools have decided to take their collaborative partnership to a new level.
