Quant Guide 2020: Imperial College Business School

London, UK

Photo: Imperial College London/Christian Richters

 

Imperial College Business School – part of Imperial College London – runs one of the largest programmes in this year’s quant guide by number of students. Its MSc Risk Management and Financial Engineering is second only to NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s master’s programme, which has 269 full-timers. The degree has no part-time students. Its programme director is associate professor of finance Lara Cathcart.

Students must complete a broad range of compulsory programme components, starting with a number of pre-enrolment primer classes, taken online. Students also complete a taught foundation module after they join the programme proper, which explores basic concepts like programming in R, an array of relevant financial instruments, statistical and probabilistic techniques, and data management.

There are eight core modules in total, including classes on risk management, stochastic calculus, Visual Basic, and an online module in ethics and professional standards in finance. The pool of electives is large, with over 20 available to choose from; students must select at least one key elective from a range of six, which includes advanced options theory, computational finance with C++, credit risk, and more.

Students must also complete a project component. An applied project – involving modelling and quantitative design and often paired with a work placement – is recommended for students aiming for a financial career after graduation. Research projects are available and require more written work. They are intended for students who want to pursue further study after obtaining their master’s.

The programme is completed in 12 months, and the cost of tuition is £35,900 ($46,500) – above average for the other UK courses in this year’s guide and slightly higher than its parent institution’s MSc in Mathematics and Finance. Imperial College Business School’s moving four-year average employment rate in finance is strong at 92%, though it has decreased slightly from last year’s impressive 95%.

View this institution’s entry in the 2019 guide

View other universities and a guide to the metrics tables