New
Master's of Financial Engineering degree to be offered at UC
Berkeley
15
Nov 2000
By
Ute Frey, Media Relations
Berkeley
- A new, one-year Master's of Financial Engineering (MFE)
degree program is being launched by the Haas School of Business
at the University of California, Berkeley, to prepare candidates
with superior analytical skills for a growing niche of quantitative
finance careers. UC Berkeley's MFE is the first such degree
program in the United States offered entirely under the auspices
of a business school.
Taught
by finance faculty from UC Berkeley's Haas School and UCLA's
Anderson School of Management, the MFE program will prepare
students for jobs as risk managers, investment bankers, asset
managers, derivatives traders, and developers of specialized
securities at the world's leading commercial and investment
banks, insurance companies, and corporate and public treasury
departments.
The inaugural
MFE class, the Class of '02, will begin taking courses at
the Haas School at UC Berkeley in April 2001 and will graduate
in March 2002. MBA students will have the option of earning
both an MBA and MFE degree concurrently from the Haas School
over two years.
"Haas is
training a new generation of financial engineers who will
be in strong demand in the modern finance marketplace," said
Haas School dean Laura Tyson. "The program will also offer
students the distinct advantage of being part of a world-class
business school with its first-rate career services, practical
internships, and alumni network."
The Haas
MFE Program will be distinctive in several ways:
* It is
the first U.S. program to offer its students a three-month
internship at a top financial firm as part of the learning
experience. Some students will also have the option of taking
an internship prior to the start of the program each year.
* Founding
sponsors include some of the world's top financial firms,
namely AIG Inc., Barclays Global Investors, BARRA Inc., Gifford
Fong Associates, Goldman Sachs & Co., KMV LLC, MBIA Inc.,
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Quantal International Inc., and
The Dean Witter Foundation. Sponsoring firms will be accepting
interns from the programs.
* It draws
on the finance faculty of the two leading business schools
within the UC 10-campus system, UC Berkeley's Haas School
of Business and UCLA's Anderson School of Management. Earlier
this year, the Financial Times ranked the Haas School's faculty
#1 in the world for its research.
* Its leading-edge
curriculum will balance teaching the latest financial theory
with practical applications of financial modeling concepts.
For example, in one new MFE course, students will study the
lessons of past financial engineering triumphs such as the
securitization of the mortgage market.
They also
will assess disasters such as the recent collapse of the huge
hedge firm Long Term Capital Management that nearly caused
a run on the world financial system.
* Students
who are admitted to the Haas School MFE and MBA programs can
earn both degrees in two years - combining the in-depth study
of financial economics and the dynamics of markets of the
financial engineering program with the leadership and general
management education of the MBA program.
Academic
programs that offer training in financial engineering are
mushrooming at universities around the world because of the
tremendous industry demand for skilled professionals.
Most of
these programs are offered by departments of mathematics,
operations or other applied research. "We're seeing tremendous
interest among talented individuals coming from technical
backgrounds, such as nuclear physicists, mathematicians and
engineers who are in narrow jobs and are keen to transition
to a brand new career where opportunities are abundant and
continue to grow," says MFE Executive Director John O'Brien.
O'Brien came to the Haas School after having served as managing
director at Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM), a multi-billion
dollar asset management company.
While taught
at a public university, the Haas School MFE will be a self-sufficient
program funded by student fees and industry sponsorships.
The tuition for the MFE degree is $32,000. Students in the
concurrent degree will pay the MFE fee in addition to regular
MBA admissions fees of $10,458 for California residents or
$20,702 for nonresidents.
"Our primary
reason for sponsoring the Haas MFE program is our need to
find first-rate candidates in this field," says Bob Litzenberger,
managing director at Goldman Sachs and head of the Firmwide
Risk department. Goldman Sachs & Co. is a founding sponsor
of the program. "The growing demand and competition for highly
educated financial talent warrants greater emphasis on proactive
and creative recruiting efforts."
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